Best Councillor

GOLD WINNER

Lindell Smith
website

SILVER WINNER

Tim Outhit
website

BRONZE WINNER

Tony Mancini
website

North end Halifax councillor Lindell Smith has won gold for HRM’s Best Councillor in his second term. Thirty-one-year-old Smith represents Halifax Peninsula North on council. He is a lifelong north end resident and co-founder of Center Line Studio, a non-profit recording studio for youth looking to express themselves through art and music. When he was first elected in District 8 in 2016 at just 26 years old, Smith was the first Black councillor to represent Halifax in 16 years. Smith is a very busy dude, serving as a member on more than 10 communities boards and HRM committees, including the North End Business Association, District 7 and 8 planning advisory committee, the Council on African Canadian Education and community advisory committee. The Coast received numerous requests to remove Best Councillor from this year’s vote. Some Haligonians expressed frustration with how the city has handled growing communities of unhoused people, and in particular the shelter siege. Our news coverage dives into this issue deeply, but for the Best of Halifax poll it didn’t feel right to change the ballot when voting was already underway. Instead, we recommended that Haligonians express their displeasure for council‚ and their contempt for the idea there might be any good people on council‚ by not voting in this category at all. If there was a major drop in voting numbers for this category, that would have been the story of the Best Councillor award, but online voters supported the category as strongly as ever. Halifax has affirmed Smith’s mandate as Best Councillor.