UPDATED: Mayor to stay; newcomers Rye and Heaton win; Duff loses seat
By Kyra Hoggan
CORRECTION: The two new city councillors will not, as it says in the following story, be taking their chairs in Monday’s city council meeting but, rather, will be sworn in on Monday, Dec. 5. The Source apologizes for this inaccuracy.
Another election cycle is over, and two new city councillors will be taking their chairs at the council table this Monday evening.
An estimated 1,845 people (about 31 per cent of eligible voters) turned out to cast a ballot, re-electing incumbent Deb McIntosh with 1,281 votes and newcomer Dan Rye with 1,194.
Only five votes separated the next three candidates, with incumbent Russ Hearne taking 977, incumbent Kevin Chernoff getting 974, and newcomer Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff netting 973. Incumbent Gord Turner was re-elected with 860 votes.
Incumbent Kirk Duff lost his seat by a margin of only 40 votes (he took 820), while the newcomers Tyler Maddocks, Peter Wulowka and Cord Lafond trailed the rest with 736, 606, and 437, respectively.
In the mayoral race, incumbent Mayor Lawrence Chernoff beat out challenger Gord Zaitsoff 1, 020 to 786, and the two new school district trustees will be Jo-Ann Bursey and Jen Carter. Incumbent Bev Maloff lost her seat by just 11 votes, with the three earning 1,079, 1,018 and 1,007 votes respectively.
Newly-minted city councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff was under the weather due to dental surgery, but rallied enough to tell The Source the secret to her successful election bid.
“What I did this year is, I really went door-to-door,” she said. “I knocked on over 600 doors during this campaign.”
She said she remains totally opposed to servicing the airport lands, but thinks she will work well with the other councillors and is raring to get started.
“I really want to re-image City Hall; make it more accountable and accessible,” she said, adding that she thinks the city could make more effective use of social media like Facebook and Twitter, and better engage our younger residents, and we have other options to engage our aged population, some of whom might not be comfortable with social media, like newspaper bulletins and e-newsletters.”
Councillor Dan Rye was also in a reasonably good mood at around 9:30 p.m.
“The first thing I did today was vote,” he said, admitting it was election day was a particularly long one for him. “I cleaned up the yard outside, put out decorations … it’s nerve-wracking, there’s no doubt about it.”
As for what’s to come?
“I’ve got a big job ahead of me,” he said. “A whole lot of people put their faith in me, and now I’ve got to prove they were right.”
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