WARD RESULTS,
1 Fred Francis 2 Fabio Costante 3 Rino Bortolin 4 Chris Holt 5 Ed Sleiman 6 Jo-Anne Gignac 7 Irek Kusmierczyk 8 Gary Kaschak 9 Kieran McKenzie 10 Jim Morrison
Rookie councillor Fred Francis will be back for another term at city hall after beating four challengers Monday night to keep his Ward 1 council seat.
“You can’t say thank you enough to the supporters,” Francis said. “You can’t say thank you enough to the volunteers.
“You’re humbled by the support that people are putting in you, and you certainly don’t want to let them down. “That’s a great responsibility. It’s a lot of trust that people are putting into you.
“I felt that four years ago, and I’m certainly looking forward to working as hard the next four years as I have the last four.” Francis garnered about 53 per cent of the vote, beating fellow candidates Matthew Ford, Wiquar Husain, Darcie Renaud and Krysta Glovasky-Ridsdale, who ran as a Green party candidate in Windsor West in the provincial election earlier this year. Francis, the 37-year-old brother of former mayor Eddie Francis, campaigned on a promise to continue fighting for one of his main focuses during his first term as councillor: holding the line on taxes.
He also touted the successes of his first term including millions of dollars in investments for his ward, such as turning the former South Windsor Arena into the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex, and $45-million in improvements to Cabana Road and tennis court resurfacing in Central Park. “From a campaign perspective, everyone does have a track record,” he said.
“I think it’s important that you run on your track record and hopefully people feel it is a good track record.”