Deans makes it eight straight

It’s hard to beat Diane Deans.

With just over 56 per cent of the vote unofficially, Deans won her eighth consecutive term for Gloucester-Southgate ward, an area she has represented since 1994 in pre-amalgamation Ottawa.

Unofficially, voter turnout was about 38 per cent.

“I am inspired by the ward I represent,” Deans said. “It’s diverse and engaged. This community continues to support me and I continue to support them.”

Coming in second with a relatively strong challenge was businessman Robert Swaita, owner of KS on the Keys restaurant. He finished with about 31 per cent of the ballots.

Further back with eight per cent was Alek Golijanin, who has worked on humanitarian projects, Perry Sabourin, a social work graduate working in social and developmental services, followed by Sam Soucy (three per cent) a political attaché for an MP, and Perry Sabourin (two per cent), a social work graduate working in social and developmental services.

The top priority of Deans’ campaign was community safety.

She has supported reinstating community policing, a model of policing in which officers become familiar with the neighbourhoods and people where they work. Pockets of Gloucester-Southgate have been hit hard by street violence and ward residents have called for more community officers.

Deans will be one of seven women on city council during the coming term of office.

In March, Deans proposed creating a city hall women’s bureau to bring a “gender lens” to how city council decisions affected women differently from men.

During her stint as chairwoman of the city’s transit commission, OC Transpo adopted a policy allowing riders to request being let off buses between stops after 7 p.m. so they had less distance to walk in the dark.