New Council Elected, Shirley Keaveney to Become Mayor

Meaford voters have cast their ballots, and have elected the members of the next term of council. Current Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney will become Meaford’s next mayor, and she will be joined at the council table by Rob Uhrig as Deputy Mayor (acclaimed), and Tony Bell, Darcy Chapman, Brandon Forder, Amanda Greenfield, and Adam Vaughan filling the regular council seats.

The voting period ended at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 26, and 30 minutes later the votes had been tallied and the unofficial results had been posted by the municipal clerk. The certified election results will be posted on the municipal website later this week.

Mayoral candidate Shirley Keaveney received 2,627 votes, roughly 300 votes more than second place finisher Justin Perks, who earned 2,342 votes. Though she announced the withdrawal of her candidacy on October 16, the opening day of the 11 day voting period, mayoral candidate Caryn Colman’s name remained on the ballot, and she received 115 votes.

Current member of council Rob Uhrig was unopposed in his bid for the position of Deputy Mayor, and has therefore been acclaimed.

Of the five elected regular councillors, newcomer Amanda Greenfield earned the highest vote count with 3,378 votes, followed by incumbent Brandon Forder with 3,041 votes, first time candidate Adam Vaughan with 2,595 votes, incumbent Tony Bell with 2,569 votes, and former Meaford treasurer and first time candidate Darcy Chapman with 2,477 votes.

At the time of publication, the municipality had not yet released the total number of ballots cast, or the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots, however by 10 a.m. on election day, October 26, more than 4,200 Meaford voters had already cast ballots, representing 36.5 percent of eligible voters, nearly matching the 36.77 percent of eligible Meaford voters who cast ballots in the 2022 municipal election. Voter participation data will be published as it becomes available.

The new term of council will begin on November 15, and staff are planning for the inaugural meeting of the newly elected council to be held on Monday, November 16.

Below is the full list of candidates and the votes they received:

Mayor