Newmarket election night live 2018: John Taylor wins mayor's race

Voters choose Tom Vegh for regional council

Yorkregion.com
October 23, 2018
Lisa Queen

More than a decade after his father retired from Newmarket’s top political job, John Taylor has become the town’s new mayor-elect.

Taylor, who has been regional councillor for 12 years, celebrated his win over competitor Joe Wamback at the Newmarket Legion on Srigley Street.

His father, Tom, who was mayor from 1997 to 2006, joined his son on the stage after the results were announced.

“Obviously, this is incredibly exciting and a lot has gone into this over many, many years. More than four and more even than the last several months,” he said

 “First of all, I want to start by saying a genuine thank you to the people of Newmarket, the many people who voted for me, put their trust in me to do this job. I won’t let them down, I won’t let anyone down. We will be working hard from day one.”

He vowed that council will live up to the trust residents have put in them.

Former Ward 1 Councillor Tom Vegh is Newmarket’s new regional councillor, taking 8,570 votes.

“I’m feeling terrific about the win. It’s going to be an exciting term of council,” he said.

Regional council challengers Chris Emanuel got 7,952 votes, while Joan Stonehocker received 2,688 votes.

In Ward 1, where there was an open race with Vegh running for regional councillor, the new councillor is Grace Simon.

She took 2,082 votes, compared to 1,014 for Naqi Ahsan and 337 for Rohit Singh.

Ward 2 went to Victor Woodhouse, who served two terms on council in 2000 and 2006. He beat Bill Kukulewich, who had 1,041 votes.

Incumbent Councillor Jane Twinney was easily returned in Ward 3, with 1,645 voters casting ballots for her, compared to 608 for Jack Zangari.

In the three-way race in Ward 4, Trevor Morrison was the winner with 1,052 votes. Grant Waddell got 497 votes and Melissa Williams got 891 votes.

Ward 5 incumbent Councillor Bob Kwapis was returned to office with 2,201 votes, compared to Ron Eibel, who got 806 votes.

There was no race in wards 6 and 7, with incumbent Councillor Kelly Broome being acclaimed in the former and incumbent Councillor Christina Bisanz being acclaimed in the latter.

Linda Gilbert dethroned longtime public school trustee Martin Van Beek. She got 5,705 votes to his 4,817. Bessie Vlasis received 2,501 votes and Kristine Carbis took in 1,413 votes.

Mayoral candidate Talib Ansari withdrew from the race, but still managed to get 294 votes.