General News

Allan Thompson will be next mayor of Caledon

October 31, 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Allan Thompson will be the seventh mayor of the Town of Caledon.
Thompson, 53, collected 7,822 votes in Monday’s municipal election, according to figures (still unofficial) released by the Town. That was good for 48.48 per cent of the total vote .
Former councillor Ian Sinclair was second with 3,091, followed by Gary Cascone with 2,898 and former councillor Nancy Stewart with 2,199. Bolton resident George Niras had registered to run, but stopped his campaign with a couple of weeks to go. His name remained on the ballot, however, and he collected 123 votes.
Thompson is going to see some new faces at the council table, especially at the Regional seats.
Johanna Downey took the seat as Ward 2’s representative on Peel Regional council, the seat Thompson vacated to run for mayor.
In Ward 1, Barb Shaughnessy defeated veteran incumbent Richard Paterak. In Wards 3 and 4, Jennifer Innis topped veteran Richard Whitehead. And in a close contest in Ward 5, Annette Groves frustrated Patti Foley’s bid for a second term as Regional rep by just 79 votes.
As far as the area council races were concerned, it was a good night for the incumbents. Doug Beffort, Gord McClure, Nick deBoer and Rob Mezzapelli were all returned for another term.
Only figures for Caledon were available at press time, but they put Frank Di Cosola in the lead for another term as trustee for Caledon and Dufferin County on the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.
Thompson spent the first part of the evening in the Council Chambers in Town Hall waiting for results to be reported. They were slow coming in, with the first results going on the screen shortly before 9 p.m. They had Thompson with a little more than 50 per cent of the vote, and he hovered around that figure the rest of the evening. But by 9:30, it was pretty obvious that he had won.
Thompson then moved to the Royal Ambassador Event Centre, where he entered his victory party, accompanied by his family, with the band playing For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.
“The team did it,” he told his supporters .
But he also stressed there is a lot of work still to be done.
“I’ve heard it loud and clear that we have to change a few things, and we will do that,” he declared, adding they will imporve customer service through a team approach.
Thompson expressed appreciation for the work over the years of the councillors who were defeated, and welcomed the new faces on council.
“We’ve all been elected by the people, and it’s my job to make it work, and we will make it work,” he promised. “The big word is ‘we.’”
One promise, which he said had not been in his platform, was to bring high-speed internet to Caledon, and he said he was going to be working on that. He stressed the importance of helping people who want to work from home.
“That’s what the public wants,” he said. “We, as the public, need it.”
There are going to be other things requiring the attention of council.
“I think the election was the easy part,” he told the crowd. “We now have work to do.”
“Together, we’re going to do great things here in Caledon,” he added.
Sinclair had been at Town Hall watching the results come in, and was there to congratulate the victor.
There was no sign of bitterness in his voice as the results of the election became clear.
“Allan is highly liked by a lot of people, including me,” he commented.
He also observed the number of new faces on council will be a good thing, although he agreed it will take some sorting out.
“I’m hoping for some more friendliness from council overall, and I’m hoping they don’t pick disastrous fights with developers,” he added.
Sinclair also had words of praise for his campaign team, but acknowledged he wasn’t too surprised by the outcome.
“I knew I was running second the whole time,” he said.
Cascone, who spent the evening in Bolton, was almost philosophical in his reaction.
“It is what it is,” he remarked, adding the results were what the voters wanted.
“I wish Allan the best,” he said. “He’s a nice guy.”
“No bitter grapes. None of that stuff,” he added. “When you run for public office, you have to respect the wishes of the people.”
Addressing the council races, Cascone said he wasn’t surprised to see Shaughnessy’s election.
“I think Barb Shaughnessy is a really terrific choice,” he declared.
He added he knew the race between Groves and Foley was gong to be close.
Cascone also said this will be his last campaign.
“Entrepreneurs very rarely do this,” he explained.
Efforts to contact Stewart by phone were unsuccessful, but she did email a statement to the Citizen Tuesday.
“I consider last night a win for myself and supporters,” she stated. “I entered this campaign barely six weeks ago because I care deeply about the future of Caledon.”
“With my track record of taking on difficult projects and succeeding, I wanted to offer the voters of Caledon an alternative,” she added. “To tackle the current problems with large tax increases, communication and red tape, and move Caledon in the right direction. To provide a full and frank discussion of the issues. We accomplished that.”
“We did make a difference,” she concluded. “We take pride in that. I thank my supporters ever so much. I couldn’t have done it without them!”

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