2 Vaughan incumbent politicians seek re-election in October municipal election

Vaughan Citizen
January 10, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The 2014 municipal election race has been unusually slow to get under way in Vaughan, but candidates vying for a spot on city council have started trickling in.

Regional Councillor Deb Schulte and Thornhill Councillor Alan Shefman filed their nomination papers this week, signalling their intention to seek re-election.

Ms Schulte garnered 20,593 in the 2010 municipal election, beating out 10 contenders, including veteran councillors Mario Ferri and Joyce Frustaglio, to grab one of three regional council seats.

Ms Schulte was a driving force behind the efforts to kill the casino in Vaughan during her first term on council.

She has also been a big proponent of making council more transparent, keeping urban sprawl in check, as well as promoting cycling and other forms of sustainable transportation.

Ms Schulte said that, if re-elected, she will continue pushing to keep taxes low “while providing high-quality services", improve transportation and ensure development in the city is “sensitive to the community’s needs and is done in concert with infrastructure".

“There’s a lot of really good stuff that still needs to be done and I’m only partly through what I was trying to get done when I got in here,” she said.

Mr. Shefman, meanwhile, was first elected to office in 2003.

In the last election, he bested his five opponents by garnering 5,561 votes, beating his closest rival, Gila Martow, by 1,282 votes.

Mr. Shefman said he’s seeking re-election because there are several projects he hopes to see through to completion, including upgrading parks in older areas of the city, creating the framework for a “prestigious” re-development of the Yonge St. and Steeles Ave. area to transform it into a “gateway” for the city and continuing to lobby for moving ahead with the Yonge St. subway extension, among other things.

“One of the fascinating things for me is the fact that, as I do this job and have done it over a number of years, there are always so many other things to do, so many undone projects, so many things that you want to do,” he said. “That’s what really drove me to run again is that there’s things that are still undone and I’m really, really hopeful to do them.”

No one has filed their papers for council’s top post yet, but Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua is widely expected to seek re-election.

Teresa Ciaravella, incumbent area 1 York Catholic District School Board trustee, was the first candidate to register for the local school board race, submitting her nomination papers opening day, Jan. 2.