The city of Pembroke made history Monday evening as it elected novice politician Stephanie LeMay as its new mayor. LeMay becomes Pembroke’s first female mayor in history, dating back 45 previous mayors to 1877. “Honestly, I’m pretty excited. I’m excited to get to work for Pembroke,” LeMay told CTV News on Tuesday. “I’m feeling extremely grateful for the town putting its trust and its faith in me, and I’m really looking forward to what the future brings.” LeMay won the city’s top job by just 27 votes, beating out Pembroke’s previous deputy mayor, Brian Abdallah, by a tally of 1,545 to 1,518 in official election results that were released on Wednesday. This is LeMay’s first foray into politics, having just recently retired from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., a crown corporation overseeing Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in Chalk River, where she last served as the director of contract management. “It’s time for a different approach. I think that my experience comes from a different perspective. I think my experience in oversight and governance brings something to the table that perhaps is new.” But the win does not come without contextual experience. LeMay is the daughter of former Pembroke mayor Michael LeMay, who served from 2014 to 2022. She says his knowledge and expertise was essential in helping her understand the task at hand. LeMay says she ran a campaign based on public safety, affordability, transparency and ultimately, change for Pembroke. “All the municipalities, we’re all facing some of the similar challenges whether we’re looking at increasing costs, aging infrastructure, we have a vulnerable population that we want to ensure has the services and care that they need, and many municipalities are facing this.” Including LeMay, four of the seven faces that will sit around Pembroke’s council table over the next four years are new. While the vote was tight among the field of candidates running for mayor, some are happy the city will experience change. “I personally don’t want to say I like that (LeMay won) because she’s a woman. I like the person that she is. It just happens to be that she is a woman,” says Pembroke resident Leona Haley. “I can’t deny that that is appealing to me as well. It’s nice to have somebody else in the running the helm.” Resident Rhayne Giberson added: “It was a bit surprising, I wasn’t sure if Pembroke was kind of stuck in its ways a little bit, but it was really needed, I think, to have fresh faces.” “I think for me, I just really wanted to see that the people coming in really cared about, like the issues of this community and were ready to change things, not just leave them as they were.” But for LeMay, change begins with all of Pembroke’s new voices working together. “I am only one of seven that was elected,” said Pembroke’s new mayor elect. “It is a team and everybody is coming to council having run on what they believe are the priorities. And I think you have to consider that as a team. It is not a one person show.”
