Mayor Peter Kelly will not run in fall election
Posted Feb 22, 2012 12:35:11 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HRM will have a new mayor this fall, as Peter Kelly has announced that he will not seek re-election.
Mayor Kelly, 55, said in a statement that he made his decision not to reoffer on Tuesday, after taking some personal time to reflect and to consult with his family.
“Being mayor has come with a cost,” he said in a news release. “Working more than 90 hours a week has taken its toll. My marriage has ended and it has been a strain on my family. I have always put the wellbeing of the municipality first but now it is time to give my family priority. I know that everyone will understand and respect my decision.”
Mayor Kelly said he has stumbled along the way, including in the handling of his duties as executor to the estate of his late friend, Mary Thibeault.
“I am not making any excuses,” he said. “Whatever problems have arisen have been because of my own tardiness and I am in the process of fulfilling her instructions. Everything is accounted for and will be distributed according to her wishes.”
“When you’re putting in more than 90 hours a week, it certainly takes its toll and you’re not able to focus on other issues other than the job at hand and other things certainly suffer in terms of family issues and certainly personal other issues that don’t get done,” said Kelly. “It’s time to make a change and clearly I think it important that I get out as soon as possible, and that’s why today I have made that point clear.”
“You sleep over here, and you sleep on the floor, and you get up the next day and you start all over again, time and time again,” Kelly said about his long hours at City Hall. “You’re losing focus in terms of what needs to be a work-life balance. I haven’t done that very well over my lifetime in politics, clearly. The point is one needs to step back and look at where one is and what is left on the horizon in terms of opportunities, and there are opportunities out there and one just has to make sure that it’s not only focused on one.”
