Controversial former Vaughan mayor Linda Jackson seeking council seat

She once survived call by entire council for her resignation

Yorkregion.com
July 16, 2018
Tim Kelly

Linda Jackson, the former mayor of Vaughan who was trounced in the 2010 election by the current holder of the office, Maurizio Bevilacqua, has thrown her hat back into the election ring in Vaughan.

Jackson, whose four-year term as mayor, from 2006 to 2010, was dogged by controversy and even calls for her to resign by fellow councillors, has officially filed nomination papers for the position of Vaughan regional councillor.

Jackson, who also once said she wanted to pull up in a front-end loader to city hall to clean up the wrongdoing there, became an official candidate July 12 for the Oct. 22 election.

She joins sitting councillors Mario Ferri, Gino Rosati, Sunder Singh and challenger Fred Winegust for the three positions on regional council that are elected at large. The mayor also sits on regional council for Vaughan.

As of early July 16, no one has stepped forward to seek the position of mayor.

The deadline for nominations is 2 p.m. on Friday, July 27.

Jackson, the daughter of Vaughan’s long-serving mayor Lorna Jackson, and a former regional councillor before she was elected mayor, has a turbulent political past.

She made headlines late in the past decade for, among other things:

• Surviving a “mutiny” of sorts when her entire council very publicly demanded she resign

• Faced withering criticism over expenses including $100 bottles of wine and fancy meals;

• Faced city hall investigations over accusations of leaks and anonymous documents

• Was embroiled in a years-long court battle with rival Michael Di Biase over the outcome of the 2006 municipal mayoralty election

• Battled her own city over allegations she broke Municipal Elections Act charges

The above are just a sample of many more issues Jackson had in her one term as mayor.

She paid for all the troubles with a devastating defeat at the polls, to Bevilacqua, who romped to a 35,000-vote plurality in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. Jackson chose not to run in the previous election.

Controversy continued to dog her in the years following the end of her political career, as her daughter, Lindsey Coutts, was charged in 2012 with drug and gun charges that were stayed in 2017 after they took 53 months to get to court.