No merger for northeast communities after plebiscite Monday
People in New Brunswick's northeast corner have voted overwhelmingly against joining their neighbours in one larger rural community.
In a plebiscite held Monday, people from the Lamèque and Miscou Island areas of the Acadian Peninsula voted more than two-to-one against the idea.
The final vote was 1600 votes cast for the no option, with just 725 saying yes.
People in the local service districts of Cap-Bateau, Coteau Road, Haut-Lamèque, Miscou, Petite-Lamèque, Paroisse Ste-Cécile, Pigeon Hill, Paroisse Shippagan, Pointe-Alexandre and Pointe-Canot were asked to vote on forming a rural community with the Town of Lamèque and the Village of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Raphaël.
It came after a feasibility study looked at the economic and social stability of the area.
Byelection results
Several municipal byelections were also held around the province Monday.
Jean-Pierre Ouellet was elected mayor of Haut-Madawaska, besting Réginald Nadeau and Louis Labrie.
Councillors elected there were Pierrette Bouchard, Rino Levasseur, Carl Sawyer, Steve Cyr, Georges Michaud, Francine Caron, Michel Jean Morin and Nathalie Toussaint.
In Le Goulet, Eda Roussel was elected to council, and Michèle Poirier was elected councillor in Maisonnette.
Blake Bartlett won a vacant council seat in Salisbury, narrowly defeating Todd L. McNeil 226 to 214.
Elected to council by acclamation were Réginald Lurette in Kedgwick, Michel Yvon Rioux and Cyril Michaud in Saint-André, and Percy Mallet in Shippagan.
