Lorraine Bergstrand

Lorraine Bergstrand was the inaugural mayor of Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada. Ms. Bergstrand helped Haldimand County make the transition from county to single-tier municipality. During the late 1990s, she lobbied strongly to get a 400 series highway to connect to or come close to Haldimand County. Ms. Bergstrand is also running as a Liberal candidate for Haldimand-Norfolk in the 2007 Ontario general election against Toby Barrett, Steve Elgersma, and Jan Watson.
Background
Lorraine was married to Randy Bergstrand in 1974, and they have lived together in the town of Dunnville, Ontario since 1977. She entered politics in 1989 as a councillor for Dunnville.
Prior to being elected as the mayor of Haldimand County, Ms. Bergstrand served as the mayor of Dunnville. She has also served in various other political positions, including regional councillor for Haldimand-Norfolk region. She has also held a number of positions in the private sector.
2000-2003 Term in office
As the first mayor of the newly created municipality, she was influential in organizing the administration of the amalgamated region and developing positive relations with the provincial government .
She was instrumental in bringing more Long Term Care beds to Haldimand County while at the same time taking the burden for those beds from the property tax base. Haldimand County is now the recipient of three new Long Term care facilities while the property tax burden for those beds was drastically reduced .
Ms. Bergstrand with the unanimous support of her council also passed a progressive but unpopular anti-smoking by law . A similar province-wide anti-smoking law was later passed by Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and made effective on June 1, 2006 at 12:01 AM.
Ms. Bergstrand was defeated by Marie Trainer in the and the .
Lorraine Bergstrand was hired in July 2008 by the Haldimand Norfolk Literacy Council as their Executive Director and has made significant changes since joining the organization.
They recently relocated their head office to an accessible building at 47 Robinson St in Simcoe, Ontario. A recent fundraiser, the Sweetheart Dinner & Auction raised over $13,000 in one evening.
Trillium has approved a grant request in April 2009 for $60,700 to hire a Partnership Development Coordinator for 18 months.
At the 2009 Annual General Meeting for the Haldimand Norfolk Literacy Council the auditor reported that the literacy council's two years of deficits had been reversed and the literacy council reported a surplus for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Awards
Bergstrand received several awards for her efforts to combat smoking, including the Heather Crowe award .

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