Therrien unseats Bennett in mayoral race with 68.98% landslide
Diane Therrien is the new mayorelect of Peterborough.
Therrien, 32, has been a Town Ward councillor for four years; she won in landslide against Daryl Bennett, 70, who’d been mayor for eight years. by 19,254 votes (68.98 per cent) to 8,659 votes (31.02 per cent).
“Tonight is the beginning of a new spirit of teamwork and inclusivity,” she told a packed party at the Nexicom Studio at Showplace on Monday evening.
“So let’s do this together…. Let’s build the city we know is possible. When Peterborough wins, we all win. Please enjoy this moment — it is a night of celebration. Because tomorrow, we get to work.”
Therrien thanked her family and volunteers who’d helped her campaign.
“I also want to thank Daryl Bennett for a spirited campaign,” Therrien said. “We may have disagreed on a number of issues, but I have never doubted his commitment to this city.”
Therrien, 32, has been a Town Ward councillor for four years.
At his large gathering at The Social, Bennett gave formal remarks.
He told his supporters there
was no need for “long faces.”
“We’ve done what we needed to do to bring this city closer to its potential,” he said. “The people have spoken — and the people have a right to change. That’s what democracy’s about.”
Bennett also said he now plans to go back to his “roots”: meaning “business activity that benefits a lot of people.”
“This is not about us anymore — it’s about the next generation, and the next generation after them,” he said.
Results came in during Therrien’s packed party at Showplace’s Nexicom Studios at around 9:45 p.m.
Both the polls and online voting stayed open an extra hour in Peterborough — until 9 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. — because of technical issues with the online voting system.
The City of Kawartha Lakes experienced similar problems and extended voting until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
No problems were reported in the eight townships of Peterborough County, seven of which used only online voting this election. Havelock-Belmont-Methuen also had paper ballots.
Issues with the City of Peterborough’s online voting system began to appear around 6 p.m. Monday, with voters turning to social media to report difficulty with the online voting system.
By 7 p.m., a notice was posted to the city’s Twitter account stating that voting would remain open longer.
“Our internet voting system is experiencing technical issues,” the city advised voters. “We are working to resolve this issue asap. Please try voting again soon, or proceed to an in-person voting location.”
The problem was with the city’s internet voting provider, city clerk John Kennedy said, but the exact cause was not known.
The issue was widespread in Ontario: Some communities extended polls until later in the evening Monday while several other communities extended them until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Despite the troubles, voter turnout in Peterborough’s municipal election rose from 46.95 per cent in 2014 to 48.31 per cent.
Therrien’s campaign message was forward-looking: she proposed to bring in a car-share program such as Uber, to reduce speed limits in residential neighbourhoods and to push for a green bin program.
Therrien also spoke throughout the campaign about putting more money into the municipal fund to help pay the rents of tenants who are about to be evicted.
She also talked about the need to build apartments and townhouses in new subdivisions — not just single-family houses worth $500,000.
“I’m for good development,” she said at a campaign event on social issues at Peterborough Square on Oct. 2.
By “good development,” she said at that time, means “a variety of housing types ... and innovative, accessible and affordable housing.”
Therrien grew up in Mississauga, and later moved to Hamilton for undergrad studies. In 2010 she moved to Peterborough to complete her master’s degree in Canadian and Indigenous studies.
Bennett, 70, held his gathering across George St. at The Social.
Bennet, born and raised in Peterborough, has 50 years of business experience as an owner of the Liftlock Group, a group of city companies that includes Capitol Taxi, Liftlock Towing and several other businesses.
His campaign speeches often listed the many projects completed on his watch: Approval of the Lily Lake subdivision, for example (which Therrien voted against), as well as the reconstruction of roads such as Parkhill Rd. and Lansdowne St. He promised to have police crack down on downtown drug dealers.