Oxford's mayor not re-offering in October

OXFORD, N.S. — Trish Stewart has decided the time has come to move on.

After 16 years in municipal politics, Oxford’s mayor has announced she will not seek re-election in October.

“I’ve had 16 years, including eight as a town councillor and eight as mayor,” Stewart told the Amherst News. “I think it’s time for me to walk away and let some new ideas come forward. It has been a pleasure for me to have the confidence of the people to lead the town. I have been able to meet so many people and learn so many things, and I think working with my council I have been able to contribute so much to my community.”

First elected to town council in 2004 and re-elected in 2008, Stewart threw her hat in the ring for mayor in the 2012 election picking up 238 votes to edge Arnold MacDonald, who received 213 votes. Former mayor Lloyd Jenkins received 92 votes.

“I feel everyone has a certain timeframe. This year has been very challenging and it wears you down,” she said. “I’m a little worn out and feel it’s time to move on and time for someone new to come in.”

When she was elected, she said she felt Oxford residents were in the mood for change and now eight years later she feels she has been part of that change that has seen the community move forward despite several challenges – including running a small town at a time when two other municipalities (Springhill and Parrsboro) dissolved and joined the Municipality of Cumberland.

It also has saw challenges in the development of the sinkhole in the Lions Park in the summer of 2018 and the temporary closure of the school from September to November 2018.

On the positive side, however, the community has seen a successful Habitat for Humanity project with two homes built while most of the county’s Syrian refugees have moved to Oxford to work at Oxford Frozen foods and she is quick to congratulate John Bragg for recognizing the importance of immigration to growing his business and his continued faith in rural Nova Scotia.

She’s also looking forward to the arrival of families from South Korea in January to begin working at the processor and its expansion with the headquarters of the Oxford Group of Companies in the community.

Stewart said it was concerns over the future of recreation programming that pushed her to run for council in 2004.

“At that time, as the parent of young boys, my husband and I had great concerns about the possibility there would be no recreation program in Oxford. We asked ourselves is this the place we want to raise our children, in a community where the stores are boarded up and they’re talking about discontinuing the recreation program?

“I thought, if you don’t like what you see get involved.”

Stewart said she worked with former mayor Jenkins and town council to make improvements. It’s something she continued after she was elected mayor and believes the town is moving forward.

“You look at Oxford now and how active it is and how we seem to be able to work together. Is everything perfect? No, it’s not, but we’ve made some great strides and I think Oxford has turned the corner. I really believe Oxford is the place to live.”