Rita Kalmbach was the first
mayor of
Norfolk County and the widow of
tobacco farmer Emil Kalmbach; Emil died from
Parkinson's disease while on vacation to
Mexico.
[1] She was first elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2003 after defeating 21-year-old political neopyhte Brian Decker by a wide margin. Her tenure as the 1st mayor of Norfolk County expired on January 1, 2007 and she has retired into private life.
During her tenure as mayor, she prevented the municipality from passing a county-wide smoking ban. However, she failed to prevent a province-wide smoking ban from being put into place that officially began on June 1, 2006 at 1201 AM.
