West Lincoln tops all Niagara municipalities with 43.54% voter turnout
Published October 26, 2022 at 9:45 am
Almost all of Niagara Region’s 12 municipalities had vote turnout in the 25-30 per cent range on Monday night.
Except one. West Lincoln with its population of less than 15,000 residents saw a staggering 43.54 per cent voter turnout, up from 38.46 for the 2018 municipal election.
Most of the observations centre around former Ward 3 councillor Cheryl Ganann and her hugely successful run against incumbent Maor Dave Bylsma.
Ganann won the race handily, collecting 68 per cent of the vote.
Both Bylsma and existing Ward 2 Councillor Harold Jonker, who also lost, were controversial figures coming into the election.
They were very vocal about their anti-vaccination stand and both took part in the February “Freedom Trucker” occupation of Ottawa. In fact, Jonker, who owns a trucking firm, said he was the first trucker to arrive.
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That instantly made him a media darling of the right wing media, such as the Toronto Sun and Rebel News.
Ganann has admitted that she didn’t talk about Bylsma on the campaign because in small town Niagara, everyone knew his stand.
In the end, she believes the vaccinated ‘silent majority’ had their say at the polls on Monday night.
Ganann and her Ward 3 councilmate William Reilly tried to have Jonker sanctioned for his February activities, claiming he was missing key committee meetings but to no avail.
Eventually, the town’s integrity commissioner did sanction him, saying he accepted food and gasoline from the protestors. Jonker refuted the gasoline claim but acknowledged he had accepted free food.
