The Halifax Regional Municipality is governed by a mayor (elected at large) and a twenty-three person council, who are elected by geographic district; municipal elections occur every four years. HRM has established community councils where three or more councillors agree to form these councils to deal primarily with local development issues. Most community council decisions are subject to final approval by regional council. The incumbent Mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality was Peter J. Kelly.
Halifax Regional Council is the governing body of Halifax, formally known as the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Halifax is governed by a mayor-council system, where councillors are elected from sixteen geographic districts though a first past the post system and the Mayor is elected via a municipality wide first past the post vote. Halifax Regional Council was formed in 1996 and consisted of twenty-three councillors and one mayor. It was reduced in size to sixteen councillors and the mayor in 2012. The council meets at Halifax City Hall.
Peter J. Kelly is a municipal civil servant, businessman and former politician. Kelly currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He is a former mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), Nova Scotia. Kelly was elected to Bedford town council in 1985, then became mayor in 1991. In 1995, in the newly amalgamated HRM, he was elected councillor for Bedford, Nova Scotia. In 2000, he was elected Mayor of the HRM. Under scrutiny for his role in the HRM concert scandal and as executor for the will of Mary Thibeault, Kelly left politics in 2012 citing personal reasons.
Contents
- Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor
- Councillors (2008 Candidates)
- District 1: Eastern Shore - Musquodoboit Valley
- District 2: Waverley - Fall River - Beaver Bank
- District 3: Preston - Lawrencetown - Chezzetcook
- District 4: Cole Harbour
- District 5: Dartmouth Centre
- District 6: Dartmouth East - The Lakes
- District 7: Portland - East Woodlawn
- District 8: Woodside - Eastern Passage
- District 9: Albro Lake - Harbourview
- District 10: Clayton Park West
- District 11: Halifax North End
- District 12: Halifax Downtown
- District 13: Northwest Arm - South End and Sable Island
- District 14: Connaught - Quinpool
- District 15: Fairview - Clayton Park
- District 16: Rockingham - Wentworth
- District 17: Purcell's Cove - Armdale
- District 18: Spryfield - Herring Cove
- District 19: Sackville - Lucasville
- District 20: Lower Sackville
- District 21: Bedford
- District 22: Timberlea - Prospect
- District 23: Hammonds Plains - St. Margaret's
- References
- External links
The Halifax Regional Council is responsible for all facets of municipal government, including the Halifax Regional Police, Halifax Public Libraries, Halifax Fire and Emergency, Halifax Regional Water Commission, parks and recreation, civic addressing, public works, waste management, and planning and development.
The Halifax Regional Police (HRP) is one of a number of law enforcement agencies operating in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia; the other primaries being the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Forces Military Police. The city also is home to a small detachment of the Canadian National Railway Police.
Halifax Public Libraries (HPL) is a Canadian public library system serving residents of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the largest public library system in Nova Scotia, with over 2.8 million visits to library branches and 172,520 active registered borrowers or 44% of the municipality's population. With roots that trace back to the establishment of the Citizens' Free Library in 1864, the current library system was created in 1996 during municipal amalgamation, and now consists of 14 branches and a collection of almost 1 million items.
The 2008 municipal elections of the Halifax Regional Municipality took place on 18 October 2008 in conjunction with Municipal elections across the province. Elections have been held every four years since the amalgamation of the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford and Halifax County into the Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996. At the time, the regional council was made up of twenty-three councillors and one mayor, all positions were up for election.
There are no political parties at the municipal level in Nova Scotia, so all candidates run as independents. Voter turnout in the last 2004 mayoral election was 54.45%. [1]
Advance voting was available using an internet voting system.
Federal elections and provincial elections use paper ballots, but electronic voting has been used since at least the 1990s at the municipal level. Committee reports and analysis from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia have all recommended against provincial Internet voting, but several provinces use electronic counting of paper ballots. A federal committee has recommended against national Internet voting.
