Whitchurch-Stouffville’s mayor is getting married and the entire town is invited

On Aug. 6, Justin Altmann, the mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville in Ontario will marry his fiancé Jenny Hillier. The couple, who met in line at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in November 2015, decided against an intimate affair, and instead have invited the town’s 46,000 residents to the wedding ceremony.

Altmann swears it’s not a publicity stunt, but simply a way to give back to the community he’s lived in pretty much his whole life. Since the age of 16, he’s run several businesses in town, including a petting zoo and a farmers’ market.

The 34-year-old spoke to Yahoo Canada News about his decision to include his entire town on his very special day.

Q: You’re getting married soon, and your wedding has a huge guest list. How many people do you expect will be coming?

We sent out 800 invites and we have over 800 invites confirmed. There are two to four people per invite. Then we opened it up to the whole community, the whole town of 46,000.

Q: What inspired this?

I’ve grown up in Whitchurch-Stouffville my whole life. Our family’s been established here for about 130 years. When I started at a very young age as an entrepreneur, building my businesses I got to know the community very well and there’s been many people that have shared their experiences and time and everything with me. So we’re very connected to the community.

When we started doing the list, it was well over 500 and in our municipality the biggest banquet hall we have seats around 250 to 300 people. Our list kept growing and we wanted to keep the venue and event local, so we decided to do it at (arts centre) Nineteen on the Park. The significance of this venue is that it was the old town hall back in the day, and its central focal point is the clock tower. My great aunt wrote the song and played it at the clock tower way, way back. It’s also the spot where I proposed to Jenny on the balcony.

Q: How would you react to people who think this is a publicity stunt?

I’d say the reaction’s been over 95 per cent positive. People that have followed me and known me, know that I’ve always done things very large with my businesses. I’d put on large barbeques yearly. We used to draw more than 5,000 to our events and it was all free. There’s been very little negative feedback. It’s been a positive experience.

It’s a simple wedding in the sense that it’s just asking people to come together and share our vows. Then we’re going over to the Ribfest and sharing cake and everyone gets to sit, relax and enjoy. There isn’t a formality. No one’s expected to get dressed up. There’s no expense that there would be at a normal wedding. In lieu of gifts, we’re asking people to donate to an accessibility mobility trailer for adults, seniors and youth with disabilities who can’t go to functions like Ribfest or other large events. It’s about $100,000 for the unit, and the first in Canada made in Stouffville-York Region and we’ll share it with the nine municipalities that make up the region.

Q: How have people been responding as your wedding date approaches?

Lots of people are excited. We’ve had a lot of people coming together. There’s one couple who are 83 years old, they’ve been mentoring us and giving us our counselling and telling us how marriage is, and they’ll be celebrating their 60th anniversary next year. They built for us a massive wedding pergola, they carved it all out. Another group of seniors have come together and are making us bouquets. Everyone from all over the community is getting together to help. We’ve rented five limos, so we have about 800 people to move in an hour by limo. So people are coming together to organize the troops and get everyone in line and make sure we can move everyone as fast as we can, in and out to the venues.

Q: So you’re having the ceremony and then you’ll head over to Ribfest?

Yes. We’ll have our ceremony, and we’ll have dignitaries in that building coming in, where we’ll be announced. Then we’ll have a couple of cultural dances that will be provided by the Tamil society. Then Jenny and all the girls will come in and we’ll get married on the balcony of the park. From there we will proceed to Ribfest. We have a cake that’s six feet by eight feet, over 1,000 pounds and feed close to 2,000 people. After people can sit wherever they like. There’s a beer tent and there will be children’s activities. It’ll be a fun event.

Q: Do you know of other politicians or mayors who have done something like this?

No, not that I’m aware of but I haven’t looked into it. It was something Jenny and I wanted to do with the community. We didn’t want to miss anybody that’s been there and helped in any way. Everyone’s invited, we don’t want to miss anybody.

Q: Do you have political ambitions beyond the municipal level?

No, I like municipal. I’m not interested in federal or provincial. I like municipal because that’s where you get the grassroots movement. You get to see what you do and what you implement in council. It’s the most personal level of government.

The interview has been condensed and edited.