Broad support across region pushed Redman to victory

WATERLOO REGION — Support for newly elected regional chair Karen Redman was broad and deep all across Waterloo Region in Monday’s municipal vote, in the region’s cities as well as its hamlets and rural areas.

Redman, now a regional councillor for Kitchener, will succeed Ken Seiling when the new council is sworn in on Dec. 1. Redman is a former MP, having served in both government and opposition in Ottawa from 1997 to 2008, including four years as chief whip for her party. She is also a former public school trustee and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region.

Redman’s win was definitive: she finished a strong first in all seven municipalities in the region, collecting more than 66,000 votes, or just over 62 per cent of votes cast. Redman ran against three other candidates in the first election to replace retiring Chair Ken Seiling, who is leaving after 33 years in the region’s top political post. Support for them was relatively consistent right across the region as well: former North Dumfries Mayor Rob Deutschmann came second in every city and township, netting just under 19 per cent of votes; former Waterloo city councillor Jan d’Ailly came third everywhere but Kitchener, with just under 10 per cent of votes cast, while business owner Jay Aissa came last in every municipality except Kitchener, where he got 208 more votes than d’Ailly.

Online and telephone voting problems Monday night forced the election to be extended to 8 p.m. Tuesday in Woolwich and Wellesley townships, delaying the final vote tally in the election of the regional chair, the only position for whom votes are cast in all seven municipalities. Support for Redman was highest in Kitchener, where she lives, and which she has represented politically since 1988. She got 67.5 per cent of the votes in her home city. Her support was lowest in North Dumfries, which is Deutschmann’s home. He picked up significant support in North Dumfries, winning 33.5 per cent of the votes, but still well behind Redman, who had 52.4 per cent. D’Ailly also enjoyed some home support. In Waterloo, d’Ailly got the most support in Ward 6, Central-Columbia, where he lives and where he picked up 13.1 per cent of votes cast. But Aissa didn’t see his biggest support from Ward 1 in southwest Waterloo, the ward where he lives. There, he garnered 9.3 per cent of votes cast, less than the 9.4 per cent he averaged across the city as a whole.