DeBoer is back in for another term on council

November 7, 2014 · 0 Comments

Nick deBoer

By Bill Rea
When he declared he was going to seek a fourth term on Caledon council some months ago, Nick deBoer said there were still some things he wanted to finish.
With last Monday’s election results, he’s got four more years to deal with them.
DeBoer was easily re-elected to his fourth term as area rep for Wards 3 and 4 (Albion and Caledon East), taking more than two-thirds of the vote in a three-way contest.
According to official figures released by the Town of Caledon earlier this week, deBoer got 3,137 votes, good for 67.29 per cent of the total. Doug Maskell came in second with 1,086 (23.29 per cent), and Romeo Jack Barbosa trailed with 439 (9.42 per cent).
DeBoer was on hand in the council chambers at Town Hall to see the returns come in, and his was among the first races to be decided.
“I appreciate the support that the community gave me again,” he commented.
He’s going to have to get used to some new colleagues on council, and deBoer lamented the defeat of a couple of his long-time colleagues; namely Richard Paterak and Richard Whitehead, pointing out they’ve done a lot for Caledon (the defeat of Patti Foley to Annette Groves was not known at that point).
“An election is an election,” deBoer observed. “Both of them need to be congratulated for what they’ve done for the community.”
Maskell said he wasn’t too surprised with the way things turned out.
“I kind of anticipated that, as a first-time candidate,” he commented.
He added he thought he did well as a rookie against a “long-time, life-long incumbent.”
“I certainly learned a lot through the process,” Maskell observed.
He said he received a great response as he made his way through the community during the campaign, but added the voter turnout was not enough to accomplish change. It was less than 35 per cent in this race. “That’s not enough to unseat an incumbent,” he remarked.
Maskell plans to give it another try too.
“I’ll be back in four years,” he said. “Now it’s game on!”
Barbosa admitted he was disappointed with the results.
He also said he plans to run again.
“Maybe I’ll try a little different way,” he said, like taking his message directly to everyone.
DeBoer was quick off the mark, taking a strong lead out of the advance poll, which was held at Caledon Community Complex in Caledon East. He collected 574 votes there, or 75.53 per cent of the total cast. As far as the rest of the polls are concerned, in percentage terms, deBoer was in the high 60s or 70s, with the exception of the station at St. Nicholas Elementary School. He just got a majority of the votes there; 357 of the 707 cast. The poll was the strongest one for Maskell, as he got 194, good for 27.44 per cent. Barbosa did well there too, with 156 votes (22.07 per cent).