User:Big iron/Cain

Claudette Cain was the mayor in the city of Gloucester, Ontario from 1991 until 2001 when Gloucester became part of the city of Ottawa.

She graduated from Algonquin College and went on to work as an administrator with insurance companies and Canada Post. Before being elected to Gloucester council, Cain was an assistant to the council and a press secretary for the Carleton Separate School board. In 1991, Cain defeated incumbent mayor Harry Allen, in part due to an unpopular tax increase during Allen's tenure as mayor. She was able to reduce municipal taxes during her time as mayor. Cain also was part of a delegation of Ontario mayors in 1997 who secured a guarantee from then-premier Mike Harris that he would not drive up municipal property taxes by offloading costs to municipal governments.

Cain was originally a supporter of three cities as opposed to one in the Ottawa region. However, in the 2000 Ottawa municipal election, Cain ran for the position of mayor of the combined city but came second to Bob Chiarelli. During the campaign, Cain was criticized by Chiarelli for using city resources to seek support from voters. She also proposed discontinuing the practice of hiring female firefighters first in the new city, a policy in place at the time in the city of Ottawa, and introduce hiring purely based on qualifications for first responders, as well as establishing new community-based policing centres and investing in specialized crime investigation units. She also proposed that the National Capital Commission become more inclusive: including the Ottawa mayor on the board and opening board meetings to the public, measures that were later adopted by the NCC.

In 2001, she was appointed justice of the peace in the eastern region of Ontario.