Voters line up at the Halifax Convention Centre as they prepare to vote in the federal election in Halifax on Sept. 20, 2021.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Former Liberal MP Andy Fillmore has been elected as Halifax’s newest mayor, as municipalities across the region took to the polls on Saturday.
Results will not be considered official until early next week when they are certified by a returning officer.
He replaces outgoing Halifax mayor Mike Savage who led the city for over a decade, having been elected to the post in 2012, and who was named to become Nova Scotia’s next lieutenant-governor.
Fillmore is a former city planner who was first elected as a Halifax member of Parliament in the 2015 election that brought Justin Trudeau to power. He resigned from his seat to run in the municipal election.
Longtime Halifax Coun. Waye Mason finished a distant second in the mayoral race.
Mason is a former business owner who worked for years in the local music industry, including as executive director of the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival, before he was elected to council in 2012.
Unofficials polls from the city of Halifax had Fillmore with more than 40 per cent of the vote, Mason with 25 per cent and city councillor Pam Lovelace in third.
About a quarter of voters in the municipality cast their ballots in advance polls.
Determining a winner was much easier in one municipality, with the candidates for mayor and council in the town of Mulgrave acclaimed.