Andy Wells

Andrew Wells is the former mayor of the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. He graduated from Prince of Wales College in 1961 and later obtained a Bachelor of Arts History and Bachelor of Arts Education degree in 1966 and 1969, respectively. He was elected as a councillor in 1977, and has served on the St. John's city council since that time. He was first elected as the city's mayor in 1997, and was re-elected in 2001 and 2005. See Newfoundland and Labrador municipal elections, 2005. [http://www.stjohns.ca/cityhall/biography/wells.jsp]

Mr. Wells has attracted considerable media attention in Newfoundland and other parts of Canada due to his gruff, outspoken personality.

He appeared on the Rick Mercer Report as a nominee for "Craziest Mayor in Canada." He is noted for many scandals such as various insults to other council members.

In 1998, Wells flew the Tibetan flag as a protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet during a visit by a Chinese delegation.

Mayor Wells has also been the spotlight of controversy regarding neighbouring communities. He is famous for wanting to amalgamate it's sister city, Mount Pearl. His most notable saying is "bring it on, I have never backed down from a good fight".

In 2008, Wells was appointed Chair and Chief Executive Office of the provincial public utilities board, which oversees power, water, waste, etc. for towns and cities. Controversy arouse soon after when Wells refused to resign his position as Mayor, citing reasons such as higher costs for a by-election; or claiming no legislation against it. Many are citing a conflict-of-interest would be in place, and that Wells would not be objective is his decisions. Most of the controversy was settle however when on February 12 Premier Williams released a statement saying that while Williams still believed Wells could perform both tasks, he would be delaying Wells appoint until after he resigns as mayor.

February 19th 2008, Wells announced that he would step down from the mayoral position on March 3rd. Wells was attempting to delay his departure long enough so the city of St. John's would not have to run a by-election that Wells claimed would cost the city of $400,000.

On March 3rd, Andy Wells became head of the Public Utilities Board.