Cheering erupted at Paula Fletcher’s campaign party in Greektown as televisions announced the incumbent councillor’s victory in Ward 30. This will be her fourth term representing the Toronto-Danforth area.
Having only surpassed her right-leaning opponent Liz West by 300 votes last election, and with West running against her again, there was the possibility of another close race for Fletcher. However, when the results came in, it wasn’t even close. Fletcher won by about twice as many votes as her closest opponent.
“I’m going to work on transit, I’m going to work with my constituents on issues that are important to them, refurbishing playgrounds and making safe routes to school,” she said. “I’m going to work with the new trustee Jennifer Story, in creating safe spaces and safe routes in our community.”
One of Fletcher’s top priorities for Ward 30 will be improving transit.
“Everybody thinks transit is a very big issue and we have every single candidate for mayor [saying] ‘transit, transit’ and the people [saying] ‘transit, transit’, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get it figured out,” she said.
After polls closed, supporters held signs and chanted Fletcher’s name as she drove by her campaign party at Fox and Fiddle on Danforth Avenue. Many of Fletcher’s allies were in attendance, including Toronto-Danforth MPP, Peter Tabuns; re-elected incumbent for Ward 29, Mary Fragedakis; and newly elected school trustee, Jennifer Story.
“I think her greatest strength was four years of doing extraordinarily good work and frankly being one of the leading opponents of Rob Ford on city council,” Tabuns said. “She deserved to win.
A former leader of the Manitoba Communist Party, Fletcher got into city council 11 years ago, representing Jack Layton’s former ward when he decided to move up to federal politics.
“Paula worked hard to make sure that every constituent in the community was represented,” said Nat Smith, a campaign manager for Fletcher. “Paula cares about the work she does. I think that’s the reason why we saw the results we saw tonight”.