Northeastern Ontario municipal election results

The region's four largest cities — Greater Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie — will have new mayors, as the incumbents in each city did not run again.

Here are the unofficial results in northeastern Ontario.

Greater Sudbury

Paul Lefebvre will be Greater Sudbury's next mayor.

Lefebvre previously served as Sudbury MP from 2015 to 2021.

"We were hired to build a policy platform that would not only resonate with all residents, but would instill confidence in voters that in our great city, our best days are ahead of us," Lefebvre said during his victory speech Monday night.

He said city council needs to make it easier for citizens, developers and businesses to invest in the community and create jobs.

"My belief is that we must grow our tax base to control taxes. I have a stated goal of increasing our city's population to 200,000 people in 20 years, with more people and businesses paying taxes," he said.

Lefebvre said Sudbury is poised to become a leader in the green economy as demand continues to grow for critical minerals, which make up the components for electric car batteries.

Sudbury incumbent Brian Bigger dropped out of the 2022 mayor's race on Oct. 4 for personal reasons.

Most of the incumbent councillors are leading in their respective wards, but Ward 5's Robert Kirwan, who has 19 per cent of the vote, lost to Michel Parent with 81 per cent of the vote. 

In a tight race in Ward 4, councillor Geoff McCausland has been edged out by challenger Pauline Fortin, who won by just 106 votes.

Election results are unofficial until they are declared by the city clerk, which is expected to happen Tuesday. 

Timmins

Michelle Boileau was elected as mayor of Timmins with 61.4 per cent of the vote.

Boileau was previously elected to city council in 2018. She has said one of her goals is to end chronic homelessness in the city by 2025.

"It's been really positive out there on the campaign trail ... let's say we got a lot of love out there," said Boileau.

"What we were hearing a lot of was that people were just ready for a fresh perspective for Timmins, so I think that was what I was offering, I tried to run a very optimistic campaign, thinking about the future, trying to look forward and it seemed to really resonate with people."

Boileau, 33, told CBC News from her victory celebration in Timmins that she expects to have an early morning the next day.

"Well, I still have a toddler at home, so I expect to be up before 7 sometime," she said.

"Other than that, I've already told the team, don't talk to me about picking up signs or anything. We're just going to relax and have a bit of that Sunday morning feel tomorrow [Tuesday] morning that we haven't had in weeks, and weeks and weeks because I've been out every weekend on the door."

Former Timmins mayor George Pirie is now Ontario's minister of mines. He ran in the 2022 provincial election and was elected as Timmins MPP.

Rock Whissel was acclaimed in Ward 1. Lorne Feldman won in Ward 2 with more than 46 per cent of the vote.

Bill Gvozdanovic was elected in Ward 3 with just under 52 per cent of the vote. John Patrick Curley was elected in Ward 4 with 48 per cent of the vote.

The top four candidates in Ward 5 – Kristin Murray, Steve Black, Andrew Marks and Cory Robin – were elected in that ward.

North Bay

Peter Chirico was chosen as the new mayor of North Bay by a narrow margin. He received 49 per cent of the vote while opponent Johanne Brousseau got 44 per cent.

Chirico was president and chief executive officer of the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce. He campaigned on culture change at City Hall, openness, accountability and transparency.

In 2000, he was elected as a city councillor and worked as a city manager for a time. 

"After I left politics in 2012, there was always this little burning ember deep inside that said, 'You may want to give it another try.' So we did. We're here, I couldn't be prouder and I couldn't be happier."

Three incumbents for council lost their seats.

North Bay's new councillors are: Maggie Horsfield, Lana Mitchell, Justine Mallah, Chris Mayne, Mark King, Sara Inch, Tanya Vrebosch, Jamie Lowery, Gary Gardiner and Mac Bain.

Chirico said that when he was first elected in 2000, there were also significant changes in council.

"I'm looking forward to four years with this new council and I think we can work together well," he said.

Sault Ste. Marie 

Matthew Shoemaker was elected as Sault Ste. Marie's new mayor.

Shoemaker served two terms on council before running for mayor. He has said getting funding to establish a supervised consumption site in the city will be one of his first priorities as mayor.

"I thought it was going to be closer," Shoemaker said after his win. 

"I was feeling confident in the last several days that our message was resonating and the results might be in our favour, but I was surprised at the margin."

The next closest candidate for mayor Ozzie Grandinetti, had just under 25 per cent of the vote.

Previous Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano did not run for re-election. 

Sandra Hollingsworth and Sonny Spina were elected in Ward 1.

Luc Dufour and Lisa Vezeau-Allen were elected in Ward 2.

Angela Caputo and Ron Zagordo were elected in Ward 3.

Marchy Bruni and Stephan Kinach were elected in Ward 4.

Corey Gardi and Matthew Scott were elected in Ward 5.

Other municipalities

Jeff Laferriere, a city councillor, is the next mayor of Temiskaming Shores, beating out his nearest competitor by 500 votes.

In Elliot Lake, Chris Patrie, a longtime city councillor, has unseated two-term mayor Dan Marchisella by about 400 votes.

After losing to Cochrane's incumbent mayor, Denis Clement, by five votes in 2018, former mayor Peter Politis has won the seat back by a margin of more than 600 votes.

"You know, when you lose by five votes in the previous election ... once we saw the results, it really felt, the sense of relief was palpable," he said.

He said the previous council cut taxes, but he believes people voted for him because they saw the services they lost with those cuts.

In West Nipissing, political newcomer Kathleen Thorne Rochon was elected mayor, capturing 40 per cent of the vote.

She defeated town councillor Dan Roveda, who was decisively voted out, like the other three incumbent councillors who wanted to return after the last tumultuous few years of council infighting