Who Wants to Be Warden?

Clarence-Rockland Mayor Richard Lalonde has never been warden of the United Counties of Prescott-Russell. Apparently he does not want to be.

As December approaches, so does the time to choose a new warden for 2010 to replace Robert Kirby, Mayor of the Township of East Hawkesbury. Casselman Mayor Conrad Lamadeleine has been asked to take the office, and it seems likely that the man who has not yet held this post, in spite of being mayor for nearly 20 years, will finally have his day at the top.

“I’ve never been warden; I wasn’t ready before,” Lamadeleine confided. “It’s not something to be taken lightly.”

It seems time that Lamadeleine become warden. Still his nomination raises questions. Lamadeleine is mayor of the smallest municipality in the United Counties. Meanwhile, Richard Lalonde, mayor of the largest municipality in the United Counties, would remain the only mayor besides Hawkesbury Mayor Jeanne Charlebois, who is in her first term, not to have been warden. And this in spite of being near the end of his second mandate. Even Russell Mayor Ken Hill has been warden, although he is still in his first term. Why then was Lalonde not nominated?

“I recommended him, but he didn’t want to go,” said Lamadeleine. “He wanted it to be me.”

Richard Lalonde has repeatedly threatened to separate Clarence-Rockland from the United Counties, claiming that his city pays for more than what it gets back. In April, a study supporting this claim was brought before council and eventually released in July. At a recent meeting, Clarence-Rockland council was keen to know how to go about placing a referendum question on the subject on next year’s ballot.

Some have speculated that Lalonde’s malaise vis-à-vis the UCPR may stem from that body’s failure as yet to make him its head, while others have wondered whether the reverse is not true. Based on Lamadeleine’s statement, however, the first can lay their questioning to rest. At the same time a whole new arena of speculation has opened its doors.

Why would Lalonde give up the elusive wardenship? It seems logically in line with his position on Clarence-Rockland’s place in the United Counties – or out of them. His agenda seems clear. But what of the leverage he might gain as warden – might that not help him work toward righting the problem he sees in a less drastic manner? No one said, however, that a less drastic manner was desired. Whatever the motive, such a gambit means either that Lalonde is a terribly shrewd strategist – or that he is simply a terrible one.

Conrad Lamadeleine for his part is more interested in his priorities as warden than in grasping at Lalonde’s motivations.

“As warden I’d have two priorities: I want to work on public transportation and on economic development in Prescott Russell as a whole,” he told. “We need to improve living standards; that’s hard when a government cuts funding more and more. But public transportation was a success in Casselman, and we should bring that to the rest of Prescott-Russell.”

Conrad Lamadeleine wants to help the residents of Casselman and the United Counties, in some way at least. But by rejecting the wardenship, is Richard Lalonde advancing the welfare of the residents of Clarence-Rockland or blindly pursuing his own agenda?

Published in the November 12, 2009 issue of the Musketeers' Journal.

© 2010 - William G. Stephenson