MANITOUWADGE — Jim Moffat says he couldn’t be happier with the support he’s received from the community after winning Manitouwadge's mayoral election.
Moffat, who just completed his first term on Manitouwadge town council, won over 69 per cent of the vote to defeat former chief administrative officer Margaret Hartling and unseat incumbent mayor John MacEachern.
“Just thank you very much for the support and I want to make [you all] proud,” Moffat said on his message to the community. “I'm overwhelmed and, you know, it's going to be a great four years going forward.”
“It's just incredible. I knew I had a lot of locals, a lot of local support, but to see that high of a number was, you know, really touches your heart type of thing.”
Joining Moffat at city hall will be Kathy Hudson and Michael Scapinello who both served as councillors alongside Moffat in his first term on council, as well as Coady Keough and Braden Kotyk, who will be joining the returning councillors.
“I think that's going to be a great council going forward,” Moffat said. “This last council that I was on as a councillor, we all worked well together, and I think that's just going to continue on for the next four years.”
Moffat said he’s excited to get started working on ongoing issues and building relationships with nearby communities to help support the place that he loves.
“The big part’s going to be concentrating on the roads and the infrastructure,” he said. “Of course, then I want to make connection with the indigenous communities in the surrounding area, there's two of them that we haven't really made much contact with. So that's going to be one of the things I'm looking forward to doing.”
