TORONTO - Election signs were still up in Mississauga, Ont. on Tuesday, the day after voters chose a first-term councillor as their next mayor. They elected Alvin Tedjo over both the incumbent, Carolyn Parrish, and her predecessor, Bonnie Crombie. “Sometimes we just need change, right?” said Mississauga resident Linda MacPherson. “There’s new perspectives, new ideas maybe, and some of the policies he had, I agree with.” Mississauga was not the only place where voters wanted something new. While votes are still being tallied, at least two dozen Ontario towns and cities voted for change in Monday’s municipal elections. In Hamilton, a city hit hard by U.S. tariffs, Keanin Loomis unseated incumbent Andrea Horwath. Voters in Windsor, another city affected by the trade war, also chose a new mayor opting for Coun. Fred Francis over incumbent Drew Dilkens. In Milton, Canada’s longest-serving politician Gord Krantz was unseated by Coun. George Minakakis. Krantz was first elected as a Milton town councillor in 1965 and had served as the town’s mayor since 1980. “This speaks to an environment where voters are looking for solutions and they are looking for positivity and they are critically looking at all the choices that you cannot coast on your laurels,” said pollster Nik Nanos. “I think this is a bit of a warning shot. Voters are grumpy. They are worried about traffic, they are worried about safety, homelessness, cost of housing and property taxes, and you know what, if you want to hold onto your job you have got to be very proactive,” he said. While some have called Monday’s election an “anti-incumbent wave,” many of Ontario’s large cities opted to re-elect their mayors. Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe won another mandate, as did Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown. In Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow won re-election decisively over challenger Brad Bradford. On Tuesday, she called for unity to address the challenges facing the city, including the cost of living, traffic, and safety. “We need to all come together, all levels of government, to deal with the existing challenges that face the people of Toronto,” Chow said. Ontario voters are not alone in opting for change. Earlier this month, Quebec elected a Parti Québécois government after eight years of Coalition Avenir Québec rule. On Saturday, voters in British Columbia gave the Conservatives a decisive majority, removing former premier David Eby and the NDP from power. “(Voters) are very suspicious of politicians trying to engineer their own success,” Nanos said. “I think that is definitely the case in B.C. It wasn’t just a rejection of the NDP, it was a rejection of former premier David Eby looking to call a snap election that probably wasn’t necessary.” More Canadians will go to the polls in the next week, with Manitoba holding its municipal elections on Oct. 28, while Prince Edward Island holds its elections on Nov. 2.
