Jan Liggett elected city's mayor, all but one incumbent councillor back in

The residents of Cambridge have had their say.

Jan Liggett has been elected the new mayor of Cambridge, unseating incumbent Kathryn McGarry in an election that stretched into the late hours of the night.

Liggett expressed gratitude as she was surrounded by her campaign team and loyal supporters on Monday.

“It feels surreal, very surreal,” Liggett said.

“When I had the car accident everything changed because I couldn’t campaign. It took everyone in this room. Their belief in me is what kept me going.”

It’s been a hectic few weeks for Liggett, who was involved in a pedestrian/vehicle car accident, but she knew she had a good campaign and strong team behind her.

“It’s been stressful,” she said.

“My campaign email had been hacked, then my accident. You start out thinking you have a great campaign based on the feedback you’re getting. Then something happens and you have to start all over again.”

Liggett has a long list of issues she wants to address as the city’s new mayor, but she's taking it one thing at a time.

“The first person I want to meet is the chief of Six Nations because I think that is a very important part of our role as leaders of the municipalities,” she said.

“There’s a lot of people in the community that have been left out of our planning going forward, so I want to bring them into the fold and make sure they’re taken care of. I’ve already been asked to sit with provincial representatives.”

The race between the two lead candidates was a close call with Liggett receiving 12,567 votes to McGarry's 11,441.

McGarry had supporters waiting for her, cheering her on at Beertown restaurant on Hespeler Road Monday for a live viewing of the results. When the polls closed at 8 p.m. her section was buzzing with excitement and ready to support their candidate.

According to Fred McGarry, Kathryn's husband, a ballot mishap caused a delay in the counting and most votes were being counted by hand. When results started to come in shortly before 9:30 p.m. Liggett took an early lead, but McGarry’s supporters kept up the enthusiasm.

As time went on, the crowd started to thin out when it looked like the mayoral incumbent was not going to recover the ground she had lost. That's when Fred returned to the restaurant and announced the mayor would not available for comments.

Supporters looking surprised and upset, finished their food and drinks and helped take signs to McGarry’s campaign office a few doors down.

Fred McGarry then confirmed to CambridgeToday the mayor will not be making any comments or appearances for photos at this time.

Randy Carter and Cody Botelho finished third and fourth in the race, respectively.

Ward 1

Incumbent for Ward 1 Donna Reid has been elected for a fourth consecutive term, narrowly beating out Helen Shwery by only 46 votes: 1108 to 1062.

Having won, Reid is ready to help tackle the city’s opioid crisis and help people access important services like mental health and housing services.

“I am happy the people of Ward 1 still want me,” said an ecstatic Donna Reid. “Ward 1 is going through a lot of changes and change is never easy, but I will be there to help the people of my ward.”

Paul Brown came in third with and Erick Takor rounds it out.

Ward 2

Another incumbent keeps their seat as Mike Devine wins a landslide victory for Ward 2 and the people of Hespeler. Devine saw a good turnout for his ward with a total of 2,343 votes.

Devine was unavailable for comments at this time.

Newcomers Piyush Nanda and Matt Rogers fall short this time around rounding out the ballot.

Ward 3

Following Mike Mann’s decision not to seek re-election this year, some fresh faces came forward hoping to represent residents in Ward 3 at Cambridge City Council.

After tonight’s election results, the new councillor for Ward 3, is Corey Kimpson who won with 1152 votes, ahead of Nate Whalen who end up with 769 votes. Michelle Braniff, Tracy Hipel, and Belinda Karahalios were also in the running in Ward 3.

“I really appreciate all of the volunteers that have been involved throughout this campaign who worked so hard and on a very clean campaign,” Kimpson said.

“I’m really looking forward to bringing this home tonight.”

Ward 4

A new councillor has also taken a seat in Ward 4. Ross Earnshaw will replace Jan Liggett who won the mayor’s seat in Cambridge. Earnshaw won with 1,215 votes ahead of Clifford Vanclief who had 692 votes, Usman Lalva with 680 votes, and Barbara Harrington with 494 votes.

“I’m a little tired. I knocked on a lot of doors and walked a lot of miles, but here we are. I have a great team of volunteers and we’ve all celebrated. I’d like to thank them all for their support, and I would like to extend my congratulations to the other three candidates in Ward 4 for a very respectful, fair, and clean campaign,” Earnshaw said.

“I have a high respect for all of them all and I intend to stay in touch because I got to know then throughout this campaign. They are all genuine, and with great ideas about what can be done about the future in Cambridge.”

Ward 5

The residents of Ward 5 knew they would have a fresh face representing them at city council after Pam Wolf withdrew her candidacy to pursue an election seat at regional council. Now they know it will be Sheri Roberts who will replace Wolf as the new councillor after she edged out Amanda Maxwell, Jim Karahlios, Naeem Awan and Mark D. Fisher.

Roberts says she’s excited to continue to connect with residents about issues that matter.

“I’ve heard from people about what they’re passionate about and I’m looking forward to pushing those matters forward,” Roberts said.

“Improving road safety seems to be a big concern. I also want to work with upper levels of government to get funding for mental health and addiction concerns. Ultimately, I want to increase the resident/councillor conversations and encourage open lines of communications to build trust.”

Ward 6

Ward 6 will have a new representative on city council after Adam Cooper beat out Shannon Adshade.

Bill Conway, Bill Langford and Eian Campbell rounded out the ballot results on election night.

A long time Cambridge resident, Cooper is excited to represent the people in his hometown.

“I’ve lived in Cambridge for so long, I love the people and I’m excited to give them the representation they deserve,” Cooper said.

“I want to have a residents-first culture that addresses their legitimate concerns. Residents are concerned about drug related issues and homelessness. They feel it’s not being handled appropriately. These issues seriously impact those struggling and people in the community. We need to tackle these issues as they have unintended consequences for everyone.”

Ward 7

Re-elected with strong support in Ward 7, Scott Hamilton said he’s excited and hopeful for the future of Cambridge after seeing the make up of this new council.

“It’s always great to see residents throw their name into the hat and get out there and want to make this city better and I want to congratulate all the candidates for giving it a shot,” he said. “It’s not easy especially with today’s political climate being more contentious and angry than it’s ever been.”

Hamilton said even though some new council members have expressed a desire to take the city in a different direction than he and other incumbents, he’s hopeful they can find common ground.

“The nature of city council is that you have a lot of differing backgrounds and opinions and perspectives, but what ties it all together is that you’re all working together as a team to make the city as a whole a better place,” he said. “So, whether it’s old voices, whether it’s new voices, I’m excited to work with everyone around the horseshoe that wants to make Cambridge a better place and take it into the future and have it realize that potential we all know is there.”

Ward 8

Incumbent Nicholas Ermeta was given a strong mandate to return to the council horseshoe for another term, beating out his closest rival Vandan Patel with 2,295 votes to Patel's 634.

David Hood came in third with 11.84 per cent of the votes, and Jack Perkes won 7.54 per cent of the votes.

Regional council

Regional Chair Karen Redman was re-elected for a second term and will be joined on council by Liggett and newly elected Cambridge representatives Doug Craig and Pam Wolf.

With 47 of 47 tabulators reporting and 27,689 ballots cast, Cambridge electors made a typically weak showing at the polls with only 28.8 per cent voter turnout. This year’s participation represents a 10.5 per cent decrease in voter turnout compared to 32.24 per cent in 2018.

Unofficial results from the city can be viewed here and will be updated below.

Mayor, City of Cambridge	Votes	%
Jan Liggett	12,567	46.22
Kathryn McGarry	11,441	42.08
Cody Botelho	1,644	6.05
Randy Carter	1,538	5.66

Regional Chair, Region of Waterloo	Votes	%
Karen Redman (winner)	13,854	63.61
Brendon John Da Costa	6,235	28.63
Narine Dat Sookram	1,692	7.77

Regional Councillor, Region of Waterloo	Votes	%
Tyler Calver	8,947	20.30
Doug Craig (winner)	12,668	28.79
Bobbi Stewart	3,967	9.64
Prakash Venkataraman	5,118	11.61
Crystal Whetham	3,118	7.08
Pam Wolf (winner)	10,001	22.69

Cambridge Ward 1 Councillor	Votes	%
Paul Brown	595	18.84
Donna Reid (winner)	1,108	35.09
Helen Shwery	1,062	33.63
Erick Takor	393	12.44

Cambridge Ward 2 Councillor	Votes	%
Mike Devine (winner)	2,343	61.61
Piyush Nanda	739	19.43
Matt Rogers	683	18.96

Cambridge Ward 3 Councillor	Votes	%
Michele Braniff	415	13.39
Tracy Hipel	314	10.13
Belinda Karahalios	449	14.49
Corey Kimpson (winner)	1,152	37.17
Nate Whalen	769	24.81

Cambridge Ward 4 Councillor	Votes	%
Ross Earnshaw (winner)	1,215	39.44
Barbara Harrington	494	16.03
Usman Lalva	680	22.07
Clifford Vanclief	692	22.46

Cambridge Ward 5 Councillor	Votes	%
Naeem Awan	271	6.70
Mark D. Fisher	156	3.86
Jim Karahalios	859	21.24
Amanda Maxwell	1,208	29.87
Sheri Roberts (winner)	1,550	38.33

Cambridge Ward 6 Councillor	Votes	%
Shannon Adshade	857	22.59
Eian Campbell	353	9.31
Bill Conway	795	20.96
Adam Cooper (winner)	1,336	35.22
Kris Langford	452	11.92

Cambridge Ward 7 Councillor	Votes	%
Manuel da Silva	420	18.85
Scott Hamilton (winner)	1,514	67.95
Chris Sim	294	13.20

Cambridge Ward 8 Councillor	Votes	%
Nicholas Ermeta (winner)	2,295	63.17
David Hood	430	11.84
Vandan Patel	634	17.45
Jack Perkes	274	7.54

Waterloo Region District School Board Trustee (3 to be elected)	Votes	%
Cindy Watson (winner)	9,602	20.70
Carla Johnson (winner)	7,064	15.23
Bill Cody (winner)	7,686	16.57
Linda Brooks	6,866	14.80
Jayne Herring	5,975	12.88
Courtney Waterfall	4,277	9.22
Mandi Bond	2,688	5.79
Luxon Burgess	2,230	4.81