The Laker News logo as created by Liane Rogers. (Healey photo)

Mike Savage narrowly the choice for Mayor over Max Taylor

FALL RIVER: If students at three schools in the Fall River area were eligible to cast a ballot they overwhelmingly would have picked a fresh new face to be their representative on HRM council for District 1 Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley.

Cathy Deagle Gammon won two of the three schools, taking top spot at Georges P. Vanier Junior High with 203 votes; Steve Streatch had 85; Stephen Kamperman had 83. Art Wamback finished fourth with 49 students voting for him.

Mayor Mike Savage was chosen as Mayor by students receiving 219 votes; TikTok star Max Taylor was next with 177 and Matt Whitman third at 24.

At Lockview High, Streatch took the ballot with 14 votes, while Deagle-Gammon and Kamperman each had four votes apiece. Wamback had two votes in his name.

Students from Beaver Bank at Lockview High who were in the class that took part had the opportunity to vote for their own councillor and did so.

Lisa Blackburn won besting Greg Frampton with 12 votes to seven votes. Forty-four-students voted at the Fall River-based school.

Lockview students chose Savage to remain as mayor with 33 votes. Taylor wound up with five votes and Whitman had three.

Now at Waverley Memorial School, Deagle-Gammon was the rep students would like to have by a wide margin, earning 55 votes. Streatch was second with 17 votes. Kamperman was third with 11 and Wamback fourth at six votes.

Taylor won the role as Mayor over Savage 48-40, with Whitman garnering nine votes from WMES students.

Overall, Deagle-Gammon received 262 votes from the students at the three schools, while Streatch had 116 votes. Stephen Kamperman garnered 98 votes and Art Wamback had 57.

Uniacke District School, while in the Municipality of East Hants and having their own district election, chose to vote in the HRM, and for mayor only.

The students there chose Taylor as their mayor with 15 votes; Savage had 11; and Whitman ended with five votes.

For District 14 Upper/Middle Sackville-Lucasville-Beaver Bank, incumbent Lisa Blackburn was re-elected according to the students with 37 votes compared to 15 for Greg Frampton.

For all schools participating in the HRM, Mayor Mike Savage was chosen as the choice of students for mayor narrowly besting TikTok star Max Taylor 45 per cent to 43.6. Mat Whitman wound up with 11. 4 percent.

More than 5,000 Student Vote ballots were cast from 41 schools.

Nearly 10,000 elementary and high school students throughout Nova Scotia participated in Student Vote for the 2020 municipal elections.

After learning about municipal government and the election process, exploring the issues and candidates, and discussing the election with family and friends, students cast ballots for their municipal council.

“This was the first Student Vote parallel election conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are grateful for all the educators that dedicated time and energy to engaging their students and adapting to new safety protocols,” says Lindsay Mazzucco, Chief Operating Officer of CIVIX.

Based on current tallies, nearly 10,000 ballots were cast by student participants from 90 schools, representing 22 municipalities.

Results: https://studentvote.ca/results/nsmuni2020

Oldfield Consolidated School was among the ones set to partake but no vote numbers were received.