HawthorneVillager.com

Some early thoughts on the results of Milton election 2010:

- Congratulations to Mayor Krantz. His vote count increased from 6347 in 2006 to 9262 in 2010. That reflects a higher turnout in ward 2 but also a good share of additional "new Milton" votes. His percentage of the vote increased from 53.9% in 2006 to 59.8% in 2010 against essentially the same challengers. The man does know how to get re-elected, and maybe the newcomers can help with the leadership question.

- Only 4 of the 11 on present council will be returning - krantz, Best, Lunau and Nelson. The challenge for the new 7 will be to avoid getting trained into the old culture. Change has come with the new ward system. Accept the mandate.

- Turnout was about 32% - from a low of 24% in ward 1 to 41% in ward 2. Better than the 30% in 2006 and better than I feared. Unfortunately, I credit the increase to the efforts of the candidates rather than any action by the town. That has to change.

- Special congrats to Mike Cluett with 78.7% of the vote. Mike, aren't you glad now that you weren't acclaimed?

- Congrats to Zeeshan Hamid, Rick Di Lorenzo, and Rick Malboeuf. Solid upgades to council. Well done.

- Sincere regrets to Martin Capper, Andrew Salmons, Jennifer Smith and Reid Frank. I would happily exchange any or all of you for any of the last-term councillors. Thanks for your efforts.

I was really suprised by the ward 1 results.
Very proud of Jennifer for putting up one heck of a fight in ward 2, and having the guts to take on a race against not one but two incumbents and do a great job at it. I would personally love to see you try again in 2014!

My thoughts - next election I think we should let the students decide and tell their parents who to vote for. Some pretty smart cookies there.
http://studentvote.ca/municipal2010/pub ... php?id=111

Shall be a very interesting 4 years. Politics is such a bizarre game. That much I've learned! Very glad to have been a part of it, even though like others only 1 of my 4 candidates choices won. Mike - you know we'll be hitting the pavement for you again in 4 . Hell of an experience and I'm proud to have been an active participant in the process.

I actually have a very different outlook on turnout. 32% of voters in ward 8 voted, which is highest after ward 2 (tied with ward 5). I was sitting by the bedroom window in the evening, looking at the constant stream of voters going in and out of PL Robertson. At times both parking lots were nearly full and there was a decent lineup of voters.

Considering a big chunk of ward 8 is brand new, it's actually a really impressive turnout. I am not sure why more people from wards 1,4,5 and 6 didn't turn out, but wards 2, 7 and 8 did really well.

Zeeshan Hamid

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Milton Councillor, Ward8.ca
zee@ward8.ca | Facebook | twitter | 416-823-6993

Garlis

To you and the other active members of the Villager I say thank you, first for being what you are - a group of people actively engaged for the good of the Town in which we all live, secondly for the support and the criticism that you have given all the candidates throughout the campaign and finally for letting me get to know you all.

I won't pretend I lost because of the low voter turnout the actual result was statistically sound enough to show that even with 100% turnout the result would not be significantly different. I am concerned however that the vast majority of the voters of Ward 1 are not sufficiently engaged about the future of Ward 1 and of Milton to actually vote and participate in shaping that future. With what is facing the Ward and the Town over the coming that is not a good sign.

I still believe, despite the result, that my message was a good one but clearly the delivery of that message was flawed. I will learn from that and from Mike Cluett (and his approach after the last election) and will start working immediately on my campaign for 2014 at whatever level that may be.

To all of you who supported and voted for me I say a heartfelt thank you and my only regret is that I didn't deliver for you.

To Sharon Barkley congratulations and if you act in the interests of Ward 1 residents I will become your biggest supporter, at least until I can officially campaign against you

To Andrew, I hope you, like I plan to do, will continue your involvement in the affairs of Ward 1 and the Town.

To all of the successful candidates good luck over the next 4 years. I will be there throughout that time to both help and criticise when help or criticism is needed!

Thank you all

Martin

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Martin Capper

HVRA member

www.cappercares.ca
www.MartinCapper.com

Thanks Martin, Freemantrailfamily and Garlis

Good comments and classy campaign wrap up Martin. Thanks to everyone who voted, all the candidates and their campaign teams. My family and friends who worked diligently for me over the last two months thank you again.

Yes the new council faces a number of challenges and I understand from the clerk that the new council will be having some orientation meetings in November to prepare for the inaugural on December 6th and the first budget meetings.

For the candidates who were defeated thanks for your efforts, your ideas and concern for our community. You still have the opportunity to serve through the various town and community committees that need your help.

I will be keeping in touch with everyone on the villager and throughout the community. Congratulations Rick on your election and service to Milton through the operation of the villager.

Looking forward to working with Tony, Sharon, Mike, Rick, Zeeshan, Rick and Arnold our new councillors.

Colin Best
Elected Local & regional councillor
Wards 2,3,4,5 North of Derry road.

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Become a Fan! Visit my website! Email: colin.best@milton.ca Twitter Follow! 905-878-3623

Congratulations to all who participated in the election - standing out from the crowd and putting your vision, personal credibility and thoughts into the light of public scrutiny takes courage.

There were clearly some highly valuable candidates who were not elected (Capper, Salmons, Smith, Penman and others). I hope that they take a page from Mike Cluett's playbook and continue their involvement through to 2014. With the town's growth trajectory, I wouldn't be surprised to see further seats added to the council table which could accommodate some of these additional value-added folks in the future.

Overall, I think a good balance of old and new was elected last night. I do hope that the council remembers why Milton is such a growing community - people stay here, or moved here, because of what Milton is. I have heard a lot of use of the "change" slogan, but would personally prefer to hear "improvement". From the people I've spoken with, many do not want a wholesale change to Milton, but rather a preservation of the core values which make it an attractive place to live, and improvements in some areas such as intrastructure planning/implementation.

Congratualtions to all the councillors elect! As a Ward 1 resident, I'm very disappointed that so many of my neighbours did not make it to the polls. To my boys Martin and Andrew, I know that you'll keep working for the ward and I look forward to working with you in supporting Sharon. Krantz was not a surprise though Gerry I was really hoping to call you mayor. And Tony is about to become my new best friend because I am going to hold him to the high standards I am will be demanding of my representation I was really bummed out by the Ward system beacuse it meant I couldn't vote for Zeeshan, Mike and Rick. Luckily they didn't need my vote. As said before, hopefully a strong council will help resolve the leadership issue.

Garlis, freemantrailfamily & Steve, thank you for getting me engaged. I'm going to take a page from your books and work to get more people engaged next election.

Great run everyone but now the real work begins

Overall, I am content with the results and the voter turnout was higher than I expected on an overall basis, but it still needs to drastically improve in my opinion (we have four years to work on this). Now that the election is over I can voice my opinion freely and I feel the best about Rick Di Lorenzo winning in ward 7 (my ward) and I was glad to participate and help him with his campaign.

There are many great candidates who lost and I feel bad about that. However, the advisory committees will be opening up soon and I hope you all apply for at least one of those committees. I myself will be applying for an advisory committee as soon as the positions open up.

I will be at the first "new" council meeting on December 6th and I think the message was clear from the voters in Milton, change is coming and it will be expected.

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Steve Camilleri
http://twitter.com/scamilleri1975

Congratulations to all candidates who put their names forward for office. Win or lose, it takes guts to put yourself out there in the public eye- and all should be commended for it.

Krantz's victory wasn't that surprising. Gerry- you fought a good campiagn, and I think the increased media (shameless plug warning) by Milton Today TV only helped you. The highlight was during the debate when you admitted not knowing something- that was a refreshing bit of honesty and I don't think many others would have done that.

I was surprised by Ward One's results. I thought the race was wihtout a doubt going to be between Martin & Andrew. But having met Sharon for the first time Monday night, I think she'll do well; especially if the other two who are going to hopefully work with her. Voters will be well served if those three work together!

Mike, Rick, and Zeeshan: I don't think there are three more deserving candidates. All three of you have been working hard since January for this- and it's hard to imagine the voters in your wards being better served.


Anyway, those are just some thoughts about the election resluts.

It depends on which day it was before the election. HA. It was very gratifying to see the results. There were close to 30% turnout in the ward and to me that was another victory, no matter the result of the election. One of my goals was to try to engage voters in the process and it worked.

The next four years (for Zeeshan, Rick and hopefully ALL the councillors) will be to keep it up and maybe we can have the same kind of results Toronto had regarding turnout.

I'll echo everyone else when I say thanks to the other candidates who ran. I got to know many of them very well being the shadow cabinet at council meetings, to the mega tweets during the day discussing issues and the friendships that were made.

To them I say, if you truly beleive that this is what you want to do, keep at it. Stay involved in the process, stay involved in your community and speak out at council meetings as much as possible. Its only with that kind of dialouge can we truly say we speak for the people.

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Mike Cluett
Milton Town Councillor

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

I also hope that those who were engaged in this election, candidates and civilians, stay involved in the municipal process.

I expect many will continue to discuss issues on this forum and with their councillors. That would be a good thing.

Some may continue on their own to monitor council agendas, research issues, and speak at council. It can be lonely.

Others may volunteer to serve on various town committees. Some may find that restrictive.

Another option is to form a residents association for your community, however defined. These associations can screen issues in the community, support the local councillor(s), share the research workload, and speak with a louder voice at council when necessary. Something to consider while the subject is fresh.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words and your support!

I knew Ward 2 was going to be a huge long shot going in, but I can't imagine running anywhere else. And if it had remained a three-way race, I believe it would have ended very differently. Still, it was a terrific outcome given that I was starting more or less from scratch, and I've built up a strong base of support for next time.

And yes, I will definitely be back for 2014!

In the meantime, I plan to get even more actively involved in the community through committees and neighbourhood groups, to keep Ward 2 residents informed and engaged, and to hold our new Council to account.

First order of business will be to make sure Mr. Nelson follows through on his new-found commitment to keep the Bruce Street Library open as a branch library.

This is just the beginning.

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BlueBikeDesigns.com
Innovative web, print, and graphic design
Jennifer Smith
jsmith25@cogeco.ca

BTW, the thing that upsets me even more than not being elected is that I won't have the chance to work with Zeeshan, Rick and Mike this term. I was really looking forward to that, and I hope we can still find a way to work together on some initiatives.

I may start making a pest of myself

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BlueBikeDesigns.com
Innovative web, print, and graphic design
Jennifer Smith
jsmith25@cogeco.ca

^+1

Martin

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Martin Capper

HVRA member

www.cappercares.ca
www.MartinCapper.com

Maybe it was just me but he pretty much ran a Hazel type campaign. Did very little and let most of his competition and lack of voter turnout win it for him. (sorry Gerry, but I did vote for you as I thought you were the only real competition).