Incumbent Toronto-Danforth councillor Mary Fragedakis left two rivals with especially high hopes in the dust tonight as she gathered more than 60 per cent of the vote in a six-candidate field.
Community activist Dave Andre had run a high-profile campaign, and former East York councillor John Papadakis had hoped for a comeback after serving one term on what was then borough council 20 years ago. Andre came in a poor second, with 25 per cent of the vote. Papadakis came in third, with just under 10 per cent.
At his election night gathering, Papadakis thanked his campaign supporters.
“I think Ward 29 wants more of the same,” he said. “We did our best. I want to thank everybody. We worked hard on a very long campaign.”
Papadakis added: “I am little surprised with what’s going on,” explaining, “it was a very long campaign. We spoke with thousands of people. Our office was extremely busy doing constituency work. There are a lot if people who have worked extremely hard and given a lot of sacrifices.”
Papadakis openly supported first Rob and then Doug Ford for mayor.
“I have some concerns with John Tory being elected as mayor of Toronto,” Papadakis said. “I hope he will fight against increasing taxes and hydro and fight against cutting transit. The province has done some serious damage to the city.”
Asked if he could identify anything that went wrong on the campaign, Papadakis responded: “My campaign was well-managed. Nothing went wrong…. I didn’t get any lobbyist funding. I don’t have any debt to pay.”
As for the victor, he said, “I hope Mary Fregadakis will work for everyone this time.”