‘Thanks to the people of Queens’: Darlene Norman won’t reoffer as mayor of Region of Queens

A woman with shoulder-length hair and glasses sits behind a wooden desk with the plaque on the front reading Darlene Norman Mayor

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman will not be seeking another term in the October municipal election. (Rick Conrad)

Darlene Norman has made it official, announcing she won’t seek re-election as mayor of the Region of Queens.

“I have decided not to reoffer simply because these last four years have made me realize that it was one thing to be a councillor, it’s another thing to be the mayor,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

“When you are a councillor and you vote in a certain way at a meeting and the vote didn’t go your way, then it’s over and done. When you are the mayor and you vote at a council meeting for something that you feel is very important and you lose the vote, … as the mayor you still have to speak on behalf of council for the vote. And I am the type of personality that finds it very difficult to speak favorably about an issue that I think is so wrong.”

Norman’s decision to serve one term as mayor caps a 20-year career in municipal politics, which began in 2000 when she was elected councillor in District 1, which covers the area of Hunts Point, White Point, Port Mouton and Port Joli.

She served as councillor for the area until 2016 when she was defeated by current councillor Kevin Muise.

In 2020, she decided to run for mayor, beating incumbent David Dagley and two other challengers – Susan MacLeod and Brian Fralic.

Norman said she enjoyed her time as mayor.

“I really liked being the mayor, I liked helping people, I liked meeting people. But I just have a very difficult time when I have to as mayor speak on behalf of council and it’s a decision of which I disagreed. Other than that, being the mayor was wonderful.”

In a Facebook post on Tuesday announcing her decision, she said council has achieved many good things over the past four years. But she said there were other things she regrets.

One of those was not building a new library. The Thomas H. Raddall Library has to leave its leased premises in downtown Liverpool by the end of December. After many stops and starts, council couldn’t agree on a new permanent location, so they decided to put it, at least temporarily, in the Liverpool Business Development Centre on White Point Road.

“We could have built a lovely library, it would have been open by now. For one reason or another, things went sideways. Council couldn’t agree on a location.”

Another frustration for Norman over the past four years is the concentration of municipal resources in the Liverpool, Brooklyn and Milton areas. She says council needs to find a way to improve services in other areas of Queens County, such as north Queens and areas outside the so-called urban core of Liverpool.

“Our biggest assessment areas are in rural Queens. … I look around at north Queens, east and west, people are paying incredible tax dollars in those parts of the county, despite people in the town of Liverpool who think they’re paying the biggest tax dollars. I’m just finding it really difficult with the Region of Queens and trying to find a balance with specnding in rural as well as central.”

She said building new accessible washroom and change room facilities at Beach Meadows Beach was council’s way to try to spread some municipal dollars outside the Liverpool-Brooklyn-Milton core. 

She said it’s one of council’s accomplishments that she’s proud of. Others include improvements in accessibility at other municipally owned facilities such as the Astor Theatre; working with a wind farm developer in Milton to create more renewable energy; advocating for new cell towers in north Queens and supporting affordable housing initiatives by Queens Neighbourhood Co-operative Housing.

“Those are good things, those are really positive things for Queens. … There have been so many more benefits than disappointments.”

And even though the region still struggles with staffing shortages, she said she’s very proud of what municipal employees have been able to accomplish. She said the region has only two building inspectors and one planner, at a time when development is on the rise. And she said their bylaw enforcement division is also understaffed, while complaints increase.

“People are so quick to criticize the staff of the Region of Queens and I really wish that perhaps people like that could be the mayor for a week or a month and actually sit in my chair and get a good understanding of how much work they do, because our staff work hard.”

Norman said another reason she won’t be reoffering in October’s municipal election is the abuse she said she’s received on social media.

“The cruel, the unkind, the unjust things that are said. And all people have to do is pick up a phone and they’ll know that all those rumours aren’t true. I tend to bite my tongue and … almost cut off my fingers not to write back some things on some posts that I’ve read. But it’s just not what I was prepared for.

“And I just don’t want it anymore. I’m a really good sleeper and when I don’t sleep at night because of stuff at council or things going on, I have too many people my age dropping dead and I want to do positive things that have positive results and are not attached with any negativism.”

She says she’s not sure what she’ll do after October. But it will include spending more time with her young grandson in Shelburne. And she plans to volunteer in her community of Port Medway and work on some of her art projects.

“I’ll find something to do. … I’m interested in helping my community of Port Medway. … I’m artistic, I might just discover who I am again. But I want to get out and do something that I want to do that doesn’t have the stressors that being the mayor does.”

Regardless of some of that stress, she says she’s grateful for the opportunity to be mayor of the Region of Queens for the past four years.

“I’d just like to thank the people of Queens for poviding me this wonderful privilege to represent Queens County,” she says. “And it is a privilege. We are a wonderful county, we have some of the best people in the world. And we are very attractive to people around the world who want to live here. So let’s welcome newcomers, regardless of what country or what culture they are. Diversity is wonderful for us. It makes us stronger. Thanks to the people of Queens.

“And I’m here for a couple of more months if there’s anything anybody needs any help with.”

The municipal election is set for Oct. 19. Former teacher Terry Doucette and business consultant Scott Christian have already announced their campaigns for mayor. People have until Sept. 10 to file their nomination papers. 

For the first time, voters in Queens will be able to make their choices by traditional ballot or by phone or online.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Municipal election takes shape as Queens County councillors, others declare intentions

Three people sit behind wooden desks in council chambers with a video screen behind them that displays a coat of arms and the words Region of Queens Municipality.

Region of Queens councillors Jack Fancy, David Brown and Vicki Amirault have declared their intentions for October’s municipal election. (Rick Conrad)

With less than three months to go before October’s municipal election, incumbents and former councillors in Queens County are declaring their intentions.

So far, three of the seven sitting councillors have said they won’t run again. Three others have declared they will run again. 

District 1 Coun. Kevin Muise could not be reached. And Mayor Darlene Norman hasn’t yet announced her plans.

The region’s electoral boundaries have also been redrawn since the last election. So some people will be running in areas that look different than they did in 2020. (You can see the descriptions and maps of the new electoral boundaries on the Region of Queens website.)

District 6 Coun. David Brown is one of the councillors who won’t be reoffering. District 2 Coun. Ralph Gidney and District 7 Coun. Carl Hawkes are the others. Gidney’s area will be changed to District 3. Former councillor Susan MacLeod, who placed second in the 2020 mayor’s race, will be running to replace Gidney. 

Brown told QCCR that he feels he’s done what he can for his constituents. He represents the areas around Port Medway, Mill Village, Greenfield and Labelle. A newcomer to municipal politics in the 2020 election, he beat Jason Croft by about 130 votes. 

“I feel like I’ve accomplished as much as I can accomplish in council and I’m not really happy with the process, so I’m looking at different avenues for moving on,” he said. “I just feel like we’re a municipal council, but we don’t govern like a municipal council. We still govern like a town council.

“It seems like everything we do is centred around Brooklyn, Liverpool and Milton and any time we try to get anything done outside of that core, it’s a struggle.”

He said he wasn’t criticizing his fellow councillors or municipal staff. And he didn’t want to provide examples of some of the struggles he’s had.

But he said he feels the Liverpool area is over-represented on council, with five councillors who have some part of their district in Liverpool, Milton or Brooklyn. With the redrawn boundaries, that’s down to four. 

“Whoever goes into council from rural areas is just going to have to fight harder to try to get their areas recognized. Maybe if councilors coming in from Liverpool, Brooklyn, Milton, realize that they’re not funding 100 per cent of the cost of what happens in Queens County, but they’re expecting 100 per cent of the expenditures that are happening in Queens County, it’s not a fair and equitable solution for anybody.”

Brown said he was also frustrated with some of the criticism he’s received online and in person since he became councillor. He said he welcomes feedback from constituents, but he said sometimes it goes too far.

“There’s a lot of anger with people, in the public. They seem to think that because you’re a public figure they can say whatever they want to you. And council is not a high-paid position to put up with the amount of hours and the abuse that we’ve been taking from some people. So I’m just not interested in doing another four years of that.”

But Brown is still proud of the work he’s done as councillor, especially helping to save the South Shore Regional Airport in Greenfield and finding more money to support the region’s volunteer fire departments.

“I’m happy with what I did. I think council has done the best job that they could for the most people. It’s just most of the work is done in the centre of town and that frustrates me.”

District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton will be trying for a second term. She joins District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault and District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy, who have announced they will seek re-election.

Because of the boundary changes, Charlton will be running in District 2 this time. But it’s essentially the same area as she represents now in District 3, with the addition of part of White Point Road. 

Amirault will still run in District 4, but her area now includes Danesville and East Port Medway. It also has less of Brooklyn. 

And Fancy, who represents the Milton area, has said he plans to run in District 7, which is where he grew up. That area includes much of north Queens, including Caledonia and Kejimkujik National Park.

In 2020, Charlton made history at age 29 as the youngest person elected to Region of Queens council.

She told QCCR that she’s enjoyed her past four years in municipal politics.

“Although it has certainly come with challenges,” she said.

“I have certainly learned a lot over these last four years and I really think that younger representation at the council table is important.”

Along with bringing a more youthful perspective, she says she’s proud she’s been able to advocate for better access to council meetings for the public. She pushed for a regular evening meeting to make it easier for people to attend, as well as the upgrades necessary to livestream meetings.

Charlton says she believes that council’s communication with the public has improved.

“That was one of things that as a resident before I ran was something that was really obvious there was a bit of a disconnect there. There certainly have been improvements. And those are some that I’m really proud of as well. Besides the standing evening council meetings, I championed audio and video upgrades because people couldn’t hear when they tuned into the meetings. And I think it’s really important that residents can do that and access those meetings and listen to those meetings if they can’t be in the room. So I would say that’s still not perfect. But I think it has gotten better.”

Charlton said that communication breakdowns were partially responsible for the controversies over a new library. 

“I would say that we need to slow down before we speed up. … We hit the gas too fast and different information was evolving over cost and I think if we would have just slowed down, we could have pieced things together in a more sensible way to then confidently make a plan that we could endorse going forward.”

David Brown says he regrets that council didn’t commit to a new library. They decided instead to move the library, at least temporarily, to the business development centre on White Point Road.

“I would have liked to have seen a library built. Having an actual brick and mortar standalone library built and not having that happen and the way the process worked out was one of my biggest frustrations in the last term.”

Charlton says that if she’s re-elected, she’d like to advocate for more youth programming and recreational opportunities. And she says she hopes other young women take a crack at council this time around.

Brown says he’s not sure what he’ll do next, but he’s going to enjoy his free time. His advice for people who want to run for council? Do your homework and be prepared to stick up for your district.

“Just to be prepared it’s not going to be the happy smiley place that you think it’s going to be,” he says.

“You’re in for a fight every day. If you want to get your area recognized and you want an equitable amount of expenditures for all areas of the county, it’s not going to go smoothly. There’s a fight involved with it. There’s a lot of argument. You have to do your research, know the policies, know what you want going in and know what your consittunts want going in because you’re representing those constituents, you’re not representing your own personal interests. … You have to know what all those constituents want so you can make the best decision for the most people.”

The municipal election is Oct. 19. This year, for the first time, Queens County voters will be able to vote in person or online. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

$40k coming to Queens to support creation of seniors housing

Nova Scotia and Canada flags flying on a flag pole against a blue sky

Photo Ed Halverson

A community group in Queens has secured $40,000 in provincial funding to work on increasing the supply of affordable housing for seniors.

The Queens Care Society received a grant from the province’s $916,000 Community Housing Capacity Building Program.

Society member Susan MacLeod says the group will use the money to hire an experienced coordinator who will have several responsibilities.

“Dealing with potential developers, working with other government levels that support housing, working with other funding agencies to acquire monies when the build is to be done,” said MacLeod.

The group is exploring options but MacLeod says they’re interested in developing an affordable co-op housing model where tenants can buy-in.

“Sometimes if you own your own home or you have a mortgage that is available for the home then you’re more apt to take a bit more interest in things.”

The Queens Care Society is a small group of 15 people operating out of the Queens County Home Support board room.

Covering all of Queens County, the members are supported by the senior safety officer and affiliations with other community organizations dealing with seniors care.

MacLeod says as a group they work to identify issues, find solutions, and get them up and running before leaving them to run independently.

She says Queens County Transit was an idea that came out of the society and now operates on its own.

MacLeod says the group will tackle the housing issue in the same way.

After hiring their project coordinator, MacLeod says their next steps will be to form a new non-profit housing side to their society.

They’re looking for board members with financial experience, landlords and developers who can find ways to build more seniors housing.

MacLeod says the group will also ask the municipal and provincial governments to make land available for an affordable housing build.

She says her group is drawing on all their collective skills and experience to make affordable seniors housing a reality in Queens.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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New facility will replace two Queens long-term care homes

A woman walks between two men down a driveway on a sunny day

Iain Rankin, Susan MacLeod and MacLeod campaign manager John Simmonds at Queens Manor. Photo Nova Scotia Liberal Party

The Liberals are planning to replace Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres with a new consolidated facility.

Liberal leader Iain Rankin was at Queens Manor in Liverpool Thursday with Queens Liberal Candidate Susan MacLeod to announce the new facility will add six more beds to increase the combined capacity of the two locations from 90 to 96 beds.

Rankin says the liberal government had already been moving to modernize long-term care homes and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought that need home.

“It’s more pronounced, especially looking at higher quality of infection control that we need to have single rooms with no shared washrooms and more modern equipment in the homes,” said Rankin.

A site for the new long-term care home has not been decided. Rankin says a location will be determined as part of the tendering process.

The promise to replace the two aging care homes in Queens comes as a result of one of the last announcements the Liberal government made before calling the election.

The province pledged $152.6 million to renovate and replace almost 2,400 beds across 24 facilities in Nova Scotia and add a further 500 new beds to the Halifax region, where the demand is highest.

Rankin says the Liberals are also investing in workers to care for people in the long-term care homes.

“More workplace safety, we’ve increased pay and we’re allocating more spaces, you saw at the Nova Scotia Community College.”

Rankin says his government will address worker shortages by creating 276 spaces to train new licensed practical nurses, opening 30 seats – tuition free, for current continuing care assistants to upgrade their skills along with heavily recruiting to attract more careworkers to the province.

Government recently reached a collective agreement with the union representing a large number of CCAs that will see them receive an eight percent wage increase over the first two years of the contract.

Rankin says seniors and residents of long-term care homes are a priority for his party.

“We’re building on a lot of progress we’ve made recently. We’ve made significant, historic investments in our 21/22 budget. We’re building on some of that with an additional spend for staffing,” said Rankin. “We have the most aggressive capital plan including the largest single long-term care investment in our history. So we’re building on that. It’s targeted and we believe that it’s appropriate and fiscally responsible. Those that have been working on the front lines deserve this investment.”

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Mary Dahr to represent NDP in next provincial election

Woman in glasses smiling

NDP candidate for Queens Mary Dahr, Photo contributed by Mary Dahr

The last of the three major Nova Scotian parties have announced their candidate for the riding of Queens.

The NDP have chosen Mary Dahr to carry their banner in the next provincial election.

Dahr has been involved with the NDP for over 20 years and feels the priority the party places on social issues will resonate with voters.

“I’m hoping what I’m saying is going to touch people’s hearts and they’re going to vote for me,” said Dahr.

Born in Queens, Dahr’s family moved to Alberta when she was a child.

After retiring from a career as a medical lab technician she moved back to the region six years ago and currently works at White Point Beach and Resort.

Dahr was inspired to put her name forward after learning of the desperate child poverty rates in Nova Scotia and in particular, Queens.

“I know that when they announced child poverty in Nova Scotia, it seemed to me that nobody blinked,” said Dahr. “There was no, oh, we have to do better. I didn’t hear that at all.”

This isn’t the first time Dahr has stood for the NDP provincially. She twice ran in Alberta and narrowly missed winning a seat when Rachel Notley led the party to power in 2015.

Dahr says with a platform that includes a $15/hr minimum wage, free tuition, increased social assistance rates and a commitment to find solutions for affordable housing, the Nova Scotia NDP under leader Gary Burrill are working to make the lives of everyday Nova Scotians better.

“It’s an honest and fair government that is looking out for the people of Nova Scotia, not just caring about the people who don’t really need to be cared about, because they have all the money that they need,” said Dahr. “We need to care about everybody in Nova Scotia and not leave anybody behind.”

Dahr joins Liberal candidate Susan MacLeod and PC Candidate and current MLA for Queens –Shelburne Kim Masland in trying to win the re-established riding of Queens.

It’s up to Premier Iain Rankin to decide when the writ will drop.

Rankin has until May to make the call but given the large and frequent number of funding announcements coming out of government the past few weeks, speculation is high the election could be called soon.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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MacLeod aims to represent Queens Liberals in next provincial election

Susan MacLeod seeking Liberal nomination for Queens

Susan MacLeod seeking Liberal nomination for Queens. Photo submitted

A former regional councillor is throwing their hat into provincial politics.

Susan MacLeod is vying to be the Liberal candidate for Queens in the next provincial election.

MacLeod wants to continue to serve her community as an elected official but recognizes she has a steep hill to climb.

“In my nature I’m a very helpful person and I know it’s going to be tough,” said MacLeod. “There has not been a Liberal representative in Queens since 1955.”

MacLeod spent 16 years serving on regional council and took a run at the mayor’s chair in October but lost by 230 votes to current mayor Darlene Norman.

She has lived her entire life in Queens County and has been a member of many organizations including the Astor Theatre Society, South Shore Housing Coalition, South Queens Chamber of Commerce, Christmas on the Mersey, Queens General Hospital Foundation, Queens County Seniors Safety Association and of course, on this station, QCCR.

MacLeod currently serves on the Housing Committee with the Queens Care Society. She says creating more affordable housing is a top priority.

“It would be staggering to know that there are so many homeless people in Queens that we are not aware of until you hear it from those that have had direct connection with them. And young families, they deserve to have good, solid housing.”

MacLeod says you can’t rely exclusively on private landlords to fill gaps in the housing market.

“When you get non-profits involved in this type of issue I think you might get a little bit more quality housing done.”

MacLeod is excited at the possibility of joining the team under the newly elected liberal leader and Premier Iain Rankin.

“He will listen to anyone, he says he always looks at both sides.”

She also agrees with Rankin that economic development should be environmentally sustainable.

“He is very concerned about environmental issues, and his philosophy is to deal with environment can also be an economic driver.”

MacLeod hopes her long record of public service will convince voters to give their support when it comes time to mark their x at the ballot box.

“You can trust me, you can depend on me and if I can’t help in my own way I will certainly try to find the help and the answers to the questions and concerns that people may have.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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