Midwestern

South Bruce Peninsula mayor ready for another term

The re-elected mayor of South Bruce Peninsula is touting the municipal election results as a clear sign of approval from voters.

Janice Jackson captured a landslide victory over her four competitors, with a margin of victory of more than 3,000 votes over the second-place finisher, Councillor Ana Vukovic.

Jackson said her victory, along with comfortable re-election wins for Deputy Mayor Jay Kirkland and Councillor Paul McKenzie are a confirmation of the job council has been doing over the past four years.

"To have this kind of a landslide, really for all of us, really drives it home that we absolutely were doing what the people wanted us to do, and we work for them," said Jackson. "This was just a wonderful night for all of us."

Jackson said the first order of business will be the 2019 budget but does not expect the arrival of two new councillors to slow the budget process.

She said incoming councillors Terry Bell and Kathy Durst both have previous budget experience, as Bell is a former Bluewater District School Board trustee and Durst was a long-time employee for the City of Waterloo.

South Bruce Peninsula council opted to stick with paper ballots after narrowly defeating a motion to switch to electronic ballots, which allowed polls to close as scheduled on Monday evening.

Jackson said she feels for candidates elsewhere in Bruce County who are being forced to wait an additional 24-hours after problems with Internet balloting caused polls to remain open.

"It was a tight vote to turn [electronic voting] down, but in the end, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened," said Jackson. "I feel very badly for my [county] council-mates across Bruce County that are still waiting to hear the results."

Read More Local Stories