Melissa Durrell becomes Ward 7 councillor

Candidate Melissa Durrell has been declared winner in Waterloo Ward 7. Durrell now stands to be councillor in the ward with 1,653 votes, ahead of Peter Woolstencroft with 987 and Erin Epp with 819.

“Well, it means I’m no longer a reporter and I’m a politician,” Durrell said after the results were announced. “It’s kind of an exciting change of life in my late thirties.”

She talked about her campaign, organized in part by her father Jim, the former mayor of Ottawa. “I’ve met a lot of amazing people in Uptown Waterloo and I’m looking forward to working hard for them,” she added, emphasizing that her campaign was rooted in both traditional community engagement and social media.

“I door-knocked every door,” she explained, “I also ran a social media campaign. I tweeted all day, I Facebooked, I don’t know, maybe that helped?”

She explained the first steps she planned for her term. “It’s budget time – we’re pretty much going to have to jump right into it.”

“I’ve covered budgets on the other side as a reporter so it’s going to be really interesting covering it from the other side.”

With the large number of students in Ward 7, Durrell emphasized engagement with Waterloo’s universities moving forward. “I want to work with the students and administration at Wilfrid Laurier and see if we can make this city a little bit safer,” she said.

Results are unofficial