Susan Irwin Running For Central Frontenac Mayor Against Nicki Gowdy
There will be a contested election for mayor of Central Frontenac, in October.
Susan Irwin, who has served as one term councillor from Ward 3 (Oso), will try to take the leap into the leadership role. Incumbent Mayor Frances Smith, who is not running again, was acclaimed in both of the last two election cycles (2022 and 2018). With two term Ward 4 (Hinchinbrooke) Councillor Nicki Gowdy submitting her nomination papers on May 2, the opening day of the 4 month nomination period, the first contest since Smith defeated then Mayor Janet Gutowskin in 2014, is officially underway.
“A lot of people have encouraged me to run,” said Irwin in a phone interview this week, “and I have not shied away from community service since I arrived in this community 38 years ago, so I decided that I would put my name forward and give people a choice. I think Nicki and I are both very committed to the community, and it will be up to the voters to decide.”
Irwin first came to her home on St. Georges Lake, in what was then Olden Township, in 1988, with her husband Jim. They were both lawyers, and came to work at Rural Legal Services, which was then a stand alone, not for profit corporation, based in Sharbot Lake. In her long career with the agency, Irwin helped maintain the service locally as long as she could. It was amalgamated and eventually became a Perth-based service that served Sharbot Lake, but with less of a local presence. Rural Legal Services was an offshoot of what was then known as North Frontenac Community Services (now Rural Frontenac Community Services - RFCS) and Irwin has maintained an association with RFCS as a board member. Now retired from her legal career, she is currently the RFCS Board Chair, and for the last 10 years she has also served on the Board of The Sharbot Lake Family Health Team.
“If I am elected mayor, I will look at my role with RFCS,” she said, “and there is council representation on the Family Team already, so I could stay in that role.”
She said that serving on council for four years has been an education, and she has leaned on township staff to help her understand all of the issues and processes. She said that she is not a big fan of Strong Mayor powers, and that it is only the requirement to submit a budget that she would be forced to do, but even then she prefers a collaborative approach and will be driven by the priorities established by Council as a whole.
Nicki Gowdy has served on Frontenac County Council over the last term, and Irwin said she would have a larger learning curve at the county level, but as chair of the Central Frontenac Economic Department she has worked closely with the county economic development department.
There have been other candidates who have submitted nomination papers in Central Frontenac recently, although a full slate of candidates for council is not in place yet. There is now one candidate for each ward. Danny Meeks (Olden) is the only incumbent councillor to step forward thus far, aside from Gowdy and Irwin who are running for mayor. Former Councillor Brent Cameron is running in Ward 4 (Hinchinbrooke) and newcomers Chase Matson in Ward 1 (Kennebec) and Merdith Peters in Ward 3 (Oso), are running as well.
There have been no new nominations elsewhere in the region over the last week. But with Irwin's nomination, there will now be a guaranteed race for mayor in both Central and South Frontenac
