New faces

Council horseshoe will see nine newcomers later this year

After a long night where voting was extended by an hour due to an online glitch, the results are in and Steve Ferguson is the County’s new mayor. The Highline Hall in Wellington was packed and a-buzz with talk of how it would turn out. The Mayor’s race was tight right up until the end with Dianne O’Brien drawing a lot of support from her Ward. But Ferguson ended up the victor with 4,981 votes, or 50.17 per cent. O’Brien took home 4,043 votes, or 40.72 per cent of the popular vote, which shows how close the race really was. Richard Whiten came third with 904 votes and 9.11 per cent of the popular vote.

(L-R): Outgoing Mayor Robert Quaiff and his wife, Susan, congratulate mayor-elect Steve Ferguson and his partner, Mary Malone, after the election results were displayed Monday night at the Highline Hall.

Ferguson was thrilled with the results, but is ready to get down to business. “The councillors- elect Christmas present will be a six-inch thick binder of budget materials with a card saying ‘Have a good time with your friends and family, but come prepared in January,” he said.

Ward One saw a close race between Kate McNaughton and Phil St-Jean, with MacNaughton topping the poll. Both will recieve seats at council. Newcomer Mark Rose was a close third with 471 votes.

Ward Two saw Phil Prinzen and Brad Nieman earn their spots around the horseshoe with well-run campaigns.

In Ward Three, Mike Harper’s hard work paid off and he ended up on top with 822 votes. Jim Dunlop has left Harper with big shoes to fill, but for anyone anyone who knows Jim personally they know he’s nowhere near being through with giving back to his community.

Ward Four was a very tight race right to the end, with three seats up for grabs. Janice Maynard ended up retaining her seat, followed by Bill McMahon and Andreas Bolik. There were just 200 votes separating the top three candidates and fourth place. Terry Shortt was only 45 votes behind.

Ward Five sees Jamie Forrester come out on top, and Ward Seven had Ernie Margetson dethrone incumbent Steve Graham.

Ward Eight sees Stewart Bailey narrowly defeat David Harrison by just 50 votes and Ward 9 will have John Hirsch as their new councillor. Hirsch also had a nail-biter victory with Elis Ziegler coming in a close second by only 33 votes.

Alison Kelly defeated incumbent Dwayne Inch by a wide margin in the South School Board Trustee race. Kelly capped off the evening with 2,656 votes, with Inch only collecting 1,544.

This election sees a lot a fresh, new faces coming to Shire Hall, with some returning councillors to play a significant role with their experience.

The election saw 10, 032 ballots cast, which is up from the 2014 election numbers of 9,637.

Incumbents not re-elected include Barry Turpin, Gord Fox, Jim Dunlop, Roy Pennell, Steve Graham, David Harrison and Dianne O’Brien.