Massive change is the only way to describe what happened in Elliot Lake Monday night at the mayor and councillor levels. Newcomer Dan Marchisella easily crushed incumbent Rick Hamilton and two councilors looking to become mayor. And only one councillor was re-elected and that’s Norman Mann. Some may believe that the final report of the mall collapse, noting that greed and indifference were causes of the cave-in, were major reasons for Monday’s sweeping change. In Espanola Ron Piche won as mayor. Piche will hit the road running as soon as he takes office in December. He believes his platform of giving the people a voice so they’re heard is what put him over the top. The mayor’s seat in Espanola was vacant with the retirement of Mike Lehoux. There was also change in Central Manitoulin, where Richard Stephens defeated mayor Gerry Strong to get his old job back. In 2010 Strong won the seat from Stephens. Gary Bishop was defeated as mayor of Spanish, Ted Clague won there. There was no change in Blind River with Sue Jensen returned as mayor although it was close.  She edged challenger Andre Berthelot by 63 votes. For the Township of the North Shore, incumbent Randi Condie was returned as mayor as was Gil Reeves at Huron Shores and Laurier Falldien is back as mayor of Nairn. In the North’s larger centres, North Bay mayor Al McDonald winning his second term has actually become the elder statesman. Sault mayor Debbie Amarosa was defeated by Christian Provenzano. The mayor’s job was vacant in Sudbury and Timmins and the winners there were Brian Bigger and Steve Black respectively.
Elliot Lake mayor-elect Dan Marchisella during time in Canadian military