Mayor Dave Barrow greets supporters at the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Richmond Hill following a landslide victory in which he received nearly 90 per cent of the vote.
Incumbent mayor Dave Barrow won re-election in Richmond Hill by a huge margin on Monday night.
Unofficial election results show Barrow getting almost 90 per cent of the vote. He addressed his campaign team and supporters at the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Richmond Hill.
“It’s very gratifying,” Barrow said. “I sense that people have said, ‘Yes, that’s what we want to do. We want to keep going down the road we’re going down.’”
Godwin Chan, who retained his seat in Ward 6, wants the mayor and council to concentrate on transit issues.
“We’ve been pushing to get … the (Yonge) subway to go up to Highway 7,” Chan said. “So basically, it’s growth and transit and traffic-related issues that will be the big things for the next four years, because the town is growing.”
Barrow and council will also be tasked with the revitalization of the old part of Richmond Hill. Penny Parmenter, chairwoman of the Society of the Community of Old Richmond Hill, thinks Barrow will make that a priority.
“He has ties to the old village and I think he has a soft heart for the old village and for heritage,” she said.
Few people thought the mayor’s only opponent, Abu Alam, had a realistic chance of winning the mayoralty. Alam said he ran an excellent campaign and he’s proud of it. He said he has always been involved in politics and plans to run again.
It was a strong night for incumbents all-around. Four out of six wards re-elected their city councillors. The two that did not, Wards 2 and 3, had no incumbents running. Greg Beros won in Ward 1; Carmine Perrelu in Ward 2; and Castro Liu in Ward 3. Lynn Foster retained her seat in Ward 4, while Nick Papa won in Ward 5 and Chan in Ward 6.