Vaughan mayor Bevilacqua retains city's top job in landslide victory

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 28, 2014
By Jeremy Grimaldi

Maurizio Bevilacqua had perhaps the widest margin of victory anywhere in York Region on election night 2014.

In all, the veteran politician who first rose to power with the federal Liberals in 1988, won by a landslide, beating the next challenger by more than 37,000 votes.

He entered his celebration headquarters at the Riviera Parque banquet hall on Hwy. 7 to rapturous applause and the Fleetwood Mac classic, Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.

"And so...here we go again," he said. "The work starts tomorrow. City-building is a labour of love. You can't build a city, country or a better world unless you're in it for the right reasons. Never forget your mayor will never leave anyone behind."

Among the honourable policy mentions in his speech were some major ongoing plans, including a Vaughan hospital, a subway stop, the 427 extension and a downtown core.

Bevilacqua said he would keep his eyes trained on the existing plans so as to not lose focus.

Other councillors, however, insist there remains issues that are not only clear, but pressing.

Among them are traffic, rising property taxes, and perhaps the most contentious issue, high-density development.

Maple/Kleinburg Councillor Marilyn Iafrate, who easily retained her seat with 42 per cent of Monday's vote, or 5,465 votes, brought one of these issues into sharp focus. She said that during her campaign, it was the traffic and congestion that brings the city to a halt weekday mornings and evenings that remains the top concern for residents.

"Not one person talked about the hospital to me," she said. "It was all about traffic."

The Ward 1 councillor said she has two main goals in the upcoming term: to help ease congestion, including assistance for the Kirby Road GO station and installing a centre-turning lane on Major Mackenzie between Keele Street and McNaughton Road.

"If a bus stops on Major Mackenzie, everyone has to stop. This can't continue," she said. "It not only results in congestion, but it results in people cutting through sub-divisions, this has to stop."

As for the Kirby GO station, she said she wants to do everything in her power to help Metrolinx have the station built in order to help keep between 400 and 500 cars out of the area each day.

In reference to her campaign, she said she was proud of her constituents after she increased her margin of victory from 43 votes to almost 2,000 over former provincial Conservative candidate and nearest challenger Peter Meffe.

"I'm just happy that residents had faith in me," she said. "Someone spent a lot of money twisting things and attacking me and my family. I'm just pleased people looked past that."

In all, she said five separate political attack flyers were mailed out, two separate rounds of robocalls to residents, along with a Youtube video that called into question her reputation.

"I even had a death threat," she said.

She added that one detail she is keen to protect from last term's council was the sense of co-operation. it is something, in fact, that Bevilacqua has helped foster since taking the helm of Vaughan's top job in a landslide victory in 2010.

"We were doing things for the betterment of the community as a whole, rather than focusing on our own wards and boundaries," she added. "I hope that continues."

Meanwhile, when asked about affordable housing, Bevilacqua said that council needs to work hard to ensure the community doesn't let anyone "slip through the cracks".

In reference to a question about development, he said Vaughan will aim to have about 40 percent green space to balance growth.