FALL RIVER: Cathy Deagle Gammon credits her phenomenal team and great supporters with being able to earn re-election by the voters in District 1 Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley for another four years.
Deagle Gammon was announced as being re-elected early on Saturday night as election results rolled in and were announced. The CBC N.S. Decision desk announced the Fall River resident as being re-elected shortly after 8 p.m.
As that happened, Deagle Gammon raised her fist in the air and the celebration as on at the LWF Hall in Fall River with a small group of supporters that came home to watch the results roll in and see how she fared.
“What a beautiful result and a great result because of a phenomenal team and great supporters,” said Deagle Gammon in an interview with The Laker News. “It is humbling. It really is.”
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Deagle Gammon said her commitment is to make sure that their vote is well respected and is earned every day.
“I’m very thankful that people saw the past four years as worthy of another four,” she said.
“The overwhelming support I received is I truly believe because people saw the work that I’ve done over the past four years, and they’d like to see the quality of that work continue.”
She garnered 67.2 per cent of the votes cast in the riding (3,777 votes), while runner up Chris Balcom had 1,408 votes (or 25.0 per cent).
Angela Dennison managed 439 votes (7.8 per cent of the votes cast).
She said there were informed questions at the doors, informed questions by email and on the phone.
“I believe that’s a result of really good communication and good communication on my part,” she said. “People knew the issues; they absolutely know what we need to work on, and it reinforced some of the issues that I’ve been working on.”
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In her conversation with Balcom where he wished her luck and conceded the election, Deagle Gammon did say to him she would like to meet and find out things he’s learned to add to her list.
Deagle Gammon entered the night a little nervous she said.
“I think it’s healthy not to be overconfident,” she said. “So did I anticipate that me might win? I never let myself do that.
“I come into these kinds of things hoping for the best and knowing the job that I’ve done over the four years, knowing how I campaigned respectfully.”
“You smile when it’s the one that you want it to be, and I’m smiling,” she added.
“I’m very appreciative of all of the support and appreciative of everybody’s vote.”
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Balcom said he was surprised at the spread in the voting, although looking at the data it appeared the in-person voting was relatively close between the two.
“I’m not going to lie to you. I’m quite surprised about the voting being so spread out,” he said. “I don’t really have a have an answer for that.”
He was asked if this run, and result gives him thought to try his hand at it again in four years.
“I will sit down with my wife Megan and the boys and figure that out,” he said. “But I would say probably most definitely be running for office again.”
He thinks an issue that hindered him was the fact he didn’t get to all the picnics and barbecues.
“I didn’t get my name or my face out there as much as I would have liked,” said Balcom.
“I met a lot of people that I most definitely wouldn’t have met in the regular run of a day. I got to discover different parts of this district that I think regularly I most likely wouldn’t have made it to.”
Balcom had nothing but good wishes for Deagle Gammon.
“I would like to say congratulations to Cathy and wish her a good for years,” said Balcom. “I would also like to wish Angela congrats for putting her name in.
“I guess we’ll see what happens in the next four years.”
Andy Fillmore was elected as the new mayor to replace Mike Savage.
