'Our best days are yet to come,' Drew Dilkens re-elected mayor of Windsor
Unofficial results project Dilkens to continue for a second term.
Windsorites have made their choice — Drew Dilkens will hold the mayoral seat for the next four years.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. With 102 polls reporting out of 113, Dilkens was re-elected with 59.2 per cent of the vote.
Five people ran for mayor in Windsor, but it has been perceived as a two-man race between incumbent Dilkens and Marchand for most of the campaigning period. Others who ran were Frank Dyck, Tom Hensel and Ernie Lamont.
"I want to thank you for allowing me to continue moving Windsor forward," said Dilkens during his speech. "I told you I'd build on that success and I did just that."
Marchand said he had a "great campaign."
"It was an experience I wouldn't change anything about," he said after his loss. "I think some of the ideas we put forward are going to continue on."
Some of those ideas he mentioned were having an in-house auditor general and his Windsor 2022 campaign on addressing homelessness and the opioid crisis in the city.
Dilkens took home 31,201 votes and Marchand received 18,626.
Surveillance, housing and no auditor general
Dilkens was first elected in the 2014 election. Throughout the campaigning period, he has been touting his four-year record of lowering the city's unemployment rate, improving the city's infrastructure such as roads and sewers and holding the line on taxes.
In this platform for the 2018 election, Dilkens promised to add Windsor police officers to the force and increase surveillance downtown in an effort to make the city's core safer.
He also spoke of implementing a service to allow people to report crime directly to the 911 dispatch centre through videos, pictures, text messages and file transfers.
Another part of Dilkens' plans also include affordable housing developments. One plan that has gone through council in the few months before voting day include the 150-unit development in the city's east end.
Throughout the campaigning period, Dilkens' opponents, especially Marchand, and council candidates have supported hiring an in-house auditor general.
However, Dilkens have remained strong on defending the city's use of an externally-hired auditing firm — PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"It doesn't improve your life. This is about you and doing what's right for you," said Dilkens during a mayoral debate with Marchand.
He brought a stack of papers, which he said were the 37 audits the firm has taken during his term.
Mayor Drew Dilkens addresses the crowd. <br><br>“I am the mayor for everyone in this city,” says <a href="https://twitter.com/drewdilkens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@drewdilkens</a> <a href="https://t.co/ByyT9FJwhY">https://t.co/ByyT9FJwhY</a> <a href="https://t.co/qm6hfhKPAd">pic.twitter.com/qm6hfhKPAd</a>
—@ChrisEnsingCBCNew council
- Ward 1: Fred Francis
- Ward 2: Fabio Costante
- Ward 3: Rino Bortolin
- Ward 4: Chris Holt
- Ward 5: Ed Sleiman
- Ward 6: Jo-Anne Gignac
- Ward 7: Irek Kusmierczyk
- Ward 8: Gary Kaschak
- Ward 9: Kieran McKenzie
- Ward 10: Jim Morrison
Dilkens thanked other candidates who ran against him and also across the city as councillors during his speech.
"By their nature, elections can be divisive affairs," he said. "Each of the candidates who stepped forward should be acknowledged, they should be thanked."
"I truly believe, our best days are yet to come."