Why I’m asking you to trust me with the responsibility of serving as Mayor of North Glengarry
Before you decide who should be the next mayor of North Glengarry, there are a few things I’d like you to know.
Why my family chose to make this community our home.
The life I’ve lived and the record I’ve already built.
What I’ve done since asking to serve.
What I’m hearing from you.
The principles that will guide every decision I make if I’m entrusted with serving this community.
Then decide whether I can be trusted to serve North Glengarry well.
Home
At North Glengarry’s 200th Anniversary celebration, one of the authors signing books asked me what he should write inside my copy.
I smiled and answered,
“Welcome home.”
Those weren’t just words for a book.
They were already how I felt about North Glengarry.
My wife and I chose to build our life here.
We built our home.
We built our farm.
We invested our future here.
North Glengarry became home.
Since this campaign began, I’ve come to understand this place differently.
I’ve travelled roads I had never travelled before. I’ve stood at crossroads where communities once gathered. I’ve learned the names of hamlets I had never heard of.
People have opened family albums, sent me old photographs and newspaper clippings, corrected me when I got something wrong, and told me stories that might otherwise have disappeared.
Through all of it, I keep discovering the same thing.
North Glengarry is much more than the places we see on the municipal map.
It is Alexandria and Maxville, but it is also the farms, concessions, hamlets and crossroads between them.
It is the people who have been here for generations and the people who arrived more recently and decided, as my family did, to call this place home.
That matters to me.
Because this is where my family lives, works, and dreams about the future.
My Record
People have asked me throughout this campaign:
“Victor, what’s your platform?”
It’s a fair question.
And we are getting there.
But before you trust anyone’s promises, look at what they’ve already done.
Over the years, I’ve built businesses, started organizations, led teams, managed budgets, and worked alongside hundreds of employees and volunteers.
In 2020, I sold my share in one of the companies I had built.
Before I walked away, I shared part of the proceeds with the employees who helped build it.
None of us builds anything alone.
I could have stayed longer and made more money.
I didn’t.
I’ve never believed the last dollar is worth sacrificing the things that matter most.
My wife and I invested what we had into building our farm and our home here in North Glengarry.
When we were able, we paid off our debt because I’ve always believed unnecessary debt limits freedom and future choices.
Long before business, I spent years working with street children and in humanitarian service here in Canada and in other parts of the world.
Today, I’m Chair of the Friends of the Glengarry Trails Association.
I sit around that table with people who have their own opinions, their own experiences, and their own reasons for being there.
We don’t agree about everything.
Why would we?
My job isn’t to make everybody think like me.
We have work to do together, so we figure out how to do it.
Throughout my life, I’ve tried to make decisions that put people ahead of profit, stewardship ahead of personal gain, and responsibility ahead of recognition.
That’s not a promise.
That’s my record.
Judge me by it.
What I’ve Done Here
When this campaign began, I said I wanted to listen before I started telling North Glengarry what North Glengarry needed.
So I started sitting.
Kitchen tables.
Farms.
Businesses.
Community events.
Coffee shops.
Community halls.
Sometimes with a room full of people.
Sometimes with one.
Some people tell me,
“Victor, you’re running for mayor.”
And I still smile and answer,
“No. I’m not running. I’m sitting.”
But I understand something more about that sentence now.
Sitting isn’t passive.
If you actually listen, it changes what you know.
People have sent me looking into questions I hadn’t considered. They’ve introduced me to parts of this township I barely knew. I’ve talked with people who support me, people who support somebody else, and people who haven’t decided anything yet.
I’ve asked questions I didn’t know the answers to.
And when I don’t know, I’m learning that one of the most important things I can say is:
“I don’t know. Let me find out.”
Then go find out.
When questions came up about the 2022 council recordings, I asked the municipality.
When I received the answer, I brought it back publicly.
It was a small thing.
But I think that is how this should work.
Ask the question.
Get the facts.
Bring the answer back to the people.
That is part of what openness means to me.
What I’m Hearing
I said I would listen.
So here is some of what I’m hearing.
I’m hearing from people in smaller communities who sometimes wonder whether the municipality remembers they are there.
I’m hearing from business owners who aren’t only asking how we attract new businesses. They’re asking what we are doing to keep and support the businesses already here.
I’m hearing from farmers about land, costs, regulation, and what it takes to keep agriculture alive for another generation.
I’m hearing from younger people and families wondering whether they will be able to afford to build a life here.
I’m hearing questions about roads, infrastructure, recreation, and taxes.
I’m hearing from people who want to understand municipal decisions before they are made, not simply hear about them afterward.
And I’m hearing something else that matters deeply in North Glengarry.
French and English.
Different histories.
Different communities.
Different experiences.
But one township.
None of that means everybody agrees.
They don’t.
And I don’t expect them to.
Listening isn’t about finding the answer that makes everybody happy.
It is about hearing the people who will have to live with the decisions we make.
These conversations are shaping the priorities I will bring forward before Election Day.
Not because I arrived with all the answers.
Because I said we would build this together.
How I’ll Govern
Rebuilding Trust
Before we talk about roads, budgets, recreation, housing, or growth, there is something underneath all of it.
Trust.
Trust isn’t built by promises.
It’s earned.
It’s earned when people understand how decisions are made.
It’s earned when public money is handled with the same care families use in their own homes.
It’s earned when people can ask a difficult question without being treated like a problem.
And trust is also about fairness.
I believe our bylaws have to mean something.
Standards have to mean something.
But I also believe we have to remember that there is a person on the other side of them.
We don’t always know what is happening in somebody else’s life.
Maybe they’re struggling financially.
Maybe there is illness in the family.
Maybe there is something happening that none of us can see.
Those two things don’t have to fight each other.
We can expect people to take responsibility and take pride in our community while still treating one another like neighbours.
Find out what is happening.
See whether there is a way to help.
And when a bylaw needs to be enforced, enforce it fairly.
That is the kind of municipal government I want us to build.
Open with its finances.
Open with its decisions.
Open with its bylaws.
Fair in how it treats people.
And willing to admit when it gets something wrong.
What would help you trust your municipal government more?
The Council Table
I’ve also learned much more about the actual job of mayor.
A mayor doesn’t govern alone.
The people elect a whole council, not one voice.
That matters.
Every person elected to that table has been given a responsibility by the people who put them there.
There are also municipal staff who bring professional knowledge and experience to the work.
There are the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.
There is Queen’s Park.
There are laws, responsibilities, and limits on what a municipality can and cannot do.
A mayor has to work with all of them.
That doesn’t mean avoiding difficult decisions.
I’ve had to make difficult decisions throughout my life.
But I’ve learned that you had better understand the decision, and who it affects, before you make it.
Listening has never meant being afraid to decide.
When the time comes to make a difficult decision, make it.
Then be prepared to answer for it.
What would make you feel that your voice was being heard before a decision was made?
Stewardship for the Families Who Come After Us
Every decision we make today becomes someone else’s tomorrow.
Our responsibility isn’t simply to maintain North Glengarry.
It is to leave it stronger than we found it—for the families who are here today and the families who come after us.
Some decisions will be easy.
Others won’t.
And there are things I cannot promise you.
I cannot promise that every road will be fixed immediately.
I cannot promise that every business we would like to attract will come here.
I cannot promise that every problem can be solved by the municipality.
And I certainly cannot promise that every decision council makes will make everybody happy.
A mayor does not control all of those things.
What I can promise is the work.
I can listen.
I can ask questions.
I can do the homework.
I can tell you what I know and admit when I don’t know.
And when a decision has to be made, I can make it and accept responsibility for it.
I can promise the sowing.
I cannot promise the season.
Before making the decisions that come across the council table, I want to keep asking one simple question:
Will this leave our community stronger for the families who come after us?
If the answer is yes, we’re probably moving in the right direction.
If the answer is no, then we owe one another a better conversation.
What should we never lose—and what should we have the courage to change?
Before You Decide
I began by saying there were a few things I wanted you to know.
Why my family chose to make this community our home.
The life I’ve lived and the record I’ve already built.
What I’ve done since asking to serve.
What I’m hearing from you.
The principles that will guide every decision I make if I’m entrusted with serving this community.
I’ve tried to let my life speak for itself.
Not perfection.
Not a polished campaign.
Just the way I’ve tried to live.
I don’t believe North Glengarry needs someone to come in and save it.
There are good people already doing good work here.
I believe it needs leadership that can bring those people together, ask difficult questions, make responsible decisions, and remember who we are serving.
So now I’m asking you to decide whether I can be trusted to serve North Glengarry well.
And if, after reading this, talking with me, questioning me, disagreeing with me, and watching how I conduct myself, you believe the answer is yes, then I am asking for your vote for Mayor of North Glengarry on October 26.
Until then, keep asking me questions.
Challenge me.
Disagree with me.
Tell me what I’m missing.
Or simply come and talk.
Come sit with me.
Because the listening isn’t finished.
And if I am entrusted with serving as your mayor, it shouldn’t finish on Election Day either.
Whatever happens on October 26, I’ll keep returning to the same question:
Will this leave our community stronger for the families who come after us?
North Glengarry became our home.
It would be an honour to serve it.
Welcome home.
— Victor Brassard
I’ve now set out the first things I’d bring to the table. You can read them on my;
Where I Stand page. https://victorbrassard.ca/where-i-stand/
If you want to talk, here’s how to find me.
Facebook: Victor Brassard – North Glengarry Campaign email: vbprestige@gmail.com Campaign phone: 514-961-3061
Voting: Advance online and telephone voting begins October 19, 2026. If you need help voting or registering, the Township office at 3720 County Road 34, Alexandria, can assist during advance voting. Election Day is Monday, October 26, 2026. The Township has now posted voting times, locations and advance voting details. You’ll find everything on the Township’s election page.
To check that you’re on the voters’ list, contact the Township at vote@northglengarry.ca or 613-525-1110.
For full and current voting information, visit the Township of North Glengarry municipal election page.