Election sees a few changes at city hall

Newly elected councillor Sean Lawlor(l) and newly elected mayor Al McDonald both congratulate each other on their election wins Monday.

With the exception of Al McDonald being elected as the city's new mayor there was little change made around the city council table Monday night as eight of the 10 incumbents were re-elected.

McDonald regained his title 'Landslide Al' capturing 86.62% of the vote (13708 votes).

He tipped his hat to his opponents, Valerie Chadbourne who captured a distant second place with 9.79% (1549 votes) of the vote and Harvey Villneff in third place with 3.60% (569 votes) of the votes, saying it takes guts to put your name forth and stand for election and applauds both for running a good campaign.

He says he is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work starting with the budget process as well as repairing relationships with senior levels of government. McDonald also says his top priorities are instituting an environmental task force to address the city's park lands and develop strategies to address the issue of youth and drugs in the city.





Meanwhile, new kid on the block Sean Lawlor gave Peter Chirico a run for his money for the deputy mayor's chair with the incumbent edging out Lawlor by just 109 votes. Chirico captured 9854 votes while Lawlor received 9745 votes.

“What I was hoping for was to get on council and I'm really pleased with this result,” says Lawlor.

The son of former North Bay Mayor Stan Lawlor Sr. the young Lawlor says the name recognition certainly didn't hurt his campaign.

“Name recognition plays a factor for the incumbents and I think it can play a factor for the newcomers as well. My father's involvement in municipal politics I don't think hurt me. But I campaigned a lot on my record and what I've accomplished over the last 5 to 10 years working with some great groups like the chamber, the Frisbee league, Hands the Family Health Network and I think that played into it as well.”

Rising star Tanya Vrebosch-Merry, who came in 11th during the last municipal election and replaced Maureen Boldt after her request for a leave of absence due to her house arrest was denied in January 2008, shocked everyone with a third place finish.

"I'm absolutely in shock. I'm completely speechless," she tells BayToday.

“I was just saying to someone I'm so honoured, but I'm terrified at the same time. Coming in the top three is a huge responsibility, huge pressures but I'm ready for it and I know staff will be there and my fellow councillors will be there like they have been for the past three years that I have been on. And I've talked to them and they are all ready to support me on it. it's a big job but I am ready for it.”

Incumbent Dave Mendicino had a slight increase jumping two spots from a sixth place finish in 2006 to fourth place Monday.

“I'm ecstatic to be back a third time, I feel very fortunate the voters have seen fit to bring me back in,” he tells BayToday of his win.

“I guess I'm an even number type of councillor, I started out my first term in second, my second term as sixth and now fourth so I'm very, very happy with that. I feel fortunate because the fourth gets the chance to be the vice chair of whatever committee they want and I've already decided I will be vice-chair of Community Services.”

“That's my passion I started work there in 2003/2004 and I want to continue that work. So I'm very happy.”

Also moving up the council ladder is incumbent Chris Mayne who jumps from eighth spot to fifth. Mayne says there are a lot of great candidates so he kept up with campaigning and is happy the electorate gave him the nod.

“I look forward to staying involved and speaking to the issues that I think are important for the next four years.”

“I count six people on council now who would support incoming Mayor Al McDonald's moratorium on the development on park space. So that's significant and I look forward to that being off the table not something that people are concerned with. There are simply more appropriate areas for residential development in the city,” he adds.

Sliding down a few notches to the middle of the pack are Judy Koziol in sixth place followed by Mike Anthony in seventh and Mac Bain rounding out the middle in the eighth position.

Returning to the table after a four year rest in the ninth spot is veteran politician George Maroosis.

“I'm very happy to be back with sort of a new perspective and new energy. I think it is a great group of people and I'm going to try out a new mayor too, he's one in a long line that I've worked with.”

“I think what it is is that you don't have all of the inside information and you aren't also chasing little squirrels across the path which sometimes you do when you are on council. Sometimes you can't clearly see the community perspective which is what I think happened at Tweedsmuir Park, because I told a number of my friends on council there was no compromise on that park and cautioned them about it. A couple of them followed my advise and a couple did not.”

Daryl Vaillancourt managed to hold on to a seat sliding into 10th place which leaves Sarah Campbell and Tom Graham out in the cold.

Final results breakdown: Click Here.