MARKHAM VOTES: Frank Scarpitti re-elected as mayor

2 new regional councillors elected

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 25, 2022
Irene Wong

It seems not yet time for change in Markham.

Frank Scarpitti won his fifth term as mayor, garnering 44,172 votes, besting fomer regional councillor Don Hamilton, who received 24,469 votes.

Scarpitti did not host a reception tonight. The result was finally announced two hours after voting closed at 8 pm. Markham Economist and Sun reached out to Scarpitti on Skype at 11pm and he picked up the call in his suit.

"Right from the beginning of the campaign, people kept asking me, are you worried about your opponent? And obviously, tonight, the results speak for themselves,” he said. “I want to say thank you for that, because what you saw today was a validation of the hard work, the leadership. I'm proud of the leadership I provided as mayor of Markham.”

Hamilton didn’t get the win and lost his regional seat, but he’s looking forward to some sleep, some golfing and maybe something “next term”.

“There's always a good plan for the next time.”

Hamilton’s regional and deputy mayor seat was won by Michael Chan, the former Liberal provincial cabinet minister. He topped a list of 11 running for four regional seats with 30,095 votes. Incumbent councillors Jim Jones won a seat with 26,578 votes and Joe Li ranked third with 25,823 votes. The fourth seat went to Alan Ho, with 24,735 votes, who made the jump from Ward 2 councillor.

There are two new faces took over the eight ward council seats, with Ritch Lau (3,012 votes) in Ward 2 and Juanita Nathan (5,388 votes) in Ward 7.

Incumbent Keith Irish (6,095 votes) won Ward 1, Reid McAlpine (5,007 votes) in Ward 3, Karen Rea (8,563 votes) in Ward 4, Andrew Keyes (5,120 votes) in Ward 5, Amanda Yeung Colucci (4,921 votes) in Ward 6 and Issa Lee (6,549 votes) in Ward 8.