Over half of Pearson board acclaimed

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Following the last day of school board election nominations this past Sunday, the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) has a preliminary view of what their 23-member council of commissioners will look like following the Nov. 4 vote.

At 5 p.m. on Sunday, 14 candidates were acclaimed, of which nine were in West Island wards. All are incumbent candidates, except for in Ward 16, where former commissioner Eric Bender did not seek to contest the election. The list of acclamations follows:

- Rosemary Murphy in Ward 7: Dollard East/Pointe Claire Northeast;

- Allan Levine in Ward 9: Pointe Claire East;

- John Killingbeck in Ward 10: Pointe Claire West;

- Marcus Tabachnick, the LBPSB chairman, in Ward 11: Dollard Centre-East;

- Martin Sherman in Ward 13: Dollard Centre-West;

- Joseph Zemanovich in Ward 14: Dollard West/Kirkland East;

- Ralph Tietjen in Ward 15: Beaconsfield North;

- Suzanne Stein Day in Ward 17: Pierrefonds West;

- Luisa Bulgarelli-Vero in Ward 17: Pierrefonds West.

Seven of the LBPSB’s electoral divisions will be contested in the Nov. 4 election, four of which are in the West Island:

- Incumbent Barbara Freeston and Gordon Neysmith are up for election in Ward 6: Dorval;

- Incumbent Howard Solomon, Parent Commissioner for the elementary level Craig S. Berger, Bashir Hussain (a former Lakeshore School Board commissioner) and Nazia Nadeem are up for election in Ward 8: Roxboro/Pierrefonds;

- Incumbent Sylvia Di Donato and Bart Sellitto (who was acclaimed in the 1998 LBPSB election) are running in Ward 12: Pierrefonds/Ile Bizard;

- Incumbent Don Rae, John V. Hachey (a former Lachine city councillor), and Judy Kelley are running in Ward 18: West Island Southwest.

The school board’s parents will also elect two non-voting members to the council of commissioners, who will act as parent commissioners for a one-year term.

Election day will take place on Nov. 4 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and an advance poll will be held on Oct. 28 from 12 to 8 p.m. According to the LBPSB’s electoral list, there are 22,864 eligible voters living in the seven contested wards. People can verify whether they are on the list and are registered for the correct school board during the revision period, which ends on Oct. 16. For more information, call the LBPSB election office at 514-780-8683.