Second time’s the charm for Burnside in Don Valley West

Jon Burnside thanks his supporters at his victory party last night.

Jon Burnside thanks his supporters at his victory party last night.

Lights and festive music fueled the electric atmosphere of Leaside Pub on Laird Drive last night following Jon Burnside’s victory over incumbent councillor John Parker in Ward 26.

The victorious challenger arrived at his election party to a raucous crowd who cheered and applauded him.

Burnside told them he was a humbled man, and he thanked those had helped him in his second, and successful, run at city councillor.

“Thank you to everyone that was on my side tonight,” he said. “There were just so many people that were part of this victory, it’s really hard to know where to begin.

The ‘usual suspects’ were thanked, including his girlfriend and family, but there were a number of special people whom he also gave a shout-out to.

“My friend Mohamed…. He would drop everything,” he said of one man who even took time from family to help on the campaign. “Another friend — Jimmy — I met him at the gym, and he took a week off work to help out.”

Four years ago, in his first bid for city councillor for Ward 26, incumbent John Parker edged out first-time candidate Burnside by a paper-thin margin of two percentage points.

This time around, Burnside emerged convincingly victorious — with 42.7 per cent of the vote in a six-candidate field.

About this article

By: Paolo Maquiraya
Posted: Oct 28 2014 8:31 am
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Filed under: News Toronto Votes 2014
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