Another big mayoral battle spices up Holyrood election

By Craig Westcott

For the second election in a row, Gary Goobie is being challenged by a fellow member of council for the role of mayor. This time the competition is coming from school principal and first term councillor Laura Crawley.
“I welcome it,” said Goobie. “I mean look, competition is good, it’s healthy, and it’s democracy in action. It gives people a choice to decide between the two candidates based on their mandates and their perspectives as to how they would like the town to move forward. So, yeah, it’s great, competition is great and it’s nice that we have a campaign rather than an acclamation.”
Goobie was acclaimed as mayor in 2017, one of four election victories as mayor, with nine years as a councillor before that. He resigned as mayor near the end of his term back in January 2021 during the contentious debate over whether to sell some of the town’s festival grounds to a private developer wanting to build a micro-brewery on the site. He came out of political retirement seven months later to run for mayor again.
Ironically, it was the brewery issue that drew Crawley into municipal politics four years ago and helped get her elected.
The now 47-year-old mother of four was plenty busy teaching and raising a family at the time, but felt compelled to step in.
“I was always a proponent of the political process and the electoral process, and in school, I’ve always done the Civics student vote,” Crawley said. “But it really kicked in when our debacle with the brewery was happening. Because my other passion is conservation and our shoreline. I was so worried about the shoreline and our waterways where it was going and how it was happening. And I really do not think we should sell. If you have public waterfront property, it should stay public, it should stay for the town. So, I was part of that group leading the inquiry and digging into what was happening here, and when the election came around I said, ‘You know what, if I’m going to complain about it, I’d better be part of it.’ So I ran.”
With only six people running for council in 2021, all the candidates were acclaimed. Goobie beat councillor Kim Ghaney for the mayor’s position 741 – 325, with 61 spoiled ballots.
Though she may not quite be as recognizable a name as Goobie, Crawley is pretty well known, having worked as a teacher since 2012. Before that she worked as a computer software developer after obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree and an Applied Technology diploma, a job that took her throughout North America. She’s married to Corey Crawley from Holyrood, whose mother, Germaine Crawley, was a long time Town Clerk of Holyrood. Last year, Crawley took on the position of principal at Immaculate Conception School in Colliers. She said she loves the “chaos” of teaching, raising a family and serving on council, but admitted her first term on council was difficult, at first.
“It really was, it was not what I was expecting,” Crawley said. “It was time-consuming more so than I expected, with all the committees and meetings, and things that were happening in the community. But it did definitely get easier.”
Crawley said the first two years of the term felt like council was catching up on things that had built up, like the operational review that saw a consultant recommend changes to staffing at the Town Hall.
Over the course of the term, Crawley served on the corporate services committee, which oversees the Town’s finances, a newly formed communications committee, the Holyrood Marina Park Corporation, and the Northeast Avalon Joint Council.
“So, it was just learning the ropes and was very difficult at first, but then things started smoothing out,” Crawley said. “After the operational review, we kind of had things tightened up, and we streamlined some processes… We created a lot of policies. We updated the operating procedures and policy for the town which hadn’t been changed since 1984. It still said women in the chamber should wear dresses – not a word of a lie…. So, there was a lot, but the more I got into and the more improvements I saw, I just felt better about it.”
As to why she’s challenging Goobie, Crawley picks her words carefully.
“I don’t want to say that he wasn’t doing a good job, I would never say that,” Crawley said. “But, I want to show up. I want to make sure everything is followed, every document is read, every policy, every contract that comes across, I think it’s really important for everyone around the table to know every detail of what’s happening, and to just keep showing up for the town.”
Crawley said her children are getting older and she wants to ensure the town’s water and roads infrastructure and recreation facilities and programs keep up with its growth.
“I just feel like there’s still work to be done,” she said.
Safety is another big issue, said Crawley.
“The ATV, dirt bike, off-road vehicle use, being on the roads, is one of the biggest issues facing the town,” she said. “Of course we had the accident there last week, a hit and run from a dirt bike and it’s awful. People are reeling from it and it’s not fun to walk around anymore on the sideroads because there’s ATVs tearing up and down. I am an avid ATV user myself, but it has to be responsible, it has to be respectable, and it seems like it’s going downhill here. But it’s not unique to Holyrood, that’s for sure. It’s everywhere.”
If she does make it, Crawley said she hopes to be a kind and empathetic mayor who listens to people and tries her hardest.
“I’m not perfect,” I know that,” Crawley said. “But I’m hoping that what I brought to school I can bring to here as well. It’s like I always tell my kids, I’m firm, but fun… I’m looking forward to it, if I get in.”
Goobie, meanwhile, is running on his record, and takes credit for the operational review and the resulting changes to management.
Goobie said the review was the top thing on his agenda when he campaigned four years ago.
After some 25 years on council, this latest campaign seems to have invigorated him again. And while Crawley is concentrating her campaign on social media, Goobie had a flyer in the mail to residents before the summer ended and was prominent after the Labour Day weekend banging down campaign signs on supporters’ lawns.
“I was out all day and got another dozen nailed down,” he said when reached last week. “People are calling looking for them and as fast as they come in, I’m trying to get them out, because this is a marathon, not a sprint, and there’s a process that has to be followed, because then I’ve got to start the door knocking. Holyrood, as you know, has grown in leaps and bounds and there’s a lot of homes, and so I’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but I’m working hard at it, as I always do.”
Goobie admitted he was approached to run provincially and federally, but decided to stay municipal. “My heart and my soul and my love is in Holyrood,” he said. “That’s my priority right now, it’s at the local level and to do my best along with a great council and staff in moving our town forward and making it an attractive place for more families to continue to move in, and to see more businesses here and to see our community grow… And things have been going very well over the past four years with this council, and a lot of changes have been made, positive changes to make things more efficient and effective, and that came through the operational review.”
Among the accomplishments of the last term that Goobie is touting is the provincial government’s decision to include Holyrood among three towns to get special funding to improve cellular phone infrastructure over the next five years. Goobie made complaints about poor cellular service a signature part of his last mandate repeatedly raising the issue at council and lobbying Bell Mobility for improvements.
“I remained steadfast on that, because during the last election, every second door I went to, when I asked for any issues that they had, it was cell phone, cell phone, cell phone (service),” Goobie said. “But I tell you, there was a lot of work, a lot of meetings, a lot of letters sent, and I said it over and over again to Bell Mobility, ‘We’re going to remain steadfast, we’re not going to relent until residents get some satisfaction.'”
Other things Goobie is taking credit for as part of the last council include upgrades, both completed and planned, to the waterline on Salmonier Line, the sewage treatment plant near the boardwalk, an extension to the boardwalk itself, a new water tank, new community centre, improvements to the festival grounds including a new gazebo, and improvements to a 2.2 km stretch of Route 60, from Wonder Years Daycare to Duff’s Straight, including new ditching and culverts with new pavement to come.
“When residents say, ‘You’re going back at it again,’ I say, I love the job, I love the job serving as mayor and I love the job representing the people and doing the best to my ability with the full support and partnership and collaboration of all my council and staff,” said Goobie. “And since I retired, it’s given me more time to focus on my job as mayor… I’m just totally dedicated to my town.”
Goobie said his experience has played a big role in helping Holyrood advance on so many projects.
“I’ve been around so long, I know the history of all the infrastructure and I know what needs to be done and that’s where we’re moving right now,” he said. “Experience is very important at this juncture in the town.”