With both municipal and provincial elections happening this year, Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman has called a news conference for this afternoon to address his "political future."
The press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the State and Main restaurant on Cundles Road East.
The provincial election is set for June 2, while the municipal election is four months later on Oct. 24.
Lehman, 46, has been Barrie's mayor since 2010. He also represented Ward 2 as a city councillor from 2006 to 2010 before making his first run for mayor, defeating incumbent Dave Aspden.
Four years later, Lehman held onto the chain of office in a landslide victory that included 92.25 per cent of the ballots cast. He garnered 26,385 votes while his closest opponent had 1,181.
Lehman won his third mayoral term in October 2018 with 91 per cent of the vote.
He has also chaired Ontario's Big City Mayors' Caucus (OBCM), which represents the province's 29 largest cities, from 2014 to 2017, and again from 2021 until now.
Born in Toronto, Lehman moved to Barrie with his family at a young age, attending Allandale Heights Public School and then Barrie Central Collegiate Institute before obtaining a bachelor's degree from Queen's University in Kingston and then a master's degree from the London School of Economics.
We will have more information later today as details become available surrounding Lehman's announcement.
