TOWN OF MAHONE BAY COUNCIL

Mahone Bay Town Council consists of 7 members. A Mayor and six councillors (one of whom serves as Deputy Mayor). All members of Council are elected at large and represent the entire community, there are no polling districts.
Elections take place every four years unless a vacancy occurs, in which case a special election must be held.

Appointments: coming soon

Mayor Suzanne Lohnes-Croft
Having spent most of her life in Mahone Bay, Suzanne Lohnes-Croft is honoured to be Mayor of the Town she was raised in. After attending Mount Saint Vincent University and working briefly in HRM, she and her husband returned to Mahone Bay so that their three sons could grow up here, in the town they love.
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Suzanne has an extensive volunteer portfolio in the town and surrounding communities.  She has served in many capacities,  from planting  tress, grass and flowers with her family on Canada day, coaching sports and chairing the Town’s Sustainability Committee, to singing in choirs and serving on the boards such as the Mahone Bay Centre, Three Churches Foundation and Bonny Lea Farm. In 2010 she received the Provincial Volunteer Award for the Town of Mahone Bay. In 2013 she was nominated as a candidate for the position of Member of the Nova Scotia Legislature and served in that position until 2021. Suzanne received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medallion on October 1, 2022. Suzanne was elected Councillor, in a Special Election in November 2022 and elected Mayor in October of 2024. ​

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Deputy Mayor Colin Kingsmill

Colin was born in Winnipeg and raised between British Columbia and Switzerland. He spent 12 years living and working across Europe, and in 2022, he returned to Canada and settled in Mahone Bay with his husband.
 
Colin's academic journey is marked by his Triple Major at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and an MBA in International Finance and International Marketing at St. Xavier University's Milan campus.
 
Colin has worked in executive coaching and leadership development since 2018 and co-founded Whole Human Coaching.
 
Before coaching, he worked in destination real estate marketing and communications, starting with Intrawest Corporation. The first decade of his career was in financial services, based in Lugano, Switzerland.
 
Colin is a board member of the Mahone Bay Centre.

Appointments: coming soon
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Councillor Penny Carver

Born in Montreal, Penny raised her family in Ottawa, and worked as a teacher, educational consultant, and social worker. After many summers in Nova Scotia, Penny moved to Lunenburg County in 1995, settling in Mahone Bay in 2004. She has served on several community boards and one provincial board. She is a founding member of Mahone Bay’s “Talking Trees” and was co-lead of Mahone Bay’s award-winning 2024 Communities in Bloom project. Penny has two daughters and five grandchildren living in Halifax and Toronto.
 
Re-elected to a fourth Council term in 2024, Penny has served on many internal committees.  External appointments have included the South Shore Housing Action Coalition, Lunenburg County Seniors’ Safety Board, Municipal Joint Services Board, and the Lunenburg County Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Appointments: coming soon

penny.carver@townofmahonebay.ca

Councillor Joseph Feeney

Joseph Maxwell Feeney has been a resident of Mahone Bay since 1978 and has been a Town Councillor since 2016. He has long been interested in municipal affairs and is a keen observer of critical issues affecting the community, while watching his father serve as Mayor of the Town for six terms.

He was educated at Mount Allison and Dalhousie Universities and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. For the past sixteen years, he has worked with Bell Canada and its predecessor companies (Aliant, MT&T) finance departments and is currently the Senior Manager of Bell Canada’s Business Decision Support team that has responsibility to complete financial analysis on corporate investments and strategies. Previous to his time at Bell, he worked for the Provincial Government’s Department of Economic Development and the Nova Scotia Business Development Corporation.
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Joe and his wife Mary Ann have two daughters.

Appointments: ​coming soon

[email protected]

Councillor Bryan Palfreyman

Bryan was born in England, he attended Law School in London and then joined Barclays International. Having developed some wanderlust at the age of 21 he accepted a job offer from a major Canadian bank and relocated to Canada. His 40 year career was in head office Treasury, Economics and Law departments primarily involved in international trading and risk management, regulatory compliance and financial sector policy. During this period he passed the Investment Dealers exams and became a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers.

He has been President of a youth theatre company, Peoples Warden of a large church, President of a service club and Vice Chair of the Mahone Bay Centre. Presently he is Vice Chair of the Mahone Islands Conservation Association and has been a public member of the town’s Heritage Advisory and Planning Advisory Committees. He and his wife Anne feel fortunate to live in our friendly and charming town. 

​Appointments: coming soon

[email protected]
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Councillor Rebecca Twanow

Rebecca is a proud mother of five and a passionate member of the community, here she blends family life with her entrepreneurial spirit. As a first term councillor, Rebecca draws strength from the unwavering support of her family to drive initiatives that bring people together and promote sustainable living.

Rebecca brings diverse experience to her work, with a career spanning in office administration, business management, oil and gas industry, accounting, and hospitality.

Her versatile background and hands-on approach are matched by her family's shared values of teamwork, kindness, and a deep commitment to giving back to the community they love, ensuring that Mahone Bay thrives for generations to come.
 
Appointments: coming soon

[email protected]

Councillor Kelly Wilson

Kelly is a long time resident of Mahone Bay who, during the course of more than twenty years, has been an active volunteer in many community organizations and has had a previous role in municipal government as a councillor from 2012 to 2016 and 2020-2024.

A former operations executive in the food and beverage business Kelly has had the privilege of working in every province in Canada, except PEI, as well as assignments in southern Africa, Asia, and Australia. Kelly and his wife and partner of more than forty years share their home on the banks of the Mush-a-Mush River.
 
Appointments: coming soon

[email protected]