- HRM Votes: Andy Fillmore’s Mayoral Office Likely To See Joanne Macrae As Chief of Staff
By Andrew Macdonald
You read it here first, folks: Joanne Macrae is likely to become Mayor-elect Andy Fillmore’s powerful chief of staff at Halifax City Hall.
Fillmore will be sworn in as Mayor of Halifax/HRM in early November.
Macrae served as Fillmore’s mayoral campaign manager – she has organized more political wins than losses.
Three wins for Fillmore as Liberal MP, and now a win as mayoral campaign manager. Only one loss among her batting averages was when she managed Iain Rankin’s narrow defeat in 2021 as premier of NS.
Macrae guards her age with secrecy, so much so, that when I wished her a birthday in November and disclosed her age, she blew up at me. For the record, she is younger than me, and I am in my 58th year.
No political slouch, Macrae managed Fillmore’s wins in 2015, 2019, and again in 2021, and has served as Fillmore’s chief of staff.
In 2019, she took a leave of absence to manage Fillmore’s second election win.
“Who else would I pick?” Fillmore told The Notebook when I asked if Macrae, would serve as campaign manager in 2019.
Joanne Macrae helped Andy Fillmore to four strong election victories as MP and now as HRM mayor. Notebook file photo
Back in 2015, Fillmore had a decisive win over Jhoanna Miners for the riding’s Liberal nomination, and MacRae also ran the nomination campaign which gave Fillmore a three-to-one victory.
Fillmore, then a bureaucrat with provincial Crown agency Waterfront Development Corp., took 327 votes to Miners’ 101.
In 2015, I noted, “It’s been said Fillmore coasted to an easy victory in large part because of the diligent work of his election campaign manager, Macrae.”
