The entrance to Moffet, in eastern Témiscamingue.
A vacant seat on the municipal council of Moffet is arousing strong interest in this Témiscamingue municipality. Three people – all women – have submitted their candidacy and prepared an election campaign in the hope of winning Sunday's by-election.
While the trend is to the lack of interest in municipal politics and that several elected officials have resigned in the region since the last elections, in 2021, a three-way race for a position of municipal councilor may seem unusual.
Myself, I am amazed by the enthusiasm that this election brings. Knowing that when you are a councillor, it is almost voluntary, I tell myself that people are very interested in politics at the moment in Moffet, noted Mayor Alexandre Binette.
Alexandre Binette, Mayor of Moffet.
Danielle Jodoin moved to Moffet in 2020 with her spouse, a native of Témiscamingue. To make herself known to her fellow citizens, she produced a leaflet and surrounded herself with a team with whom she goes door to door. The candidate also organized a presentation at the restaurant to meet voters. Several issues concern him.
I know there is a food self-sufficiency action plan. Is this action plan being implemented?, asks Ms. Jodoin, who organizes cooking workshops in the popular education committee.
Danielle Jodoin says she is impressed by the dynamism of the municipality and wishes to consolidate the projects in place, if she is elected. The public market, the park and the pavilion that have been put in place, if we don't do development, it's precarious, all these services that the municipality has managed to revive, she observes.
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Danielle Jodoin, a retiree from the Ministry of Tourism, wanted to produce her brochure in French and English.< /p>
For her part, Nancy Therrien aspires to the position of councilor because she has been particularly fond of Moffet since childhood. I like the village. This is the reason why I want to introduce myself and also because it takes over, she says.
The candidate also sent a leaflet in the post office boxes of the 206 inhabitants of the village. She wants to inspire her fellow citizens to be more proactive during city council meetings.
I find that citizens are not sufficiently informed of what is happening. Yes, we have the monthly newspaper, but I find that there are not enough details. We see things moving, but what is happening? More openness, let us know what's going on with our tax money. This is something I would love to work on, says Ms. Therrien.
Nancy Therrien, originally from Ville-Marie, is a financial services assistant.
The other candidate, Jocelyne Roy Rocheleau relies on its volunteer involvement to collect votes. I show up to bring even more to my community. The citizens know me well, I think I would have a place on the council, she believes.
The one who has long been involved in the mass of the hunter sees very favorably a multifunctional gymnasium project underway at the municipality. Sports and recreation figure prominently in his vision for Moffet's development.
Of course, we want to have activities in the park. I wish there were outdoor exercise machines, but there are little flies. If [only] we could find a facility where we could also host events and we wouldn't have this mosquito problem, suggests Ms. Rocheleau.
Jocelyne Roy Rocheleau, originally from Moffet, is very involved in her community.
Moffet's municipal council will remain parity at the end of this ballot to fill the position in seat #4.
The municipality is currently teeming with projects, rejoices Mayor Binette.
We are working on fairly large revitalization projects, we are working on food self-sufficiency. We are really trying to facilitate the creation of a new food distribution network, which means from production to compost management, explains Mr. Binette.
Moffet City Park.
A new greenhouse will be built this summer, while a food processing kitchen, next to the public market, has already met a certain need in eastern Témiscamingue since last fall.
The idea of a car-sharing electric car is also in the boxes, while the public transport offer is scarce in the territory.
