Karen Redman has been re-elected as regional chair for a second term in Monday's municipal election.
Redman received 73 per cent of the votes while runner-up Brendon John Da Costa received 21 per cent, and Narine Dat Sookram received six per cent of votes.
Redman has represented the community at several levels of government including federal, municipal and the board of education. Prior to being elected as Chair, she served on Regional Council as a representative for the City of Kitchener.
She served as MP for Kitchener Centre from 1997 to 2008 as a member of the Liberal Party.
In the 2018 election, Redman won her seat competing against three other candidates with nearly two-thirds of votes. She received 62 per cent of all votes, while runner up Robert Deutschmann received 19 per cent.
This year, Redman said she is really happy with her personal result.
“And I’m so proud of my team. I really enjoy campaigning and canvassing. I met lots of people and had some interesting conversations that don’t often happen outside of an election campaign period,” Redman said.
“And I’m interested to see how we gel as a team and the new dynamic because we now have a lot of new faces on Regional Council.”
In Cambridge, the two regional council winners are former Cambridge mayor Doug Craig, and Cambridge councillor, Pam Wolf.
“I’m really looking forward to having the team come together with a new dynamic, a fresh perspective and that diversity of view,” Redman said.
“This has always existed on council, but I think coming together and having a civil debate and discourse about different vantage points ends up with a better result for residents, so I am very excited about the dynamics.”
Redman said that last night's election was particularly exciting as five of the seven area municipal mayors, including newly elected Jan Liggett in Cambridge, are all women.
“It’s an exciting time. For me, I realized a long time ago that it's the process of democracy that really excites me,” Redman said.
“It’s the fact that you can take divergent views, come together, and be able to move forward with something that’s a priority for the community.”
