The New Brunswick municipal election votes are finally in. In Saint Andrews, Deputy Mayor Brad Henderson beat out incumbent Doug Naish to become the town's new mayor. 

"It's very humbling to know you have so much support from your community," said Henderson.

The town had an impressive 64% voter turnout--the highest voter turn out in over 25 years and the highest in Southwest New Brunswick. 
"I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had so many candidates for council, and they got their friends and family to go to the polls to vote. Another factor was the pandemic and that so many people have been getting engaged with local politics now that they're home and they are seeing council meetings streamed online and on TV. They decided to get involved, and that's wonderful," said Henderson.
Southwest New Brunswickers had a higher than average turn out at the polls with some expected and also unexpected results. Here's a snapshot of the region: 

In Saint Andrews, two of the four councillors that re-offered, Kate Agaki and Kurt Gumushel, were re-elected, with four fresh faces joining the roster. Voter turn out was high across Charlotte with a 49% turnout in St. George where political newcomer John Detorakis won in a three-way race with 222 votes, beating Sharon E. Tucker who trailed behind with 197 followed by incumbent Faith Avery who received 137 votes. Alexa Detorakis, who is the daughter of the newly elected mayor, notably also won one of the six council seats. 

It was a close race on Campobello Island where newcomer Harvey Matthews edged out incumbent Brett Newman for the win by just 6 votes with a 48% voter turn out. On Grand Manan, Councillor of 9-years Bonnie Morse won in a landslide victory over incumbent Dennis Greene, ending his four-term streak as mayor, with 862 votes to Greene's 199 with a 58% voter turnout. 

In Blacks Harbour, there was a 56% voter turn out where John D. Craig beat Heather Chase 263 votes to 127. Mayor of 17 years Terry James decided not to reoffer for mayor and instead ran for council but failed to win one of the 6 seats. 

St. Stephen mayor Allan MacEachern was the only incumbent to re-offer to get re-elected without being acclaimed with 763 votes to challenger Vernon Card's 241 votes. St. Stephen's council was acclaimed, which is likely why voter turn out was just slightly about the 30% provincial average at 32%. 
In McAdam, incumbent Mayor Ken Stannix was the only mayor in the region to win by acclammation. 

At a press conference on Tuesday, Premier Blaine Higgs said he expects New Brunswick to hit more major milestones in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout this week.  "60% of the eligible population is expected to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this week," said Premier Higgs.

Premier Higgs said that the province is working on a reopening plan that he will unveil at a later. He did stress, however, that he wants to see at least 75% of the province vaccinated with at least one dose before considering a further easing of restrictions. At a press conference on Wednesday, Minister of Education Dominic Cardy announced that children 12 and up are now eligible for a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

“We have worked to support Public Health on their plans to vaccinate children 12 years and older and ensure families were well-informed,” said Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Dominic Cardy. “In the coming days, districts will be sending out information that will help guide parents through the registration and vaccination process.”