Just one new face on Oshawa Council after municipal election marked by voter fatigue

Oshawa Council will remain virtually unchanged after Monday’s municipal election, with just one new face on council.

Mayor Dan Carter easily cruised to victory in an election marked by voter fatigue, with just 18.4 per cent of eligible voters bothering to cast their ballots.

Regional Councillors John Neal and Bob Chapman also had comfortable victories but the race was a little tighter in Ward 2, where Tito-Dante Marimpietri fended off a challenge from Linda Fouroughy to retain his Regional Council seat by just 289 votes. Regional Councillors Rick Kerr (Ward 4) and Brian Nicholson (Ward 5) both had margins slightly more comfortable at nearly 400 votes each.

John Gray rolled to an easy win in the Ward 5 local seat, as did Bradley Marks in Ward 3, while the other local races were considerably tighter, especially in Ward 1 where Rosemary McConkey outpointed Theresa Corless by just eight votes.

Ward 2’s local council race saw the only incumbent go down to defeat with Jane Hurst losing her seat to Jim Lee, who polled 1,509 votes to Hurst’s 1,207.

In Ward 4 incumbent Derek Giberson won a tight race with four candidates in the running. Giberson collected 1,497 votes to best Dave Thompson (1,169), Fred Eismont (1,105) and James Bountrogiannis (1,096).

In the school board races perhaps the biggest surprise was the return of Linda Stone, who resigned her seat on the Durham District Board of Trustees in May as after a series of tweets about gender bathrooms, transgender rights and the use of pronouns deemed transphobic. Stone polled the most votes with 4,697. She will be joined by Shailene Panylo (4,366) and Deb Oldfield (4,281)

Kim Betty and Morgan Ste. Marie were elected to the Durham District Catholic Board of Education while Kristine Dandavino earned a spot on conseil scolaire Viamonde, the French-language public school board.