DRYDEN — Jack B. Harrison is the new mayor of Dryden
Unofficial results from the city showed Harrison the victor of the two-person race, claiming 69 per cent of the vote.
Shayne MacKinnon was the runner-up with 31 per cent of the vote.
Harrison will be joined at the Dryden city council table by Michelle Price, Bryan Tardiff, Martin MacKinnon, Ritch Noel, Bill Latham, and Catherine Kiewning.
When contacted by NWOnewswatch after the results were announced, Harrison said the support he received was "quite overwhelming."
“It was the longest job interview I think I’ve gone though, about two months,” Harrison said with a chuckle about the campaign, which he said was his first time in politics.
“I got to meet a lot of people and talk to them about their issues, met a lot of the business people and so I got a lot of common themes coming out of that.”
Harrison said he’s looking forward to the transition from business to municipal leadership. He retired from a senior management role in the forestry sector.
Harrison applauded outgoing mayor Greg Wilson, who didn’t run for re-election, and the outgoing council.
“I want to continue the good work that they are doing in being fiscally responsible and working on our infrastructure and facilities and try and improve our city.”
Harrison said his number one issue during the campaign was fiscal responsibility.
“About 10 to 12 years ago we got into a situation with debt due to some mismanagement, so the previous council has been trying to bring that debt down and they’ve been very, very responsible with that,” he said. “We are just under $7 million of the original debt so, I want to maintain that course of action so. So we can get that debt down, and we can reinvest back into our city and to the infrastructure.”
He added quality of life is important too.
“We can look at areas like developing our waterfront and doing things around the city that will retain and attract people to Dryden.”
Harrison said he wanted to congratulate all the candidates who did run.
“We’re getting less people running so it’s great they put their names forward,” he said. “I’m looking toward to serving the city. Thanks for those who voted for me, I won’t let them down. They put their trust in me and I hope to do the city good.”
