With their selection of Francis Richardson for Mayor, Meaford voters elected to stay the course rather than roll the dice to take a chance with a fresh start on Monday night.
Richardson who was appointed to the position of Mayor mid-way through the current term of council after the resignation of former Mayor Wally Reif, beat out his opponent Jim McPherson by 291 votes.
Prior to the votes being counted Richardson was cautiously optimistic telling The Independent that he was confident in the way he had run his campaign.
“I'm very confident about the campaign, I did exactly what I wanted to do, I ran it the way I wanted to run it. I've done everything I could do and it's now up to the voters,” said Richardson.
After the results were posted on the screen of the opera house at Meaford Hall, Richardson supporters erupted with applause.
Richardson received 2,583 of the 4,875 votes cast for Mayor giving him 53 percent of the vote.
The number of votes cast for Mayor were significantly lower than in the 2006 municipal election when 5,752 votes were cast with Reif taking more than 70 percent of those votes.
Even with the narrow victory, Richardson was pleased with the results.
“I am pleased. I certainly wouldn't have wanted it to be very, very close because then you don't have any decision. It is clear enough with this decision that we can move forward and that's great,” Richardson told reporters after the results were made public.
Richardson ran a campaign that suggested that Meaford should stay the course and ride out the much debated five-year plan which was implemented in 2009 in an effort to address severe financial issues that had seen the municipality accumulate more than $3 million in deficits.
Richardson told The Independent on Monday night that he feels that economic development should be the primary focus of the newly elected council.
“One of the key issues of course is economic development. We desperately need to get more business into our area,” said Richardson who also said that he understands the concerns of many voters who are fearful that there will continue to be increases in their property taxes as part of the five-year plan.
“I have listened to the people that are out there that are concerned about the high taxes, and I'm not about to push the taxes any higher than they absolutely have to be. We'll be cutting things as much as we can, we'll find all the efficiencies we can,” offered Richardson.
Richardson's opponent was gracious in defeat and wished the new council luck.
“There is no question about the veracity of the vote. I recognize that the incumbent has won. It is always difficult to take on an incumbent, I accept the result,” said McPherson.
In 2006 Richardson received more than 3,200 votes for the position of Deputy Mayor, enough to beat out Harley Greenfield who this year succeeded in his bid for the position defeating Gerald Shortt by collecting 57 percent of the votes cast for Deputy Mayor.
Richardson and Greenfield will have a council for the coming term that will feature four new faces with the only returning council member being incumbent Lynda Stephens who placed fourth among the council candidates garnering nearly 2,400 votes.
Stephens was pleased to have been returned to council by the voters.
“I am very, very excited, and I am hugely humbled by the opportunity to have been chosen again,” Stephen told The Independent, “I look forward to four more years of being consistent, and moving forward.”
Of the five councillors elected, political newcomer Michael Poetker received the most votes with 2,768.
“I'm excited. I'm very gratified, and I am really looking forward to getting going,” said Poetker of his victory, “One of the things we have to do is to start rebuilding the respect level. But we have to give it to earn it.”
Poetker also said that he was pleased with the make-up of the newly elected council.
“I'm pleased with the people that will be on council, we have some people with experience, and we have some young blood, and that's very important. That's a good mix,” said Poetker.
The young blood Poetker was referring to is James McIntosh who at the age of 30 was the youngest candidate seeking a seat on council.
McIntosh finished second in votes for council and said that he is looking forward to serving his community.
“The first thing we need to do is to take the temperature, and decide what we need to tackle first. By the end of the four years hopefully there will be some major changes,” said McIntosh.
Rounding out the new council are Barb Clumpus who finished third in the voting with 2,572 voters throwing their support behind her, and Deborah Young who collected 2,001 votes.
Clumpus told The Independent that she is thrilled at the opportunity to serve as a member of council.
“I'm thrilled, I'm absolutely thrilled. It was a good run, a well run campaign. I'm thrilled with the [council] team, I think it bodes well for the future and I think we will accomplish a lot. I'm really excited,” said Clumpus.
Though she will be a new face at the Meaford council table, Deborah Young is a political veteran who has served as a Councillor and Reeve of the former Sydenham Township. Like Clumpus, Young was also eager to get to work as a member of Meaford council.
“I'm happy that I won. I think it will be an interesting four years. There will be a learning curve, but I am looking forward to it,” said Young who then joked “I have promised myself that I am going to say 'Bognor' at least once during each council meeting just so that everyone remembers where I'm from.”
In spite of the fact that there were 13 candidates for council this year as compared to 10 in 2006, far fewer votes were cast for those council positions in this election. In 2006 slightly more than 24,000 votes were cast for council candidates, while in the 2010 election there were only 19,276 votes.
Voter turnout data is not yet available, however given the 5,000 fewer votes for councillors combined with the 900 fewer votes cast for the Mayor's position and a similar decline in voting for Deputy Mayor, it would appear that overall fewer residents exercised their vote in this election.
The new council term begins on December 1st.
