Brown to lead London council dominated by young new members

CTV London: New mayor, young council elected Matt Brown has been elected London's new mayor, and he's joined by a lot of young talent on city council. Daryl Newcombe reports.

London's mayor-elect Matt Brown will head up a city council dominated by fresh-faced newcomers to city hall.

"Essentially we need to make sure that our council is ready to go, that we get them up to speed, that we have an excellent orientation program so that we are ready to hit the ground running on Dec. 1," Brown says.

Brown's victory was convincing, picking up 57.7 per cent of the vote, compared to Paul Cheng's 34.3 percent. No other candidate, including former councillor Joe Swan, picked up more than five per cent of the vote.

The city's voters wanted change, and that's exactly what they got once all the votes were counted on Monday night.

Only three incumbents were re-elected, while five others running for re-election were defeated:

All of the incumbents defeated were part of the so-called 'Fontana 8' voting block, including mayoral hopeful Swan. The final councillor involved, Dale Henderson, was not seeking another term.

The new council will also be quite a bit younger than the previous group, with numerous members in their thirties and even a few in their twenties.

And while some are predicting a rocky four-year term, the newly-elected members of council say youth will bring energy and new ideas.

Salih, 28, says "London is progressive and we are going to make some noise and make things happen for all Londoners."

Park, 32, adds, "I think it's going to send a clear mssage to young folk that your voice matters. Everyone's voice matters. It doesn't matter how old you are or how rich you are, you matter."

Despite being newcomers, some also bring a wealth of experience in the community and professionally, which Ward 11's Turner predicts will speed up the learning process.

"It is going to take a bit of time for everyone to find their feet and learn about each other and learn how things work, but I have the utmost confidence that this is the group that is going to do it."

As for whether the departure of a number of fiscal conservatives signals a political shift as well, Hubert says we'll need wait and see.

"Lables just pigeon-hole and stereotype people. Let's let people settle in, let's let them see the issues of the day."

The previous council has two more meetings in November and the new mayor and council will officially take their positions on Dec. 1.