2010 Ontario municipal elections explained

Municipal elections were held in Ontario, Canada, on October 25, 2010. Voters in Ontario elected mayors, councillors, school board trustees and all other elected officials in all of the province's municipalities. A total of 444 elections were held.^[1] Several smaller municipalities in Northern Ontario held no council elections, as their entire councils were acclaimed into office, although the towns still saw contested elections for their school board seats.^[2]

Voting date

Notwithstanding advance polling arrangements, municipal elections were held on the fourth Monday of October. From 1978 until 2006 the second Monday of November was the fixed date.

Nomination period

Candidate registration opened on January 4, 2010 and ended on September 10.

Term lengths

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario legislation (Bill 81, Schedule H), passed in 2006, sets the length of terms in office for all municipal elected officials at four years.

Campaigns in major cities

The Toronto municipal election saw an open contest for mayor, due to the retirement of David Miller after two terms. In Ottawa, former MPP and Mayor Jim Watson ran against incumbent Larry O'Brien, who was cleared of bribery charges in 2009.

Some media, including a Sudbury Star editorial which was republished in several other Sun Media newspapers, noted the seeming emergence of a Tea Party mentality in some parts of the province, with a number of self-styled "outsider" or populist candidates - including Rob Ford in Toronto, Joe Fontana in London, David D'Intino in St. Catharines, Rob Matheson in Kingston, Ron Schinners in Sault Ste. Marie and Marianne Matichuk in Greater Sudbury - campaigning on platforms that traded heavily in mistrust of the existing municipal governments.^[3]

Single tier municipalities

Brant County

Mayoral Candidate http://www.brant.ca/ourcounty/elections2010_candidates.shtml	Vote	%
Ron Eddy (X)	3,187	33.65
Steve Comisky	3,048	32.18
John Weaver	1,695	17.89
Roy Haggart	1,155	12.19
Shawn Pratt	387	4.09

Brantford

See main article: 2010 Brantford municipal election.

Chatham-Kent

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20101022061737/http://www.chatham-kent.ca/council+and+administration/mayor+council+and+cao/municipal+elections/candidates/Candidate+List.htm	Vote	%
Randy Hope (X)	13,169	40.87
Tom McGregor	10,956	34.00
Ian McLarty	6,608	20.51
Austin Wright	765	2.37
Mary Kwong Lee	549	1.70
Allan R. Traylor	171	0.53

Greater Sudbury

See main article: 2010 Greater Sudbury municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate	Vote	%
Marianne Matichuk^[4]	25,042	46.1
John Rodriguez (X)^[5]	19,819	36.5
Ted Callaghan^[6]	7,298	13.4
Derek Young	1,432	2.6
Zack Gauthier	390	0.7
Dennis Gorman	167	0.3
Ed Pokonzie^[7]	102	0.2
David Popescu	96	0.2
Total valid votes	54,346

Haldimand County

Mayoral Candidate http://www.haldimandcounty.on.ca/OurCounty.aspx?id=14150&ekmensel=c580fa7b_130_573_14150_5	Vote	%
Ken Hewitt	6,984	44.6
Marie Trainer (X)	5,748	36.7
Buck Sloat	2,929	18.7

|-!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Candidate!colspan="3"|Popular vote|-! Votes! %! ±%|-| style="background-color:#FFFFFF;" || style="text-align:left;" | Craig Grice (incumbent)| style="text-align:right;" | 1,578| style="text-align:right;" | 41.43%| style="text-align:right;" | n/a|-| style="background-color:#FFFFFF;" || style="text-align:left;" | Gary McHale| style="text-align:right;" |1,097| style="text-align:right;" |28.8%| style="text-align:right;" | n/a|-| style="background-color:#FFFFFF;" || style="text-align:left;" | Bryan Barker| style="text-align:right;" |933| style="text-align:right;" |24.5| style="text-align:right;" | n/a|-| style="background-color:#FFFFFF;" || style="text-align:left;" | Rob Duncan| style="text-align:right;" |177| style="text-align:right;" |5.27%| style="text-align:right;" | n/a|-| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" |Total Votes| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |3,809| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |100%| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" ||-| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" |Registered Voters| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |8,090| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |47.08%| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |n/a|-| style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" |Note: All Haldimand County Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan.
Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)
and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates.|-| style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" |Sources: Haldimand County Clerk's Office|}

Hamilton

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20100820030102/http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/CorporateServices/Clerks/MunicipalElection/Nominated+Candidates.htm	Vote	%
	52,684	37.32
	40,091	28.40
Fred Eisenberger (X)	38,719	27.43
	2,892	2.05
Tone Marrone	1,052	0.75
Mahesh P. Butani	950	0.67	-	Glenn Hamilton	949	0.67
Pat Filice	768	0.54
Ken Leach	577	0.41
Andrew Haines	557	0.39
Mark Wozny	433	0.31
Steven Waxman	429	0.30
Edward H. C. Graydon	404	0.29
Gino Speziale	356	0.25
Victor Veri	313	0.22

Kawartha Lakes

Mayoral Candidate http://www.city.kawarthalakes.on.ca/city-hall/office-of-the-city-clerk/election/list-of-uncertified-candidates	Vote	%
Ric McGee (X)	13,850	47.78
Andy Letham	12,722	43.88
Lynne Boldt	2,417	8.34

Norfolk County

See main article: 2010 Norfolk County municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate http://www.norfolkcounty.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=721&Itemid=119	Vote	%
Dennis Travale (X)	11,018	66.24
Clarence Wheaton	5,615	33.76

Ottawa

See main article: 2010 Ottawa municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate	Vote	%
	131,258	48.70
Larry O'Brien (X)	64,853	24.06
	40,147	14.89
	18,904	7.01
Mike Maguire	6,617	2.45
Robert Gauthier	1,413	0.52
Jane Scharf	1,169	0.43
Charlie Taylor	1,125	0.42
Cesar Bello	926	0.34
Idris Ben-Tahir	729	0.27
Samuel Wright	371	0.14
Robin Lawrence	300	0.11
Joseph Furtenbacher	299	0.11
Sean Ryan	360	0.13
Julio Pita	265	0.10
Robert Larter	219	0.08
Michael St. Arnaud	200	0.07
Daniel J. Lyrette	166	0.06
Vincent M. Libeshya	122	0.05
Fraser Liscumb	104	0.04

Prince Edward County

Mayoral Candidate http://www.pecounty.on.ca/government/council/elections2.php#mayor	Vote	%
Peter Mertens	3489	33.18
Sandy Latchford	2327	22.13
Monica Alyea	1828	17.38
Lori Slik	1203	11.44
Gordon Fox	1073	10.20
Paul Boyd	593	564

Toronto

See main article: 2010 Toronto municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20100129010723/http://app.toronto.ca/vote2010/findByOffice.do?officeType=1&officeName=Mayor	Vote	%
	380,201	47.098
	287,393	35.602
	94,840	11.749
	4,973	0.616
George Babula	3,242	0.402
Rocco Achampong	2,781	0.345
Abdullah-Baquie Ghazi	2,746	0.34
Michael Alexander	2,452	0.304
Vijay Sarma	2,233	0.277
	1,876	0.232
Jaime Castillo	1,862	0.231
Dewitt Lee	1,685	0.209
Douglas Campbell	1,420	0.176
Kevin Clarke	1,400	0.173
Joseph Pampena	1,308	0.162
David Epstein	1,198	0.148
Monowar Hossain	1,186	0.147
Michael Flie	1,178	0.146
	1,023	0.127
Weizhen Tang	885	0.11
Daniel Walker	795	0.098
	794	0.098
Michael Brausewetter	791	0.098
Barry Goodhead	736	0.091
Charlene Cottle	730	0.09
Tibor Steinberger	729	0.09
Christopher Ball	690	0.085
James Di Fiore	649	0.08
Diane Devenyi	627	0.078
John Letonja	587	0.073
Himy Syed	576	0.071
Carmen Macklin	565	0.07
Howard Gomberg	472	0.058
David Vallance	442	0.055
Mark State	433	0.054
Phil Taylor	425	0.053
Colin Magee	397	0.049
Selwyn Firth	392	0.049
Ratan Wadhwa	288	0.036
Gerald Derome	249	0.031

Regional municipalities

Counties

Bruce

See main article: 2010 Bruce County municipal elections.

Dufferin

See main article: 2010 Dufferin County municipal elections.

Elgin

See main article: 2010 Elgin County municipal elections.

Essex

See main article: 2010 Essex County municipal elections.

Frontenac

See main article: 2010 Frontenac County municipal elections.

Grey

See main article: 2010 Grey County municipal elections.

Haliburton

See main article: 2010 Haliburton County municipal elections.

Lanark

See main article: 2010 Lanark County municipal elections.

Leeds and Grenville

See main article: 2010 Leeds and Grenville United Counties municipal elections.

Lennox and Addington

See main article: 2010 Lennox and Addington County municipal elections.

Peterborough

See main article: 2010 Peterborough County municipal elections.

Prescott and Russell

See main article: 2010 Prescott and Russell United Counties municipal elections.

Renfrew

See main article: 2010 Renfrew County municipal elections.

Simcoe

See main article: 2010 Simcoe County municipal elections.

Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

See main article: 2010 Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties municipal elections.

Wellington

See main article: 2010 Wellington County municipal elections.

Separated municipalities

Barrie

Mayoral Candidate http://www.barrie.ca/WCMAdmin/Images/wwwbarrieca/bylaws_pdf/Webversion%20of%20nominations%20received.pdf	Vote	%
	13,562	39.2%
	9,650	27.9%
Rob Hamilton	5,140	14.8%
Mike Ramsay	4,507	13%
David Aspden (X)	1,249	3.6%
Harry Ahmed	304	0.8%
Carl Hauck	115	0.4%
Darren Roskam	68	0.3%

Belleville

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20100924053555/http://www.city.belleville.on.ca/CityHall/Election%202010/Pages/ListofCandidates.aspx	Vote	%
Neil R. Ellis (X)	10,081	75.09
Mitch Panciuk	2,825	21.17
Lonnie D. Herrington	350	2.62
Graham K. Longhurst	149	1.12

Brockville

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20100211045433/http://www.city.brockville.on.ca/index.cfm?ID=526	Vote	%
David L. Henderson (X)	2,718	33.6
Ben Tekamp	2,553	31.6
Louise Severson	2,093	25.8
Robert A. Marleau	393	4.8
Hannelore Walther	328	4.0

Gananoque

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20101029204613/http://www.townofgananoque.ca/siteengine/ActivePage.asp?PageID=149	Vote	%
Erika Demchuk	1,260	68.6
James E. Garrah (X)	577	31.4

Guelph

See main article: 2010 Guelph municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20100418025728/http://guelph.ca/vote/index.php/archives/37	Vote	%
Karen Farbridge (X)	14,902	54.1
David Birtwistle	10,576	38.4
Ray Mitchell	1,182	4.3
Scott Nightingale	878	3.2

Kingston

Mayoral Candidate https://web.archive.org/web/20110613171929/http://www.cityofkingston.ca/cityhall/press/release.asp?mode=show&id=2938	Vote	%
	17,096	56.4
Rob Matheson	6,905	22.8
Barrie Chalmers	5,486	18.1
John Last	377	1.2
Nathaniel Wilson	227	0.8
Kevin Lavalley	215	0.7

London

See main article: 2010 London, Ontario municipal election.

Mayoral Candidate http://www.london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Elections/candidatelist_mayor.htm	Vote	%
Joe Fontana	48,626	47.2
Anne Marie DeCicco-Best (X)	46,089	44.8
Cynthia Etheridge	4,402	4.3
Eric Southern	644	0.6
Ivan W. Kasiurak	612	0.6
Christopher R. Foerster	462	0.4
Aaron Broughm	427	0.4
Wayne Ford	375	0.4
Zak Young	298	0.3
Stephen Elliott Beckles	252	0.2
	234	0.2
Dan Lenart	173	0.2
Tom Ha	149	0.1
Ma'in Sinan	128	0.1
Jonas Richard White	83	0.1