MARTINIQUE - Carolyn Clackdoyle knows she is an unknown quantity in Richmond County's municipal election campaigns, but she is hoping that her life experience on either side of the Atlantic Ocean can propel her to victory in her first crack at public office. 

Clackdoyle's participation in the two-day Leadership School for Women this past August convinced her - along with encouragement from her daughter and her grandmother - to run for a council seat in District Two, which incorporates the eastern half of the community of Arichat and several portions of western and northern Isle Madame, as well as the mainland Richmond County community of Lennox Passage. 

A graduate of Isle Madame District High School, where her parents taught for several years, Clackdoyle feels her previous stints as a planning strategist in different parts of Canada, the U.S. and France have prepared her for the tasks that would face her as a municipal councilor in Richmond County. She pointed to the county's last official strategic plan, as well as its recently-development Age-Friendly Strategy for the county's seniors, as municipal exercises that have not reached their full potential and could finally achieve reality with a steady hand such as hers at the council table. 

Clackdoyle also stressed the importance of having Isle Madame join forces with its "sister communities" on mainland Richmond County to develop such critically-needed industries as the tourism sector. Prior to the previous municipal election in 2016, Richmond councilors had approved a $6-million tourism funding strategy split between the municipal, provincial and federal governments, but council subequently voted 3-1 to abandon that strategy in the spring of 2017. 

In addition to Clackdoyle, the District Two race will feature fellow political newcomer Michael Diggdon and former councilor Gerry Bourque, who is attempting a political comeback after sixteen years away from the Richmond council table.