Graydon Smith will serve for a third term as mayor of Bracebridge.
The incumbent unofficially won in his mayoral race against former district councillor Lori-Lynn Giaschi-Pacini with 4,457 votes. Smith says he’s warmed by the support he continues to receive from the residents of Bracebridge.
“I want to thank the people of Bracebridge for continuing to support me,” says Smith. “The chance to do it for another four years is very gratifying.”
He’s also saying thank you to Giaschi-Pacini for over a decade of work sitting as a councillor at the Bracebridge table.
“I want to thank Lori-Lynn who has just been an excellent councillor for the last 12 years.”
Looking ahead Smith says there’s a lot of work to get back into during his next four years as mayor.
“There [are] still some outstanding capital issues around the Arena-Library complex and we need to be looking forward to what we’ll be doing with the Timber-Mart lands,” says Smith. “There’s a lot of people in the community that have a lot of different opinions on what needs to be tackled, so we’ll still be consulting with them.”
Smith will be joined by some familiar faces around the table when the new council officially sits in December. Councillors Steve Clement and Don Smith will return as district representatives alongside Rick Maloney, who is new to the district side of the table.
Meanwhile, Chris Wilson, Barb McMurray, Archie Buie and Mark Quemby will continue to serve their original wards. Andrew Struthers is the new face at the table as he takes over for Rick Maloney in Macaulay ward.
Smith says he looks forward to starting the next term with this new council in December.
“I think there’s something to be said for continuity and there’s something to be said for new faces and new ideas,” says Smith. “We welcome Andrew and congratulate him, and I know he’ll fit into a group of good thinkers and people that like to have healthy debate around the table and exchange good ideas.”
Smith says this core group has worked well together in the past and will continue to do good work over the next four years.
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