2022 Windsor Municipal Election

Windsor held its municipal election on October 24, 2022, with voters choosing a mayor and 10 ward councillors. Incumbent mayor Drew Dilkens sought a third term against six challengers. Turnout continued a declining trend, falling to 31.6% — down from 35% in 2018 and 37% in 2014 — as approximately 50,000 of the city's roughly 158,600 eligible voters cast ballots.

Mayoral Race

Drew Dilkens won a third term with 26,018 votes, capturing 52.5% of the ballot. Ward 4 councillor Chris Holt mounted the strongest challenge, finishing second with 19,177 votes (38.7%). Matthew Giancola placed a distant third with 2,091 votes (4.2%), while four other candidates combined for the remaining 4.6%. Dilkens' margin of roughly 6,800 votes was narrower than his previous victories, reflecting a genuinely competitive two-candidate race in which Holt consolidated progressive support across the city.

Mayoral Candidates

Drew Dilkens has served as Windsor's mayor since 2014, when he succeeded Eddie Francis after eight years as Ward 1 councillor. A University of Windsor law graduate who also holds an MBA from Wayne State University, Dilkens practised labour and employment law at McTague Law Firm and served as an international trade officer at the Canadian consulate in Detroit before entering politics. He also spent 15 years as a staff sergeant with the Windsor Police Auxiliary. Dilkens campaigned on fiscal discipline, emphasizing his record of holding the line on property taxes. His top priorities included seeing the NextStar Energy battery plant through to completion, advancing the new regional acute care hospital, and downtown revitalization through a proposed economic development corporation.

Chris Holt represented Ward 4 on council from 2014 to 2022, vacating the seat to run for mayor. A fourth-generation Ford Motor Company employee who began working in production in 1994 and later trained as a tool and die maker, Holt also co-owned Chapter Two Brewing Company in the Ford City neighbourhood. He was re-elected to council in 2018 with 80% of the vote. Holt ran an ambitious progressive campaign, pledging to build 10,000 homes over five years and expand to 25,000 over a decade, invest in mental health and homelessness supports, and oppose the province's strong mayor legislation, which he called a "rather disgusting idea."

Five other candidates combined for less than 9% of the vote. Matthew Giancola, who focused his campaign on ending remaining COVID-era public health mandates, placed third.

Campaign Issues

The Stellantis-LG NextStar Energy electric vehicle battery plant was the most transformative development facing the city. Announced in March 2022 with an investment of more than $5 billion, the facility — located on a 220-acre site in Windsor — represented Canada's first large-scale EV battery manufacturing plant and was expected to create approximately 2,500 jobs. Construction began in August 2022, just weeks before the election. For a city built on the internal combustion engine, the plant symbolized a pivotal transition in Windsor's automotive economy, and both leading candidates pointed to it as central to the city's future.

The February 2022 blockade of the Ambassador Bridge cast a shadow over the campaign. For roughly a week, protesters associated with the convoy movement blocked the international crossing, disrupting an estimated quarter of all Canada-U.S. trade. The city obtained a court injunction and police arrested more than two dozen people to clear the blockade, with the city incurring approximately $1.8 million in costs. Dilkens had been a visible figure during the crisis, calling it a form of economic hostage-taking.

Housing affordability had intensified as a local issue, with the vacancy rate dropping to 2% and rental prices rising roughly 20% between 2020 and the election. The waitlist for affordable housing had more than doubled since 2016. Holt made housing the centrepiece of his platform, while Dilkens emphasized keeping taxes low and streamlining approvals. The long-awaited new regional acute care hospital — the mega-hospital project — also featured prominently, with Dilkens naming it as his top post-election priority.

Notable Ward Races

Seven of 10 incumbents were returned, and only one sitting councillor was defeated. In Ward 7, Angelo Marignani won on his sixth attempt at a council seat, defeating incumbent Jeewen Gill, who finished third with 25.9% as Marignani took 36.8% and Greg Lemay placed second with 30.9%. Two open seats produced the tightest races of the night: in Ward 4, vacated by Holt's mayoral bid, Mark McKenzie — a realtor and former radio host — edged Jake Rondot by just 28 votes in an eight-candidate field. In Ward 3, Renaldo Agostino won the seat of retiring councillor Rino Bortolin by 75 votes over Brian Yeomans in a nine-candidate race. Ward 10 also produced a close contest, with incumbent Jim Morrison holding off Mark Masanovich by 138 votes in a tight four-way race. The most dominant performances came from Kieran McKenzie in Ward 9, who won 72.4% of the vote, and Fred Francis in Ward 1 with 55.7%.