MISSISSIPPI
MILLS – Almonte Ward Coun. Alex Gillis has reversed an earlier decision to
retire from council by filing his papers to run for re-election at the last
minute.
Gillis filed his paperwork on Friday, Sept. 10, the last day
nominations were accepted.
“I was reconsidering the whole week,” said Gillis, after
announcing at the council table back in August that he would not be seeking re-election.
For a time, it appeared that the four candidates running in Almonte
Ward would be acclaimed. Then, Coun. Rick Minnille threw his hat into the ring,
necessitating an election in the ward, but that still did not sit right with Gillis.
“An election with an 80 per cent chance of winning is not
really competitive,” said Gillis, who stated that candidates should have to
earn every vote. Gillis indicated he would have preferred to see a more crowded
field of between eight and 10 candidates.
“I found the lack of nominations to be disappointing,” he
said.
On the morning of Sept. 10, “I was looking at my laptop and
seeing that nothing was changing,” said Gillis. He phoned the town clerk to see
if there had been any other last minute changes, and was told that there was
not.
With 50 minutes left to go before nominations closed, Gillis
phoned Mississippi Mills Mayor Al Lunney, whom he said encouraged him to run
for re-election.
“You make your decision based on certain assumptions,” said
Gillis. Since August, he says that circumstances have changed.
“I fully intended not to run,” Gillis said. “A lot of things
happened in that intervening period.”
Also, several citizens “whose opinion I value,” had approached
Gillis urging him to reconsider. Even he was feeling the pull to return to
elected office, he said. As Gillis attended various committee meetings over the
summer, he began to realize what he was giving up.
“I was missing it already and I hadn’t even left,” Gillis said. “I changed my
mind that it was not the right time to leave.”
There are certain issues that Gillis would like to address
if he is chosen to be part of the new council, including maintaining the ward
system, minimizing water rate and property tax increases, and keeping the
revenues from the hydro generating plant in Almonte to fix the sewage and water
systems. He also wants to help out the town’s volunteer community.
“I didn’t like cutting their grants by 50 per cent in the
last budget,” Gillis said.