WINGHAM, ONT. -- Come Saturday, Randy Roppel will take over as the new mayor of the Municipality of Kincardine.
“As of last night and with the resignation of Anne Eadie, yes I will be the acting mayor,” says Kincardine’s current deputy mayor.
Mayor Anne Eadie shocked her fellow councillors Wednesday night by resigning effective this Friday.
“My season as mayor is coming to an end. I’m resigning as mayor effective April 9, 2021,” she said during Kincardine’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
She didn’t give a reason for her abrupt departure and did not respond to requests for answers Thursday.
Roppel says he was surprised as anyone.
“I have no idea what the reasoning is. Did she talk to me about it before reading the letter last night, no, she did not,” he says.
Eadie has been Kincardine’s mayor since 2014. Before that she was deputy mayor, and spent 2003 to 2010 on nearby Huron-Kinloss council.
“I have tried to do my little bit of good here on Kincardine council, and encourage others to do the same for the municipality, now and in the future,” said Eadie during her resignation speech.
Roppel says, “We all have sleepless nights in this racket and when you get older, it gets to you. You get whispered in your ear, it’s time to go, so she said it was her time to go, so out she went. I respect her decision."
Kincardine council will decide whether Roppel will continue as mayor until the next election in Oct. 2022, or if a byelection will be called, at their next council meeting on Monday night.
“I have no ill feelings about having the ball dropped in my lap. I’ll accept it, and if council deems they want me to be the mayor, I’m more than willing to grab ahold of the reins and drive forward,” says Roppel, who takes over as mayor from Eadie on Saturday.
