CENTRE WELLINGTON – Centre Wellington council is getting a clean slate as Shawn Watters has been elected mayor of a council of six newcomers.
Watters won a three man race against councillors Neil Dunsmore and Bob Foster. The mayor-elect garnered 4,105 votes followed by Dusnmore in second with 3,417 and Foster in a distant third with 1,529.
“You get the results and it’s sort of like, ‘oh right, okay I guess I’m mayor,’” Watters said in an interview at The Friendly Society in Downtown Elora.
Watters was a township and county council for a total of five terms before being defeated by Diane Ballantyne for the county’s Ward 6 seat in 2018.
Foster was first elected to council in 2006 and ran for mayor in 2010 where he lost to Joanne Ross-Zuj who captured about 65 per cent of the vote. He was re-elected to council for Ward 3 in 2018.
This past term was Dunsmore’s first on township council where he represented Ward 4.
“I just want to thank Bob and Neil for running a good campaign and I’d like to thank them for their service,” Watters said.
Centre Wellington council will have six new councillors as councillors Ian MacRae, Steven VanLeeuwen and Stephen Kitras did not seek re-election.
Longtime councillor Kirk McElwain was defeated by Kim Jefferson in Ward 2. Jefferson received 592 votes while McElwain got 403. McElwain beat Jefferson in 2018 by just eight votes. Eric Nealson placed third in this race with 55 votes.
“We’ve never really seen a change like this happen, even in my time on five councils,” Watters said. “I think the public basically said ‘hey we want a change, we want to move on and make it more of a positive experience for council and the public.’”
Watters acknowledged there will be a learning curve for this council and the number one priority will be to get them cohesively working together.
“I know for myself when I ran for the first time back in the day, it took me literally a year to kind of figure out the lanes,” Watters said. “This will be the challenge of not only the staff, but councillors themselves and part of my challenge to help bring council up and feel comfortable because obviously they’re going to be making decisions pretty much right away.”
Neil Dunsmore said in a phone interview he was obviously disappointed in the result but respected the electorate’s decision.
“It’s our job to come together as a community and move forward as a community,” Dunsmore said.
Dunsmore said the issues he’s brought forward during the election including housing, growing the local economy and managing assets will remain on the table for the next council.
“I’m not giving up on affordable and attainable housing in this community and neither are the people in this room with me,” Dunsmore said, adding this includes a mix of social activists, business people and ordinary citizens.
“I just didn’t knock on enough doors and I didn’t get my message out to enough people. That’s not my team’s fault, that’s my fault.”
Foster did not immediately return a request for comment.
Watters will be leading a council with the following members:
- Lisa MacDonald, Ward 1
- Kimberley Jefferson, Ward 2
- Barbara Lustgarten-Evoy, Ward 3
- Jennifer Adams, Ward 4
- Bronwynne Wilton, Ward 5
- Dennis Craddock, Ward 6
Wellington County’s police board vice-chair Lisa MacDonald has made the jump to township council for Ward 1 with a big win over Jonathon Davis. She received 1,655 to Davis’ 335.
Former school board trustee Barbara Lustgarten-Evoy won a crowded race in Ward 3, gaining 786 votes over five other candidates.
Newcomer Jennifer Adams also had a decisive victory in Ward 4 with 1,275 votes compared to Brock Aldersley’s 355.
Bronwynne Wilton has won the council seat for Ward 5 against Peter Viol who was unable to withdraw because he requested to do so after the deadline had passed. The first time councillor got 1,087 votes to Viol’s 160.
Ward 6 will be represented by Dennis Craddock, who got 412 votes to win over Rick Schroeder who got 299. This will be his first term on council.
While Centre Wellington council is completely new, the three county seats are all familiar faces.
The county’s Ward 4 was acclaimed by Steve O’Neill who will be serving a second term.
Councillor Mary Lloyd defeated challenger Randy Vaine, a former Town of Grimsby councillor, in a vote of 3,089 to 1,027 for Ward 5.
Diane Ballantyne will get a second term as the county’s Ward 6 representative after coming out on top over Melanie Lang, who ran federally for the Liberals in the 2021 election. Ballantyne received 1,917 votes while Lang got 1,411
Marina Hanenberg and Andrew Finoro have been acclaimed as trustees for the Upper Grand District School Board and Wellington Cathlic District School Board respectively.
