Michelle Hooton

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Michelle Hooton is a New Brunswick politician. She is currently the deputy mayor of Saint John (New Brunswick's largest city) and was a candidate for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in a by-election for the riding of Saint John Harbour held on November 14, 2005.

Hooton was first elected to Saint John's "common council" on May 10, 2004. Common Council consists of 10 councillors elected at large. Hooton received the most votes of any candidate which, by convention, earned her the designation of deputy mayor. Hooton received 13,192 votes, the next best candidate receiving 9,336. The tenth place finisher, and therefore the lowest vote getter to be elected to council, received 6,188 votes.

Hooton gained province-wide name recognition when she became a vocal opponent of a property tax break being given to Irving Oil for the construction of a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal. Hooton later introduced a motion to recind the tax deal, but council voted for the proposal again. She was not infavour of the secret negotiations that led to the deal and felt it should have been shared with the public. She later stood with the Mayor at a press conference and said it was now time to move on.

Hooton entered the by-election as a Progressive Conservative, the party of Premier of New Brunswick Bernard Lord. Hooton and Lord have been connected for some months and he invited her as part of a small group of municipal leaders to a retreat at the government's fishing lodge Larry's Gulch resort during the summer of 2005. Though Hooton has stated she was courted by both the PCs and the opposition Liberals, she chose the Conservatives stating her values were more inline with this party. The media have long speculated she would be a Conservative should she run for provincial office. Hooton began the race considered the frontrunner but in the end lost the race by more than a 2 to 1 margin to Liberal candidate Ed Doherty. It was widely viewed as more a judgement against Bernard Lord than Hooton who did not even manage to hold the vote total obtained by the PCs in the previous general election.