Familiar faces to represent Thornhill

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 29, 2014
By Simone Joseph

There is nothing like the feeling of being a candidate waiting for results on election night.

“It is a surreal feeling,” said Markham Thornhill Councillor Valerie Burke Monday night. “There is so much work put in, it is an emotional roller coaster,” she said.“I am raring to go. My enthusiasm is at a high.”

If only Vaughan voters felt the same enthusiasm.

Voter turnout for the 2014 municipal eection in Vaughan was 30.28 per cent, down from 40.54 per cent in 2010.

The number of ballots cast was 57,749, down from 71,148.

That included 7,139 votes for Vaughan Thornhill Councillor Alan Shefman.

“I’ve got my life back,” Shefman said.“I am more than a bit awed by the support I have gotten from the community I’ve lived in for 32 years. I feel appreciative that my community once again elected me.”

Shefman wants to continue efforts to bring the subway up Yonge Street.

“I am excited by rapid transit coming to the community. It is great. We will have rapid transit linking us to the new subway,” he said.

Which big issues does he want to tackle?

“We have got to get the hospital built,” he said. Shefman also wants to further develop Yonge Street (including the Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue area, for example). Center Street has historic homes. He wants to make the area even more attractive with benches and new lighting.

Thornhill Ward 4 Sandra Yeung-Racco was also re-elected and clearly thrilled by Monday night’s outcome.

“It gives me a good feeling,” she said.“It is satisfying to see the results.”

It has been a tough year, said Yeung-Racco, who also ran earlier this year in both a provincial byelection and a general election.

“I don’t have to think about elections for four years,” she said.

Yeung-Racco wants to develop the downtown and wants to create a performing arts and design cultural campus.

On the Markham side of Thornhill, incumbent Howard Shore did not have success and fell short in his re-election bid.

A re-drawing of Markham’s municipal boundaries pitted Shore against fellow incumbent and eventual winner Valerie Burke.

Burke won easily over Shore, whose legal problems were well documented in the last term of council. With all 21 polls reporting, Burke had 7,055 votes to Shore’s 2,815.

It was clearly not a battle he wanted to fight as he contested the merging of Markham’s Thornhill wards from two wards to one.

“Over the past several years, Thornhill has seen its representation on Markham council reduced from three to two and now a single representative,” Shore wrote in a Facebook posting. “After consulting with ratepayer associations from both Wards 1 and 2 and residents generally, I formally challenged council’s decision. While unfortunately we were not successful, I am proud to have stood up for Thornhill and fought what I know and have no doubt was a flawed process, which failed to meet the terms of reference council originally set out.”

Shore also said one major all-candidates debate in the ward was insufficient, adding he tried to set up a discussion evening with Burke at Thornhill Community Centre.

“The venue was available on multiple occasions. I didn’t hear from Burke,”

Shore said.

Burke believes Shore wanted a one-on-one debate because of how poorly he was received at the Sept. 18 multi-ratepayer group debate, when he was the subject of heckling from the audience.

That debate was sponsored by several local residents associations, including Ward 1 South Thornhill Residents Inc., Grandview Area Residents Association, Bayview Glen Residents Association, German Mills Residents Association, and others.

After the event, Shore posted a letter on his Facebook page smearing her, Burke said. After that, she was less than enthusiastic about joining him for a debate, she says.

As for Shore, he says it’s too soon to speculate if Markham politics is in his future.

For now, Shore dreams of time spent on a sandy beach, accompanied by more than four hours per night of sleep.

And Burke? She is ready to serve. One issue in particular she hopes to deal with is long council meetings.

Burke believes they take her away from the very residents she is meant to serve.

“There have been times when we have been in meetings for 12 hours. Residents appreciate speaking directly to councillors ... we can use the time more effectively and efficiently,” she said.