Scott Aitchison has been re-elected Mayor of Huntsville.
The incumbent won in a landslide, picking up 5318 votes. Peggy Peterson, the only other candidate in the race, garnered 1181.
Aitchison is entering his second term as mayor. He says he believes his strong turnout is a good indicator that people like what he did in his first term.
“I think it’s a confirmation of my style and my approach and the things that I feel are important for us to be focusing on. And I think that the community has said loud and clear that they agree with that and they want me to continue on doing what I’m doing,” he told the My Muskoka Now Newsroom on election night.
Aitchison says there are a lot of projects that got started in his first term that he’d like to see come to fruition in his second.
“We’ve started on a path to spend more money on roads, we’ve started on a path to try to get more affordable housing options available in our community, we’ve started on a path to save our hospital, and we’ve started on a path to get the Fairvern redeveloped and expanded in a beautiful new building. All those projects are underway and we need to continue on with those.”
Aitchison seemed positive and about getting those things accomplished. “Fairvern is getting closer and closer to reality and I’m feeling more and more confident about our hospital, but the work is not done.”
He said he does believe housing is a significant problem in Huntsville. “That’s probably the biggest job we have to do, is solve the housing crisis that we have in our community,” he said, adding that he, and all the members of council, are committed to solving it.
Aitchison says the housing problem isn’t just a social issue, but an economic development one as well.
“Every business I owner I talk to tells me the same thing. They have work, and they need people to work in those jobs, and they can’t find them, and when they try to find someone to bring them here they can’t find a place to live. They can’t find a place to rent; they can’t find a place to buy that’s reasonably priced. The housing issue is actually stifling business opportunity as well. It’s a major issue that crosses all areas and we need to deal with it.”
With that said the mayor says the roads in Huntsville are probably still the biggest issue that people tell him about. “It’s a prominent issue in people’s minds. They see we’re spending more money, and we need to continue spending more money and getting caught up on a huge, huge deficit of work that needs to be done on our roads.”
Overall Aitchison says he wants to get back to work serving the residents of Huntsville.
“I’m actually more than anything humbled and honoured by the faith that the community has put in me and I’m excited to start on the next four years. We’ve got a couple new members of council too and I’m looking forward to working with them and charting the course of the next four years.”