By Emily Yeap
For years, they successfully devoted their lives to politics, but amalgamation cost them their jobs.
Former mayors Gerry Lalonde of Cumberland and Claudette Cain of Gloucester, and former Baseline regional councillor Al Loney say losing the first single-city election in November 2000 was disappointing – but they’ve moved on with their lives.
Lalonde, a 20-year elected official, focused on his horse farm after losing to Coun. Herb Kreling. He has never looked back.
“I’ve learned in life that if you look back, you’ll never get ahead,” says Lalonde, 56, wearing a baseball cap, long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and work boots.
Cain, 53, was, at nine years, the longest-serving mayor of any of the 11 former municipalities. She says the loss was difficult for her and the “hundreds and hundreds of volunteers” who helped her campaign for mayor.
“It’s a risk you take in public life. You’ve got to be prepared,” Cain says, sitting in the bright, spacious office of her suburban Gloucester home.
A fixture in Nepean and regional politics since the 1970s, Loney, 62, was elected to the Nepean and regional councils 10 times. He also chaired the OC Transpo commission from 1997-2000. A supporter of amalgamation, he lost to Coun. Rick Chiarelli, who opposed it.
Sitting on a stool in the busy Ralph & Sons diner on Carling Avenue in Nepean, Loney, tall with greyish white hair, says he lost because Chiarelli ran a successful attack campaign. In the last few days before the election, Chiarelli produced documents discrediting Loney.
“I didn’t have time to respond. Once those pieces came out, it wasn’t whether I would lose, but how big a loss it would be,” Loney says.
Two years after their forced exits from politics, Lalonde, Cain and Loney say they are busy running their businesses.
Lalonde owns and manages Beckett’s Creek Farm on Old Montreal Road in Cumberland with his brother. The 140-hectare farm is now one of the country’s largest Canadian horse breeding farms. Lalonde says his horses win competitions each year, and that his business has grown 350 per cent since he started working at it full time.
Like Lalonde, Cain is investing her time in a business she runs from her home. Cain Communications.specializes in personal and corporate coaching.
Cain is also a municipal-affairs columnist for the Ottawa Sun and a sought-after public speaker. At speaking engagements shortly after her loss, she jokingly told audiences she was going to ask for a recount.
Loney followed the same path as Cain, starting his own consulting firm that focuses mainly on urban transportation.
He supported amalgamation from the start as a way to control growth and end the infighting between the municipalities and the regional government.
He saysamalgamation is showing signs of success, but hasn’t gone as well as he’d like. He believes the mayor is heading down the wrong course by depleting the budget and ignoring the “pay-as-you-go” system.
“Fiscal problems are looming. The funds have been used up, but no money is being pumped in for the future,” Loney says.
Cain and Lalonde disagree with Loney on the amalgamation issue. They have always opposed the single city. They say Gloucester and Cumberland were running with surpluses of about $20 million and $6 million, respectively, with clear plans for the future. But now the city’s only plan is to raid all the reserves, says Cain.
Lalonde agrees. “We were ahead of the game, but amalgamation made us join a system that’s not efficient,” he says.
He also regrets the loss of personal touch. He says when he was mayor, he could go into any department in Cumberland and address every employee by name. Residents could also drop by and chat with him regularly. Things have changed.
These former mayors are convinced amalgamation – sold to people as a cost-saver – is costing more money than before.
“Where are we saving money when people have to go through three or four sub-offices before things get done?” Lalonde says.
Cain says people voted for amalgamation because of promised savings of $75 million with every cent going back to taxpayers, no increase in recreation fees and no hikes in hydro costs for three years. She says these have all been broken.