万锦市政竞选，谁是赢家？谁是输家？

 

市政大选结束了!虽然万锦市的选举结果公布得有点晚，但这并不影响选举的结果。许多助选的义工为了等结果，只到餐馆打烊也没有等到，他们很不开心，不知道自己助选的心血是否白流。只到晚上11点，万锦市政府的网站才公布了市政选举结果。

The voting is over and the results are in, albeit a little delayed in releasing for public consumption in Markham. Many unhappy campaign volunteers gathering at parties waited until the restaurants closed down and had to leave without knowing if their hard labour yielded results. Three hours after the designated time of 8:00pm on October 22, the City of Markham released the municipal election results on their web site.

 

在这次选举之后，万锦市的政治格局发生了翻天覆地的变化。在选举之前，我们知道有四名老议员不参加竞选。选举结束后，我们发现有六个新鲜新面孔进入万锦市议会。

Markham's political landscape underwent a dramatic change after this election. Prior to the election, we learned of the departure of four members from the Council. After the election, six new faces will now show up at the Council chambers.

 

万锦市长薛家平“不出所料”，连任市长一职。由于没有强有力的竞争对手，他甚至没有使劲去拉票。他的老对手科蒂克已经退休并搬出了万锦。今年的挑战者陈剑峰打出党旗来拉票，结果输得很惨。但我对陈所得到票数很惊讶，因为他从来没有涉足政治，根本就没有可能在市长竞选中获胜。

The “non-surprise” award goes to Mayor Frank Scarpitti. With no apparent competition, he did not even put up any campaign signs. His old rival Steve Kotyck from previous elections has retired and moved out of the city. The new challenger Steven Chen focused his campaign based on party affiliations and failed miserably. I was surprised at the number of votes going to Chen as he is not known to have acted in political circles, and is out of his league in the Mayoral race.

陈的票主要来自那些对薛不满的人，以及保守党的支持者。尽管薛家平的得票率从上次选举的70.9％上升到74.9％，我还是认为他的尝试取得了成功，在竞选开始时由几名有中国背景候选人掀起了“偷渡客”的争议，我原以为薛家平的得票率为此会下降，但显然这一争议对他毫无影响。

Chen was a magnet for the protest votes and the PC party members votes only. Nevertheless, I consider his attempt a success even though the Mayor's popular vote went from 70.9% last time to 74.9% this time around. I expected his popular vote to go down due to the controversy of “legal border crossers” stirred up by a couple of Chinese candidates at the start of the campaign but apparently he was not affected by it.

 

当晚最大的惊喜莫过于新当选的约克区议员汉密尔顿。他在四位当选的区议员中得票最高，成为万锦市副市长。这是汉密尔顿放弃竞选市议员后首次担任此职位。这场选举中的“受害者”是Nirmala Armstrong，她丢掉了区议员一职。由于汉密尔顿与市长薛家平的关系不好，这可能会在未来的市议会中出现有趣的对峙。

The biggest surprise of the night belongs to the newly elected Regional Councillor Don Hamilton. He becomes the Deputy Mayor after he garnished the highest vote totals of all four Regional Councillors elected. Don made his first attempt at this position after serving as the ward#3 councillor. The “victim” in this race is Nirmala Armstrong who is now excluded from the group of four regional councillors. Since Don Hamilton is not exactly on friendly terms with the Mayor, this can developed into some very interesting confrontations in meetings in future.

原约克区议员希思和吉姆琼斯的得票结果也令人失望。希思丢掉了万锦副市长的职位，而琼斯的得票从第二名到落到第四名，差一点丢掉席位。选举前，有十二名候选人竞选4个区议员席位。得票第5到7的区议员候选人需要把他们自己的得票加大一倍，大约15,000票，才有机会打败现任区议员。目前区议员竞选的模式不再搞许多演讲和辩论，让新人有机会展现自己的口才和能力。这对现任议员非常有利！

Regional Councillors Jack Heath and Jim Jones are disappointed as well. Jack lost his position as Deputy Mayor while Jim Jones went from second place to fourth and last qualifying spot on the slate and barely retained his seat. There were twelve candidates trying to get onto the four spots available. The next group of three new candidates would need to double their vote counts of roughly 15,000 to have any chances of unseating the incumbents. The current campaign formats no longer allow for many speeches and debates to highlight the candidates' platforms and articulations to the public. This works to the tremendous advantage of the incumbents!

万锦第一选区选出了新议员爱尔兰，并让曾当过一届市议员的肖尔的复出成为泡影。第二选区仍被根深蒂固的何胡景牢牢掌握。 Larry Lau在该区得票第二，得票多于蒋嘉勤（今年早期曾竞选安省保守党在Unionville的提名，最终输给了当上省议员的彭锦威）。

Ward#1 elected a new councillor Keith Irish and snuffed out the attempted comeback of one time councillor Howard Shore. Ward#2 returned Alan Ho who is now deeply entrenched. Larry Lau came second as a first time candidate much to our surprise, ahead of Charles Jiang (a nominee for Ontario PC party at the Unionville riding and lost to eventual MPP Billy Pang).
 

 

第三选区市议员一席被Reid McAlpine夺得。他是Unionville居民协会的副主席，且第一次参选。 虽然“华裔选票”在这场竞选中发挥了作用，但Jennifer Carrie Wan和Ed Law将票分流。不管怎样，McAlpine是一个更有经验的市政事务人员，选民也认可他。第四选区被现任议员Karen Rea拿走，她的得票最高（超过8100或77.8％）。得票第二的竞争对手Ivy Lee远远落在后面（1761票）。

Ward#3 went to Reid McAlpine, a vice president of the Unionville Residents Association and first time candidate. The “Chinese vote” came into play in this riding but the vote was shared between Jennifer Carrie Wan and Ed law. Regardless of this, Reid is a more experienced individual for municipal affairs  and the voters recognized him as such. Ward#4 was captured by incumbent Karen Rea who received the most votes for all elected ward councillors (over 8100 or 77.8%). The next competitor Ivy Lee was not even close (1761 votes).

 

中国移民占多数的第五选区有十三名候选人，且全部是新人，结果凯斯（仅1266票）夺得席位。这个数字很低，五位中国移民候选人合起来就可以击败他。Compass Chung参加了上届竞选，此次只得920票，排在第二名。 第六选区的唯一女候选人杨绮清夺到这一席位，王翔得票第二。似乎其他华裔候选人分流了王的选票。

Ward#5 with thirteen candidates, no incumbent, and a Chinese majority population elected Andrew Keyes (1266 votes only). This low number is enough as the votes were shared again by five Chinese candidates. Compass Chung was running last time and with his name recognition came in second at 920 votes. Ward#6 re-elected Amanda Collucci as the only Female Chinese candidate and Shawn Wang came second. The other Chinese male candidates seemingly diluted Wang's votes.

 

第七选区是“指定”的市议员乌斯曼与新人Kethika Logan Kanapathi厮杀的战场。后者是原市议员，但在省选中当选为省议员的Logan Kanapathi的女儿。双方都有党派重量级的政客为其撑腰。乌斯曼赢得了市长薛家平的全力支持。许多泰米尔裔的候选人分流了Kethika得票。

Ward#7 is a battle field between the “appointed” councillor Khalid Usman who replaced councillor Logan Kanapathi (elected as MPP) and his daughter Kethika Logan Kanapathi. Both sides summoned political Party heavyweights for endorsements. Usman won with the Mayor's dedicated support. The many Tamil candidates running definitely had a detrimental effect on Kethika's vote counts.

 第八选区选出了一名新议员李诗韵。她曾是华人社区一家电视台的新闻主播。在上次选举中，李诗韵只拿到几百张选票而被淘汰出局。原市议员赵善光临阵退选，但他的名字仍然在选票上，并获得893票。从第六选区（上届选举）转战到该选区的劉秉純医生表现不佳，排名第三。

Ward#8 elected a new councillor Isa Lee, a one-time news anchor at one of the Chinese TV stations. Isa was edged out by Alex Chiu in the last election by a couple of hundred votes. Alex dropped out of the race but his name remained on the ballot and picked up 893 votes. Doctor Benson Lau who shifted from Ward#6 (last election) did not do well at all and came third.

我将对此次市选进行更多的分析，并会在下篇文章中与你分享。

I have more thoughts about this election and will share them with you next time.