November 28, 2011
Robertson, Ingram win
by-election
by Vance Gutzman
There will be a full slate around the council table once again.
Katie Robertson and Ian Ingram will be sworn into office as Deep
River's two new councillors at the next town council meeting on
Wednesday, December 7, after winning the by-election Monday for the two
vacant seats at the table.
Robertson garnered 391 votes and Ingram 385 to secure their election
wins.
Bob McLaren narrowly missed winning a seat, placing a close third with
321 ballots cast in his favour.
Voting began at 10 am on Monday and wrapped up at 8 am, at which time
municipal officials, having logged a long day, began tabulating the
results, which were displayed in the council chambers at town hall.
The travelling vote from the the hospital and long-term care centre
came in first, and former councillor Ed Cochrane took the early lead,
garnering 12 of the 30 votes cast in that poll.
The advance poll numbers came in next, and they looked favourably on
McLaren, who garnered 52 of the 181 advance poll votes, followed by
Robertson with 44, Ingram with 38, Cochrane with 33 and Paul Jones with
14.
When the results from Monday's voting came in, though, a trend started
to develop towards the eventual outcome of the evening.
The results from the E-K poll went to Robertson, with 65, with Ingram
trailing her by just one vote.
Cochrane received 48 votes at the E-K poll, with McLaren trailing him
by just one vote, while Jones trailed the pack with 16 votes.
Robertson held the overall lead at that point, 116 to 108 over Ingram,
but the two exchanged places 15 minutes later when the A-D poll numbers
came in - delivering 95 votes to Ingram and 82 to Robertson.
At that point, with a total of 784 ballots cast, the balance was tipped
in Ingram's favour, by a margin of 203 to 196 over Robertson.
McLaren, with 178 votes, and Cochrane, with 154, were still very much
in the race at that point, but things opened up again when the R-Z poll
numbers came in.
Robertson's numbers were huge there, garnering 95 votes, while Ingram
and McLaren had 89 and 66 votes respectively cast in their favour.
Cochrane's 57 votes had him sitting at 211 with one poll left to go,
and Jones' 18 left him with 69.
Going into the fourth and final poll then, Ingram's 292 votes placed
him just one behind the front-runner Robertson, while McLaren was third
with 244.
Everything was all said and done at 9:15 pm, when the L-Q poll reported
that Robertson took 98 votes, Ingram 93, McLaren 77, Cochrane 60 and
Jones 17.
The final, unofficial results from the election, with 1,454 ballots
cast, showed Robertson coming in first with 391 and Ingram second with
385.
McLaren's 321 votes had him placing third, followed by Cochrane with
271 and Jones with 86.
Humbled
Robertson had been at the council chambers after the polls closed, but
left before the numbers started coming in.
(McLaren, incidentally, was the only one of the five candidates to
watch the results come in at the town hall.)
The NRT reached Robertson at the Bear's Den, where she was having an
election party, and she was clearly enthused when informed of the
election results.
"I'm very pleased," she said.
"And I'm very humbled. I knew I stood a a good chance, but I think they
were all worthy candidates."
Ingram, meanwhile, spent election night at a training session for the
Laurentian Hills fire service, where he serves as a volunteer
firefighter, and the NRT reached him when he got home around 10 pm.
"I'm really honoured by the results," Ingram said when informed of the
numbers.
"I can't wait to start work and representing people."
The mayor of Deep River, David Thompson, was also excited about the
results, when the NRT reached him at home with the final numbers.
"Both of them represent a demographic that's not currently represented
at the council table," Thompson said of Robertson and Ingram.
"It really rounds things up."
The by-election was held to fill the vacancies created by the
resignations of Councillor Chris Carroll and Deputy Mayor Mary
MacCafferty.
Final results (unofficial):
Katie Robertson - 391
Ian Ingram - 385
Bob McLaren - 321
Ed Cochrane - 271
Paul Jones - 86
|
