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Two UNB faculty among 5 newly-elected municipal leaders to watch

Author: Communications

Posted on May 22, 2012

Category: UNB Saint John

New Brunswick voters shook up the province's political landscape on Monday night, electing many new faces to council positions and turning to new mayors. Almost every council across the province will have some new faces around the table when the next session is called to order in the next month. There are some candidates who were elected in the first election where they could actually vote. And some fresh faces will have leadership positions in some of the province’s largest municipalities. ...

Leah Levac, Fredericton councillor

Fredericton council will have several new faces when its next council meets for the first time. One of the surprise victories came in Ward 10 where Leah Levac emerged victorious in a very crowded field. Levac won with 646 votes over incumbent councillor Stephen Kelly, who earned 357 votes. Levac, who earned her PhD from the University of New Brunswick in 2011, is now an instructor at the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College. In her role at the university, she is a program innovator at the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Leadership. She is in an expert in public engagement. She worked on the provincial government’s poverty reduction task force. Levac was a founding director with 21inc., a non-profit group that focuses on "building a community of high performing leaders and entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada." ...

Shelley Rinehart, Saint John councillor

Saint John voters sent a clear message to their elected officials signaling change on Monday night. Incumbent mayor Ivan Court was soundly defeated by Mel Norton, who is also relatively new to the municipal scene. That thirst for change also extended to the councillor-at-large race. There were no incumbents re-offering in the at-large race. Shelley Rinehart, a University of New Brunswick in Saint John professor, won by far the most votes. She garnered 15,153 votes to the 9,861 of her closest competitor, former Saint John mayor Shirley McAlary, who claimed the second at-large council seat. There were six people running for the two councillor-at-large positions. Read the full story at CBC New Brunswick

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