Adjala-Tos election full of suspense

By Kathryn Mooij Alliston Herald Oct 28, 2010
Mayor Tom Walsh retained his seat as Mayor of Adjala-Tosorontio on Monday night with 500 votes more votes than Leo Losereit who conceded and congratulated Walsh late in the evening. The final count was Walsh 1,773, Losereit 1,145 and Jack Jordan 453. Kathryn Mooij ADJALA-TOS -Suspense and slow municipal election results kept a small crowd gathered in the Adjala-Tosorontio council chambers until late Monday evening.
The first results were posted at 9:03 p.m. and showed Tom Walsh, the incumbent mayor, with a 23-vote lead over Leo Losereit, one of Walsh’s opponents for the seat.
When Walsh was asked by a confident supporter whether he was doing a victory dance, Walsh, in his typical amiable drawl, said, “I never get excited, it depends on what the man upstairs has for me.” 
With the positions of deputy mayor and Ward 4 councillor being acclaimed, by Mary Small Brett and Tom Gauley respectively, there were five seats being contested.
In Ward 1, four candidates were within 11 votes of each other until the final poll was reported. In the end, Floyd Pinto won with 182 votes, 20 over Bill Boston, with Mary Flood at 143 and Brockman at 132.
“I want to work with other members of council, maintain our surplus and even build on it,” said Pinto who was surrounded by his very excited children and family members.
Ward 2 had Marilynn Cook competing with Ambrose (Sam) Keenan. The final numbers were Keenan 396 and Cook 277.
The Ward 3 race was the first one decided, outgoing with Doug Little, the deputy mayor during the last term, winning 390 to 218.
Little told the Herald that residents of Adjala-Tosorontio could expect the leadership and commitment of council to continue. He said he looked forward to working with the new councillors and serving the community again.
Ward 5 had the most dramatic results of the night. First figures showed Scott Anderson with half the votes of Tom Cook. At 10 p.m., Cook had 179 and Anderson, 152. Anderson doubled his votes 40 minutes later and the final figures were Anderson 309, Cook 288.
Anderson had a prepared statement in which he said “I have the determination, the responsibility and the desire to serve residents of Adjala-Tosorontio. It will be a duty I will not take lightly.”
Later, the councillor-elect said there were some issues that needed to be resolved. He said drainage had been a problem in the Ward 5 for three years.
“Pretty well the entire term of council … there’s been too much waiting,” he said.
While many people remained past 11 p.m. to see the official results for mayor, it was apparent at 10:40 p.m. that Walsh would return to the leadership position and Losereit conceded and congratulated Walsh.
Walsh said it was great to have someone running against him as it got him out even more to see what the community wanted. He said one of his first orders of business would be to address an issue brought up by Losereit.
Losereit said the biggest things for him were to get people out to vote and to try to get council to be more accountable for certain things that had been lacking. He said baseball was keeping 150 kids busy in Everett, that he would his continue his involvement in efforts there and he hoped he would have the support of the new council.
The final numbers had Walsh with 1,773 votes, Losereit 1,145 and Jordan 453.