Outgoing Owen Sound Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners may stay in the political arena after all.
Lovell Stanners chaired her last City Council meeting last week.
But Lovell Stanners confirms she has been asked by the provincial Liberal party to consider running again under its banner.
Lovell Stanners says she was contacted the day after last month’s municipal election by a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty.
The ruling Liberals currently have no candidate in the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound riding for the 2011 provincial election, which will take place next October.
Lovell Stanners was a city councillor when she ran previously for the Liberal party, in the 1999 election. She lost that election to incumbent Progressive Conservative MPP Bill Murdoch.
But Murdoch will retire next year after 21 years at Queen’s Park, leaving the race wide open to succeed him.
The Conservatives have nominated Bill Walker to represent them in the upcoming election.
Lovell Stanners says the Liberal overture is just one of a number of offers she has to become involved in various activities.
But she’s decided to wait until after Christmas to determine what she’ll do next.
Whatever it is, Lovell Stanners says, she’ll remain active in community life.
Lovell Stanners will officially give up the mayor’s job in Owen Sound on December 6th when Councillor Deb Haswell is inaugurated as her successor.
She says she has a number of wonderful memories of her time as a member of Owen Sound council – 16 years, including the last seven as mayor.
And she hopes she will be remembered as a conscientious mayor who worked hard and cared for the city’s ratepayers.
