London has a new mayor

Good morning,

As of December 6/10, London Ontario will have a new mayor: Joe Fontana.

102,944 people voted for the position of mayor.

Fontana received 48,826 votes: 47.2% of the votes cast for that office.

Now, in case you want a bit more detail and accuracy*, let's look at the number of people who actually voted, because not all eligible voters did.

There are approximately 260,000 eligible voters in London.

102,944 of the 260,000 eligible voters voted for mayor: this means only 39.59% of people voted.

I have a sad feeling that, for a Canadian municipality, this is a 'not bad' voter turnout.

Take Fontana's 48,626 votes as a percentage of 260,000 and you find that only 18.7% of eligible voters in London voted for the person who will be London's mayor... for the next four years.

The mayor is one person on City council, and I was told recently two of the best things a mayor can do is bring people together and let councillors and staff get on with the work they are at City Hall to do.

I hope Mr. F. will do this.

And, to those who didn't vote ... if you happen to come to my station at the store where I work, I sure hope I don't have to listen to your complaints about City Hall.

Best regards to all,

Why's Woman

* numbers are based on results posted on the London City website as of 2:40 a.m., Oct. 26/10.