Sudbury voters make bigger come back for a second term as mayor

Even though he won less than a third of the votes cast, Brian Bigger was re-elected Mayor of Greater Sudbury.

Bigger was delighted Tuesday night while he was addressing a crowd of supporters at the Ambbadador Hotel.

"We did it," he said. "They said it would be difficult to get re-elected and that they were absolutely right."

It was an energetic run between Bigger, Patricia Mills – who finished second with 18.8% of the vote – and Dan Melanson, third, with 16.7% of the vote. Cody Cacciotti was fourth with 15.6% of the vote.

Bigger, who won with just over 28% of the vote, is the only mayor since the merger in 2001 to be re-elected for a second term. His margin of victory, however, was very small. In 2014, Bigger garnered 27,303 votes, or 46.32% of the popular vote, to easily defeat Dan Melanson.

Bigger nonetheless said that he was happy with his victory time.

"I am very humbled by the decision of the people to allow me to be the mayor for a second term," he said. "Many people recognize the progress and decisions we have made and see the momentum of our community."

He claimed to have been re-elected with a gentlemen's campaign that did not include intimidation of other candidates nor jubilation.

"Our team has vowed to stay positive and always take the high road," he said. "It's something that is very important to me. That's the approach I've always taken and we've decided that's the way to go. For me, this means that Sudbury residents believe that being nice is not a sign of weakness and that bullying is never acceptable. "

One of the first things Bigger will do in his next term is to refine the strategic plan. And of course, he plans to go to the roads. He also plans to work with companies and developers, "to encourage investment" and to develop the tax base. He added that creating jobs would also be one of his strengths. "Our work is not over and we will continue to work on it," he told reporters.

Eleven people competed for Mayor, including incumbent President Bigger; former journalist and president of the NEO Kids Foundation, Mills; and Melanson, who also ran in 2014. They emerged early in the race as three main contenders.

Cacciotti of the Capreol Railway Museum has joined them in their quest for the chain of functions; Bill Crumplin, professor of urban design at Laurentian University, who appeared in the Nickel Belt in June for the Green Party; Jeff Huska, an employee of Health Sciences North who served on the boards of directors of the Public Health Unit and United Way; Ron Leclair, self-proclaimed mayor of the people; Bill Sanders, artist and funny man; Rodney Newton; former NHL player Troy Crowder, who appeared in June for the PC Party; and the long-time candidate David Popescu.

It was a tight pitch with several qualified candidates who could have made an excellent mayor.

While challengers routinely criticized Tom Davies Square for its treatment of the city's roads and the lack of affordable housing in Sudbury, they also focused most debates on homelessness, addictions and mental health.

But the only thing that really galvanized the candidates was the Kingsway Entertainment District. Everyone had an opinion. Leclair and Bigger were firmly pro-KED; However, most other candidates mentioned process issues. Huska and Crumplin, meanwhile, were flatly opposed to the project. Mills was gracious but also provocative on Tuesday after finishing second ahead of incumbent Brian Bigger in the mayoral race.

"We have not lost tonight, Sudbury lost tonight," she told a group of supporters at her campaign headquarters on Tuesday night. "And I think our relationship is not over."

Mills performed well for a first candidate with 9,746 votes, or almost 19% of the total, but that was not enough to pbad it to the incumbent, who received 14,684 votes (28.32%) .

Nevertheless, the only candidate for the mayor's race said that her campaign was not in vain.

"We have accomplished a lot," she said. "We have highlighted the need for wise use of our money and have drawn attention to our vibrant neighborhoods and the need to invest in all our downtowns."

She congratulated Bigger on his re-election, as well as newly elected and newly elected neighborhood councilors, while urging them to ease tensions.

"The council has been a source of division and I hope that they will be able to come together and work in unison," she said. "There is so much to do."

She also paid tribute to other mayoral candidates who "had the courage to take a step forward and make a difference. I have learned a lot from their ideas and expertise, and hope that they also learned from me. "

Mills pointed out that the election revolved around tough choices and diametrically opposed positions: "you were for or against the KED; you were either in favor of big spending, or in terms of fiscal prudence, "said the city will have to find common ground to move forward.

"It's time for us to end the divide," she said. "We needed to unite and unify our city. There are so many challenges to face and what the city needs now is support and co – operation. We must repair our wounds. "

She thanked her family and supporters, including Evelyn Dutrisac, Jim and Donna Gordon. She said her campaign had the best social media channels and was also the "best campaign", jokingly pointing out that some people had talked about "changing the color scheme of their homes in teal and white".

And despite the lengthy elections, which upset the parties scheduled for vote count, Mills on Monday described it as "one of the best days of my life."

And she repeated that her campaign was not futile. "What you've all helped me do is raise important issues that are critical to the future growth of our city," she said. "The campaign does not end."

Mills was one of the first to take part in the mayoral race. She launched her candidacy three days after Cody Cacciotti and a few days after Bigger filed her papers.

From the first day, the former newspaper editor and president of the NEO Kids Foundation has expressed outrage at the amount of public funding allocated to several large-scale projects in the city, including that of Kingsway Entertainment District, without sufficient information is provided to taxpayers.

Residents "do not understand the facts," she said at the launch. "I would not buy a house on Ramsey Lake for $ 1 million if I did not have the facts of my mortgage" why do we do it with our taxes? "

She said that she "does not wait for the future if we do not find out where the money comes from, who is involved, who pays what."

In subsequent statements, Mills said the board could have followed a different route that would have cost taxpayers less, and promised to explore a funding model in which the developer would badume more of the burden.

"If we share the site with other partners, is it not reasonable to expect these partners to bear their share of the costs?", She said in a statement. "Instead, taxpayers pay 100% of the costs because of the mismanagement of the transaction by the mayor."

Mills also explained the state of the city's roads, saying she would test different pavement application models to determine what worked best in the weather conditions of Greater Sudbury.

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