Former Liberal MPP Bill Mauro will be the new mayor of the City of Thunder Bay. Mauro edged Frank Pullia, finishing with 13,940 votes, while Pullia had 13,178. Iain Angus and Shane Judge finished well back of the top two.
Peng You surprised many people with huge support for the At Large race with over 20,000 votes. Aldo Ruberto, Trevor Giertuga, Rebecca Johnson and Mark Bentz captured the other four spots.
In the Ward races, among the veterans not back at City Council are Linda Rydholm in Neebing and Joe Virdiramo in Westfort.
Andrew Foulds, who has been re-elected in Current River, says his top priority will be pushing for money to fix the dam in his ward.
City Clerk John Hannam says there were delays with decrypting the online voting results which caused over an hour delay in releasing any results.
Voter turnout today was high at 50.8%. Of those votes cast in the City of Thunder Bay, Hannam says close to 63% were cast online or by telephone.
Other communities like Sudbury, Timmins and Peterborough have had issues and in some cases may keep the polls open tomorrow to give everyone a chance to cast their ballot.
Early results indicate almost 32,000 people voted electronically. In the last municipal election, the total votes cast was around 37,000.
Bill Mauro tells us he will hit the ground running setting up some important meetings over the next several weeks.
He says he wants to meet with both outgoing mayor Keith Hobbs and City Manager Norm Gale prior to the swearing-in ceremony in December to get caught up on city business.
Mauro is no stranger to City Council, having served as the Northwood Councillor until he decided to run for the provincial Liberals.
Although he didn’t take home the top prize, Frank Pullia says he’s pleased with the amount of votes he garnered and speaks to the strong team he had.
Pullia feels he was up against some very strong contenders and a large field of candidates.
Below is Pullia’s concession speech.
It was another disappointing mayoral bid for Shane Judge, as he finished in fourth place behind Iain Angus and Frank Pullia.
Judge believes he didn’t stand a chance with what he calls the Liberal Party Machine behind Bill Mauro.
The mayoral candidate credits Mauro for having a well-run campaign, even though he entered the race late.
Judge believes he “had no real chance” to keep up with the financial backing Mauro seemed to have.
As for the voting system itself, Judge believes the city has to revisit electronic voting because of the delays in counting.
Newcomer to City Council Peng You is overwhelmed by the number of votes he received for Councillor At Large.
You tells us he wants to make the community a better place for everyone.
You came to Canada as an immigrant in 1990, and campaigned on diversity, business development and determination.
Meanwhile, there’s a new Councillor for Westfort.
Kristen Oliver tells us she heard first-hand through canvassing what the voters want her to address.
Oliver is the Executive Director of the regional municipal association.
Joe Virdiramo is congratulating her, saying he’s pleased to see a number of new faces in the lead, and adds he doesn’t plan to make a future run for Council.
There was another upset in Neebing ward, with Linda Rydholm conceding.
Rydholm lost her seat to Cody Fraser.
Fraser is entering his third year of law school at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law.
He tells us he wasn’t expecting to win, but notes he’s ready to get down to work.
Fraser adds he wants to be the voice of youth on Council.
In the At Large race, three-term Councillor Larry Hebert conceded his spot before all results were in.
He echoes Virdiramo, saying it’s good that so many new faces appear to be coming to Council, and he’s looking forward to spending more time with his small business.
He notes there are a number of issues he would like to see resolved this term, like the Boulevard Lake Dam.
Shelby Ch’ng finished with a lead of around 1,600 votes to keep her Northwood Ward seat.
Meanwhile, in Red River Ward, Brian McKinnon returns for a fourth term.
Boys and Girls Club official Albert Aiello finished the night as the new McIntyre representative.
Another new face is Brian Hamilton, elected to McKellar Ward with a nearly 700-vote lead.