The town of Hudson is mourning the death of their mayor, Ed Prévost. He passed away on Tuesday at 76.
He had been battling a serious illness for years. The flags were at half mast at the Hudson legion on Wednesday in his honour.
“We’re proud of him and we’re sad to see him go,” said legion treasurer and longtime friend, Ted Poulin.
“He was such a nice man. We’ll miss him,” said Hudson resident Janet Ellerbeck.
At the Carousel Restaurant, Patricia Halford remembered him fondly as she waited for her breakfast.
“I think it’s a real shame that Ed passed away. He was a kind man. He treated every citizen with honour,” she told Global News.
Many remember him as a good mayor.
“He was doing a good job. A great job. I’d go to the council meeting every month for the past four years and he did a good job” said Ellerbeck.
Prévost had often been absent from his duties in recent years because of his deteriorating health.
“Ed had been ill, seriously ill in the past couple of years, so it didn’t really come as a major shock,” said My Local Journal columnist James Parry.
Parry said though Prévost’s politics weren’t liked by everyone in Hudson, he was a good person.
“He was a gentleman. He was an honourable gentleman. You can’t say that about every politician,” Parry told Global News.
The road wasn’t easy for Prévost after he was elected in 2013.
“We were proud of him. Very nice guy. God darnit he went through a lot of hell,” said Poulin.
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Prévost took over as mayor in a time of turmoil for Hudson. It had just been discovered the former city manager had stolen over $1 million from the town. Some believe the stress of dealing with the fallout contributed to his illness.
“I think the job killed him,” Ellerbeck said. “When he became mayor he was good-looking, plump, a really healthy-looking man. He took on that job. He inherited a nightmare.”
Prévost’s old curling buddy Poulin thinks he’ll be remembered as the man who brought Hudson through the storm.
“The man who put the place in order, because we had a hell of a lot of problems,” he said.
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