PORT HAWKESBURY - Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton is optimistic about her town's future relationship with four local MLAs who were elected to the new government caucus of the PC Party of Nova Scotia last month.sa

During the latest regular monthly meeting of Port Hawkesbury Town Council, the mayor officially congratulated the MLA for the riding that takes in the town, Inverness representative Allan MacMaster, for being named Deputy Premier, Finance Minister, Labour Relations Minister, and Minister of the Office of Gaelic Affairs during the swearing-in ceremony held for Premier Tim Houston and his new cabinet ministers on August 31 in Halifax. 

Speaking to reporters shortly after the council meeting, Mayor Chisholm-Beaton said she was "very much looking forward" to working with MacMaster, as well as his locally-based cabinet colleagues - Health Minister Michelle Thompson, who represents Antigonish, and Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow, the new representative for Guysborough-Tracadie. 

"We are looking forward to having a regional meeting with the other Mayors and Wardens and all the other MLAs of the Strait Area," said Chisholm-Beaton.

This new group of local government-caucus MLAs also includes Trevor Boudreau, a former town council colleague of Chisholm-Beaton's who now serves as the PC member for the neighbouring riding of Richmond. 

"Trevor certainly has a great perspective and has always employed a regional lens in terms of the work he did at our council table, and I think that will certainly translate into the work he does as the MLA for Richmond," Chisholm-Beaton enthused. "I certainly think it's exciting that he's moved on from being a town councillor to an MLA...We're certainly proud of Trevor."

Boudreau and Chisholm-Beaton both won seats on Port Hawkesbury town council in 2012 while still in their thirties, and were among the youngest candidates to achieve the feat. Chisholm-Beaton is now serving in her second term as mayor, and Boudreau was re-elected to town council in 2016 but stepped down in mid-2020 - four months before the new municipal elections - after he and his family moved just outside the town boundaries.  The remaining town councillors voted against Boudreau's application to remain as a town councillor for the balance of his term.