2022 Orillia Municipal Election

Orillia held its municipal election on October 24, 2022. Voters elected a mayor citywide, two councillors in each of the city's four wards, and school board trustees. The mayoralty was open: on May 2, 2022, two-term mayor Steve Clarke announced that he would not seek a third term. He said he had made the decision with his family some time before, but had wanted to help ensure that council ratified its Climate Change Action Plan and closed a deal to transform the area between the waterfront and downtown. Three candidates ran for mayor and 27 for the eight council seats. 8,570 votes were cast, and the City estimated turnout at 32.4%.

Orillia elected its council at large, with every voter choosing all eight councillors, until September 20, 1999, when council decided to adopt four wards with two councillors each. The ward boundaries used in 2022 were approved by council on June 26, 2017, after a review by Watson & Associates, and first used in 2018.

Mayoral Race

Donald (Don) McIsaac was elected mayor with 4,861 votes, 57.3% of the 8,486 votes cast for mayor. Mason Ainsworth, a two-term Ward 3 councillor, received 3,345 (39.4%) and John Edward Maxwell 280 (3.3%). McIsaac finished 1,516 votes ahead of Ainsworth. The City's official results give the mayoral vote for the whole city only, not by ward, so the map shows the council races.

The field changed before nominations closed on August 19. Ward 2 councillor Rob Kloostra filed for mayor and withdrew on June 17. Ainsworth, who had filed to run for a third council term in Ward 3, then entered the mayoral race; he said he had been helping Kloostra's campaign until Kloostra withdrew.

In a Facebook post on September 28, Ainsworth alleged that people had tried to bribe him to leave the race "in return for a fully-funded councillor campaign" and had threatened to "come after" him if he did not back down. He did not name anyone. McIsaac said he was "not sure who or what Mason is referring to" and that he had decided "to take the high road at all times." Ainsworth took his complaint to the Orillia OPP the next day. On October 13, the OPP said its investigation "found no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges based on the information provided to police."

The Candidates

Don McIsaac, 66, was born and raised in Orillia. A chartered professional accountant, he spent more than 20 years working in the United States, where his posts included chief financial officer of Cirrus Aircraft and of Alimak Hek. He retired in September 2021 and moved back to Orillia in January 2022; OrilliaMatters described him as a political rookie. His father, Burt McIsaac, was the first mayor after Orillia became a city in 1969, his mother, Pat McIsaac, was mayor in the 1980s, and his uncle, John, also held the office. When he entered the race in June, he said Orillia needed a plan for its infrastructure, industrial land and future needs, made with Oro-Medonte and Severn, and named a new hospital, the environment, the possible annexation of land from neighbouring townships, and mental health and addiction as issues.

Mason Ainsworth, 30, was first elected in Ward 3 in 2014. A Lakehead University graduate and mortgage agent, he promised a "pragmatic" approach and said his priority as mayor would be a council that works together. At a Rotary Club forum on October 4, he listed his priorities as basic infrastructure such as roads, sidewalks and ditches, support for local businesses, and partnerships with community organizations and neighbouring municipalities.

John Edward Maxwell, who described himself as a retired manufacturer, had run for mayor against Clarke in 2014 and received 900 votes. He listed infrastructure, the cost of living and business as his priorities.

Campaign Issues

McIsaac said the issues he heard most while canvassing were finding a doctor, the cost of living and finding an affordable home, along with homelessness, drug and opioid addiction, and mental health. At least one councillor elected in each ward named housing or homelessness as a main issue or priority. Physician recruitment was raised by both Ward 3 winners and was the subject of a question at the Rotary forum.

At a student forum on October 20, Ainsworth said that after the 2018 election council had doubled its investment in basic infrastructure; McIsaac replied that "the roads are a mess." On the possible annexation of land from neighbouring townships, which McIsaac had raised, Ainsworth said he was "not interested in taking anybody's land"; after the election, Ward 4 councillor Tim Lauer listed annexation among the pressing issues for the new council. In Ward 2, Luke Leatherdale said people were "very unhappy about our waterfront and how it's being changed." In Ward 4, Janet-Lynne Durnford said local transit, the city's climate action plan and pollution in the lakes were among the biggest concerns she heard.

Council

Four incumbents were re-elected and four new councillors were elected, giving the council five new members including the mayor. Rob Kloostra was the only incumbent defeated.

• Ward 1: David Campbell, first elected in 2018, topped the ward with 1,202 votes, and newcomer Whitney Smith won the second seat with 951. Ted Emond, a long-time councillor and former mayor, retired. Kloostra, who had served two terms in Ward 2, ran in Ward 1 after leaving the mayoral race; he finished third with 475.
• Ward 2: Nine candidates ran, the most in any ward. Ralph Cipolla, first elected to council in 1977 and a councillor in the late 1970s, from 2003 to 2010 and since 2014, won a sixth term with 740 votes. Newcomer Luke Leatherdale took the second seat with 708, 72 votes ahead of Gilles Depratto (636).
• Ward 3: Jay Fallis won a second term with 1,310 votes, up from 984 in 2018. Jeff Czetwerzuk, 26, the youngest member elected to the new council, took the second seat, open after Ainsworth ran for mayor, with 830 votes, 67 ahead of Elizabeth Van Houtte (763).
• Ward 4: Tim Lauer, returning for a seventh term, received 1,326 votes, the most of any council candidate. Janet-Lynne Durnford, in her first run for council, won the second seat with 919 votes, 19 more than Paula Hill-Coulson (900): the narrowest margin for a final seat in any ward. Pat Hehn, the ward's councillor for two terms, did not seek re-election.

Voting and Turnout

Voting was in person. In September 2021, council voted 5–4 against a staff recommendation to adopt internet and telephone voting for 2022. Voters marked paper ballots by filling in ovals, and optical-scan tabulators counted them; accessible ballot marking devices were available at every voting location. On election day, each ward had one voting location.

Advance voting set a record: 3,842 people voted on the five advance voting days, the highest number in the City's advance-vote figures since 1985 and 44.8% of all voters, compared with 3,253 (37.8%) in 2018. The City estimated overall turnout at 32.4%. Its certified results recorded turnout of 36.17% in 2018 (8,596 ballots from 23,766 registered voters) and 40.13% in 2014 (9,232 of 23,003).