There’s a new mayor in Owen Sound, but Deb Haswell is a veteran member of council and she’ll be surrounded by other veterans.
All four incumbent councillors who were seeking re-election were successful in their bids on Monday night.
Jim McManaman topped the polls, as he did in 2006, unofficially garnering 4,852 votes.
Newcomer Ian Boddy was second with 4,581 votes and incumbent David Adair finished third, as he did in 2006, with 3,669 votes.
Very quickly on Monday night it became clear that eight people would battle for the top seven spots and a seat on council.
In the end, former mayor Rick Beaney fell 94 votes short of seventh place.
Colleen Purdon, a former provincial and federal NDP candidate who was making her municipal political debut, was fourth with 3,176 votes.
Jan Chamberlain, another newcomer, was fifth at 3,034.
Veteran councillors Bill Twaddle and Peter Lemon were sixth and seventh, respectively, with 2,989 and 2,973 votes.
Mayor-elect Deb Haswell, who defeated incumbent Ruth Lovell Stanners, says city voters appear to have wanted change, but not wholesale change.
All three of the new councillors were making their first council bids but each have a great deal of prominence and visibility in the community.
Arlene Wright was acclaimed to another term as city-county councillor.
After Beaney came Jeffrey Robins with 2,618 votes, Mike Moore with 2,501, Scott Greig with 2,225, Sharon McKeachnie with 2,022, Bryan Gibbons with 1,997, Andy McCaffrey with 1,817, Brent Jeffries with 1,694 and Les Coleman with 851.
The voter turnout was dramatically higher this time, with almost half of the eligible voters – 49.28 per cent – casting ballots.
In 2006 the turnout was only 34.55 per cent, the continuation of a long downward trend that has just been dramatically reversed.
