Voters have returned a pair of familiar faces to City Hall in Ward 2.
In Monday’s municipal election, Rob Kloostra and Ralph Cipolla were both re-elected for another four-year term.
“I feel really good,” said Kloostra, who was enjoying a glass of wine at a party organized by victorious Mayor Steve Clarke at the Best Western Mariposa Inn Monday night. “I worked really hard for this.”
Kloostra said the revamped ward boundaries meant a lot of door knocking to ensure he could personally connect with citizens who were added to the ward.
“I hit as much of the new part of Ward 2 as I could,” said Kloostra, who said many of those people did not know him. “But everybody was happy to see me, we had a lot of great conversations, I was invited in often for tea … it was great.”
Cipolla said Ward 2 is unique.
“It’s a good mix of affordable housing, some very nice homes and everything else,” he said. “People were fantastic when I was knocking on doors.”
Cipolla, first elected to council in the 1970s, said he was “thrilled” to be re-elected in what he has said is his final term as a councillor. The re-election of the mayor and all six candidates seeking another term speaks volumes, he said.
“I think it says we’ve done a half-decent job,” said the long-time downtown merchant. “We could have probably done better, but we worked well together to make it work and created some really good economic situations for Orillia.”
Kloostra concurred.
“I think (the results) say the citizens are happy with the job we’ve been doing and are ready to continue on with the same group,” said Kloostra, an entrepreneur who, with his wife, owns Happy at Home and The Donut Line. “We all worked very well as a group.”
In the next term, Kloostra vows to finish the projects that have been started and also identified the creation of a transit hub as a priority.
Cipolla believes the new council has a lot of promise.
“If this council works together cohesively like we did in the past four years, I think we can do some really great things,” said Cipolla, who referenced moving forward with the ambitious Centennial Drive and waterfront development.
“I think the waterfront will be a great economic stimulus to our community,” he said, vowing to work to create jobs as part of that project.
He also pledged to keep taxes at or below the inflation rate. “People are just tired of having their taxes raised every year,” said Cipolla. “Taxpayers are counting on us to make it affordable to live in Orillia.”
The two incumbents were neck and neck as the results came in. In the end, Kloostra was the top vote-getter in Ward 2, earning 1,263 votes, while Cipolla was close behind with 1,223 votes in his favour.
“I feel great for my last term, but I wish I had beat Rob,” Cipolla joked.
Coming in third place was first-time candidate Tshweu Moleme, who garnered 829 votes. Harold Dougall, also running for the first time, finished fourth with 519 votes.
All results are unofficial.
