Late Monday, Oct. 22, the unofficial winners of the 2018 municipal election were announced, putting Dave Jaworsky once more in the position of mayor of Waterloo and Tenille Bonoguore as the councillor for ward seven.
Jaworsky won in a landslide victory at 17,307 votes, obtaining over three times the votes of the next candidate, Kelly Steiss, at 5,530. Bonoguore won in what was comparatively a much closer race, getting 1,750 votes — 40.82 per cent — against Elizabeth Sproule’s 1,335.
However, the overall voter turnout once more reflects the unfortunate disinterest and apathy of the voting population towards municipal government, with 24,843 eligible voters participating — just 34.22 per cent. This is a decrease from 2014, which was 35.93 per cent.
On the optimistic side, ward seven had the highest voter turnout out of all the other areas of Waterloo. With a staggering 47.7 per cent involvement, the ward had an 11.67 per cent higher turnout than the next highest, ward one. Bonoguore, however, was not surprised.
“It usually does, we usually run higher than average. But as I was door-knocking, I was just encouraging people to vote, cause I really hoped that we would break 50 per cent and I’m so excited that we got close to that,” Bonoguore said.
Bonoguore, as newly elected ward seven councillor, will soon have the opportunity to focus on some of the ward-wide priorities that she sees as an issue, such as traffic, as well as getting a better understanding of the city’s current and future plans.
“To be honest though, I was not hugely surprised at the turnout, because everywhere I went, people were engaged.”
“They were interested and they really cared about what was going to be happening uptown and who was going to be in that space,” she said.
CBC News was the first to report on the victory party at Maxwell’s in Waterloo. Jaworsky took the opportunity to offer his first words to the rest of the voting population.
“I think the city spoke up and said the positive leadership is what we need in Waterloo and they looked at the track record of my council and our team at the City of Waterloo and said that’s what we want four more years of,” Jaworsky said.
“I’m very proud of what has happened here tonight getting such a major victory.”
According to an official blog post from Jaworsky’s campaign, he has clearly outlined what the next steps of his incumbency will hold.
“My platform for the next four years outlines my vision for keeping Waterloo’s economy growing, continuing to build our vibrant and caring community by supporting strong neighbourhoods and helping people get active,” Jaworsky said.
“It involves promoting public places though our facilities, including parks and libraries.”
“It focuses on the issues that matter most to you — our residents, including having an effective and efficient government,” he concluded.
Bonoguore, as newly elected ward seven councillor, will soon have the opportunity to focus on some of the ward-wide priorities that she sees as an issue, such as traffic, as well as getting a better understanding of the city’s current and future plans.
“There are issues [like traffic] in uptown west that are also being felt in uptown north and other parts of the ward,” Bonoguore said.
I would like to maybe bring some of these people together, to at least find out what’s happening across the board.”
“I’d like to get a good handle on what projects have been approved, what’s coming down the line and start piecing together that view of uptown, where it’s going and where we want it to go,” she said.
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