Vaughan municipal election, 2006
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The City of Vaughan 2006 Municipal Election took place on 13 November 2006. One mayor, three regional councillors and five local councillors have been elected for the city of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. In addition, local school trustees have been elected to the York Region District School Board, York Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest and Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud. These elections were held in conjunction with all other municipalities across Ontario, which for the first time elected politicians to four year terms, rather than three years as was previously the case. (see Ontario municipal elections, 2006).
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[edit] Results
The 2006 municipal election in Vaughan saw a number of major upsets and a number of other close races - contrary to past results in the city elections. Many of the incumbents were expected to be unseated, although all but one was re-elected.
[edit] Mayor
In the Mayoral race, former Regional Councilor Linda Jackson unseated incumbent Mayor and former Regional Councilor Michael Di Biase. This is the first time since the incorporation of the City of Vaughan that an incumbent mayor has been defeated. Jackson takes the place of her mother, Lorna Jackson who held the position before she succumbed to cancer prior to Di Biase's tenure. After the final results came in, Di Biase called for a recount due to the extremely close result [1]. However, he later called off the recount and filed an application for an injunction in the Ontario Superior Court requesting that the election be declared “illegal and void” [2] for a number of reasons including faulty vote-counting machines.
[edit] Regional Councilors
With Jackson no longer serving as a Regional Councilor, only two incumbents ran for that position, Mario Ferri and Joyce Frustaglio. In a surprise result, Frustaglio took first place in the race, making her the Deputy Mayor, a post held since Di Biase became Mayor by Mario Ferri. The third position was filled by a former Local and Regional Councillor, Gino Rosati.
[edit] Local Councilors
All five Ward Councilor positions were won by the incumbents, despite all of the incumbents facing intense challenges and many were expected to be unseated, often from former city staff or councilors.
- In Ward 1 incumbent Peter Meffe faced two former employees and was easily re-elected obtaining the highest number of votes among all candidates across the city.
- Ward 2 saw incumbent Tony Carella re-elected with another large margin, despite strong challenges from well-known candidates, former councilor Frank Cipollone or community activist Deb Schulte. In
- Ward 3 Incumbent Bernie DiVona was re-elected in much the same situation was Carella.
- Ward 4 When popular former Thornhill MPP and cabinet minister Tina Molinari registered as a candidate for on the last day of nominations, many people thought she would easily coast to victory over incumbent Sandra Yeung-Racco. When the dust settled, Yeung-Racco was re-elected, despite being the incumbent this was considered to be the biggest upset of the election.
- Ward 5 saw another near-upset and was the closest councilors race in the election, incumbent Alan Shefman was challenged by former councilor Bernie Green and community activist Elliott Frankl in a race that many saw as the most divisive of the local councilor races.
Following the election, much criticism has been leveled at City Clerk John Leech and his staff. Despite promises that results using the new electronic ballots would be fully available within one hour of the polls closing, full results were in fact not available until approximately 11:00pm, three hours following the close of the polls.
[edit] Potential issues
- Construction of the Thornhill Wal-Mart Mall
- Corporate donations to members of council
- Lack of a public hospital
- Mayoral and councillor salaries
- Traffic Gridlock
- New $96.3 Million Civic Centre construction, contracts and costs
[edit] Candidates
The outcome of this election is pending a Superior Court of Ontario ruling [7].
[edit] Mayor
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Linda D. Jackson | 28,396 | 47.3 |
| Michael Di Biase (incumbent) | 28,306 | 47.2 |
| Paul Stewart | 2,645 | 4.4 |
| Savino Quatela | 637 | 1.1 |
[edit] Regional Council
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Joyce Frustaglio (incumbent) | 30,202 | 22.6 |
| Mario Ferri (incumbent) | 26,855 | 20.1 |
| Gino Rosati | 26,129 | 19.6 |
| Robert Craig | 17,136 | 12.9 |
| Joanna Cacciola-Lionti | 11,876 | 8.9 |
| Richard T. Lorello | 7,525 | 5.6 |
| Adriano Volpentesta | 5,843 | 4.4 |
| Franco Cavaliere | 5,779 | 4.3 |
| Quintino Mastrogiuseppe | 2,037 | 1.5 |
Because Joyce Frustaglio received the highest vote count of the candidates for Regional Councillor, She becomes the Deputy Mayor.
[edit] Local Council
[edit] Ward 1
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Meffe (incumbent) | 6,706 | 48.7 |
| Marylin Iafrate | 5,122 | 37.2 |
| Mary Ruffolo | 1,945 | 14.1 |
[edit] Ward 2
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Tony Carella (incumbent) | 6,359 | 43.6 |
| Frank Cipollone | 3,786 | 25.9 |
| Deborah Schulte | 2,751 | 18.9 |
| Aurelio E. Acquaviva | 907 | 6.2 |
| Mario Di Nardo | 486 | 3.3 |
| Paul Donofrio | 291 | 2.0 |
[edit] Ward 3
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Bernie DiVona (incumbent) | 5,344 | 47.9 |
| Rosanna De Francesca | 3,883 | 34.8 |
| Paul De Buono | 1,942 | 17.4 |
[edit] Ward 4
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Sandra Yeung-Racco (incumbent) | 3,695 | 41.2 |
| Tina Molinari | 2,869 | 32 |
| Joe Levy | 1,435 | 16 |
| Vernon Hendrickson | 970 | 10.8 |
[edit] Ward 5
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Shefman (incumbent via by-election) | 2,944 | 38.4 |
| Bernie Green | 2,732 | 35.6 |
| Elliott Frankl | 1,291 | 16.8 |
| Yehuda Shahaf | 706 | 9.2 |
[edit] Withdrawals
- Mario G. Racco (nomination withdrawn from Ward 4 on Jan. 20)
- Aurelio E. Acquaviva (nomination withdrawn from Ward 1 on Aug. 15, moved to Ward 2)
- Robert Craig (nomination withdrawn from Mayor on Aug. 28, moved to Regional Councillor)
- Stan Grabowski (nomination withdrawn from Ward 2 on Sept. 27)
- Gino Ruffolo (nomination withdrawn from Mayor on Oct. 2)
[edit] References
- ↑ Vaughan Citizen article on election
- ↑ Vaughan Citizen article on mayoral candidates
- ↑ Globe and Mail report on Municipal salaries
- ↑ Urquhart, Ian. "MPP pay remains a thorny issue", Toronto Star, May 29, 2006.
- ↑ Vaughan Citizen article "Online clash packs big 'byte'"
- ↑ Toronto Star article on Go Vote Vaughan about releasing names of contributors prior to election day
- ↑ York Region article on Corporate Donations to members of council
- ↑ Vaughan Citizen follow-up to the 'online clash' Wikipedia story
- ↑ Toronto Star article Ending GTA traffic gridlock tops wish list for seething motorists
- ↑ Debate heats up over corporate donations
- ↑ Toronto Star, Vaughan election heats up already
- Toronto Star, Trying to Avoid the Tender Trap
- ↑ New mall to mimic community; Wal-Mart to get Main Street facelift
[edit] Trivia
- An article on website Wikipedia entitled "Vaughan municipal election, 2006" was cited as an issue in the campaign; the Vaughan Citizen newspaper has, to date, published two articles about opposing allegations of politically biased edits to this article.
- The 2006 Vaughan municipal election has the largest percentage of female candidates (27.3%) in the province. Nine out of thirty three candidates are women. It is possible for women to win every seat with the exception of one of the regional council seats and the Ward 5 council seat although it is still possible for men to win every seat.
- The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that Mayor Di Biase receives a salary of $164,074 per year, making him one of the highest-paid municipal politicians in the country. * The mayor of the largest city in Canada, David Miller of Toronto, which is over ten times the size of Vaughan in terms of population, receives $143,635 per year. The average salary of Vaughan councillors is $102,657, compared to Toronto councillors at $85,497.
