• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Bradford chooses new mayor in Rob Keffer

By
In Bradford West Gwillimbury
Oct 28th, 2014
0 Comments
2262 Views

By Dominik Kurek Bradford West Gwillimbury Topic

Rob Keffer has been elected as the new mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury, after facing off against two-term incumbent Doug White for the position.

Keffer, the outgoing  deputy mayor, received 54 per cent of the votes, with 4,741, while White received 42 per cent and Hernan Burgos finished with less than 3 per cent, according to the town’s unofficial results.

“It is a humbling experience to have the respect of the people of Bradford to choose me as their mayor,” Keffer said shortly after learning he was elected.

“It is an honour. I’ll try to run a collaborative council. I look forward to sitting down with all the new councillors to be able to decide on the agenda that we’re going to follow to carry Bradford forward.”

Keffer said he intends to run an inclusive council that will make  residents feel like they can approach their elected representatives and be heard by them. Most of all, he intends to respect people’s tax dollars.

“We’ll be diligent as a council to see where the tax dollars go and to spend it wisely and we’ll move the town forward,” he said.

White, who served two terms as mayor and another as a councillor, congratulated his opponent at Keffer’s campaign headquarters.

“Rob, you ran a really effective campaign, well done, you deserve to win,” he said in front of Keffer’s supporters. “Congratulations.”

“Doug has given 11 years to this town and the commitment, the hours that Doug has put in for the betterment of this town, we have recognized and appreciate, so thanks so much, Doug,” Keffer said.

Keffer will be joined on council by Deputy Mayor James Leduc, who previously served as a councillor, and beat out fellow council member Carl Hordyk for the position in a close race. Leduc received 54 per cent of the votes.

Raj Sandhu returns as the Ward 1 councillor, winning by a landslide of 739 votes to the nearest challenger, Carolyn Bunn, who received 282 votes.

Gary Baynes more than doubled his closest opponent, Jim Slykhuis, in votes with 948 to win Ward 2.

Incumbent Gary Lamb has retained the Ward 3 position, receiving 60 per cent of votes.

Ron Orr won a close race in Ward 4, receiving 54 per cent votes, against Jessica Jamieson, who received 41 per cent.

Peter Ferragine won Ward 5 by a wide margin, receiving more votes than his two competitors combined.

Mark Contois won a close race in Ward 6, beating out Lisa Hawkins by just more than 100 votes.

Peter Dykie Jr. is staying on as Ward 7 councillor, where he fended off four challengers to retain the position.

This year’s election saw a 40 per cent voter turnout. Long lines could be seen outside polling stations as the deadline drew to cast your ballot at 8 p.m.

Leave a Reply

Commenters must post under real names. AWARE Simcoe reserves the right to edit or not publish comments. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *