The mayor will be the same, but Windsor City Council will look different when four new councillors take their seats in early December.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens has won a second term, beating out former mayoral aide and local chamber of commerce head Matt Marchand. BlackburnNews.com called the race between Dilkens and Matt Marchand when the incumbent won 59.4 per cent of the vote. Marchand had 35.5 per cent.
Matt Marchand, runner-up in the 2018 Windsor mayoral race, at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts, October 22, 2018. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.
Matt Marchand said name recognition was the biggest hurdle to overcome in this election.
"We did our best to get there. We had some great ideas, but name recognition was always a big one to overcome," said Marchand. "I think we made some in-roads towards the end on that, but came up a little bit short, but you have to congratulate the Dilkens campaign."
The other three mayoral candidates were businessmen Tom Hensel and Ernie "The Baconman" Lamont, and retired farmer Frank Dyck.
The results are not official.
There will also be some new faces at Windsor City Council, with three incumbents being defeated and one taking a seat occupied by a retiring long-time councillor.
Mayor, Drew Dilkens said councillors returning and new must work together for the city to be successful.
"I take my roll as mayor quite seriously because I know that our collective future, in part relies not only on my success, but that of our entire city council," said Dilkens.
The first challenger to be declared a winner Monday evening came from Ward 9. Kieran McKenzie, a long time parliamentary aide to Windsor West MP Brian Masse, beat incumbent Hilary Payne by a wide margin. It was McKenzie's second attempt at the seat.
Windsor Ward 9 councillor-elect Kieran McKenzie at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts, October 22, 2018. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Hilary Payne, and I wish him well in the future," McKenzie said.
West Windsor will also see some new representation. One-term incumbent John Elliott is out, defeated by neighbourhood activist and Catholic school board trustee Fabio Costante.
Probably the most contentious contest was in Ward 10, with one-term incumbent Paul Borrelli narrowly winning the election in 2014 over former bank administrator Jim Morrison. On Monday night, the tables were turned with Morrison holding an unofficial 250-vote victory over Borrelli. Morrison won the seat over the incumbent and six other challengers.
With longtime councillor Bill Marra retiring from municipal politics and deciding not to run, Ward 8 was an open seat. All polls were reported late Monday when Gary Kaschak edged out seven other challengers and was declared the unofficial winner.
Rino Bortolin won re-election in Ward 3, Chris Holt in Ward 4, and Ed Sleiman in Ward 5 is back, and in Ward 7, Irek Kusmierczyk returns. All won with at least a majority of the total vote.
In Ward 1, Fred Francis returns to council for a second term, along with Joanne Gignac in Ward 6. With Marra's retirement, Gignac will now be the longest-serving active member of council.
Windsor-Essex also elected new boards of trustees for its school boards.
The Greater Essex County District School Board welcomes back Jessica Sartori in Wards 1, 2, 9, along with Linda Quin. Wards 3, 4, 10 re-elected Alan Halberstadt and newcomer Sarah Cipkar. Cathy Cooke and Gale Simko-Hatfield will represent Wards 5, 6, 7, 8.
At the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, Fulvio Valentinis won re-election in Wards 1, 10. Tony Polifroni will represent Wards 2, 9. Wards 3, 4 will be represented by Bernard Mastromattei. For Wards 5, 8, Fred Alexander will sit on the board, and Wards 6, 7 elected Kim Bouchard.
Additional details on these results will be posted throughout the night and into Tuesday morning.
-With files from Mark Brown and Paul Pedro