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"A Family Tradition for 131 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, November 11, 1997 - 5 | Keith Bacon is the winner In a tight race for Ward 1 By Chris Hall Port Perry Star Keith Bacon will take the Ward 1 seat at the Scugog Township council table next month after he moved from second into the top spot late in last night's municipal election. While he appeared to have been lagging behind Port Perry High School teacher Dave Robinson -- he trailed by almost 40 votes after two poll reports -- the Marsh Hill Rd. resident made a leap into the top spot 45 min- utes later, when it was announced he had over- taken Mr. Robinson and led him by more than 90 ballots. The lifetime Scugog res- ident thanks the rural res- idents of the sprawling riding for his victory. "I've lived here all my life and a lot of people have | Keith Bacon known me for a long time. I look at the whole thing and maybe the people who are new in the area -- those who just moved to Manchester and Port Perry don't know me -- but I believe that it was the rural vote that carried me in this election," he said shortly after Mr. Robinson conceded defeat. While politely accept- ing his defeat, Mr. Robinson added that he did not believe that the problems between Ontario's government and teachers soured the voters on him. He is the union head at PPHS, and was a spokesman for teachers here during their two week strike. "We ran a good a clean campaign, but the voters made their choice," he said. "When I went door- to-door, I had no sense from the people that I talked to that they held anything against me because of my job," he said. Mr. Bacon collected 529 votes, while Mr. Robinson picked up 435. Placing third in his second attempt at the Ward 1 seat was Barry Johnston with 335 votes, while Allan Bailey pulled up the rear with 120. will keep his seat on , Scugog council after af g former councillor In the closest race of the 1997 municipal elec- tion, Jim McMillen defeat- ed Wendy Davis by just 13 votes to capture the Ward 3 seat. With just the results of just six polls left to be released, Mr. McMillan lead by 21 votes. As the final stations reported, Ms Davis made a late charge, but ultimately fell short. In total, Mr. McMillen received 269 votes, com- pared to Ms Davis' 256. Before the final polls were announced, Mr. McMillan admitted that the results would be tight. "It's going to be a close one. I'm going t to have to EE EEE Jim McMillen do some research and get familiar with a few things before we start," he said. Throughout the cam- paign he said there was no animosity among the four candidates, even though his Scugog Island McMillen captures Ward 3 neighbor and friend Nick Palladino was one of his competitors. While out of the run- ning in '97, Ms Davis says she plans to make a run for Mr. McMillan's chair in the new millennium. "Of course I'm disap- pointed, but'l tried my best and I learned a lot. I told Jim that I plan on giv- ing it another shot in three years," she laughed. Running behind Ms Davis was Mr. Palladino with 164. Rounding out the Ward 4 votes was Jeff Brown, who said he too would give it another shot in three years: "If at first and at second you don't succeed, try again." ww ee CONCEDING DEFEAT: Howard Hall (left) offers his congratulations to new mayor Doug Moffatt last night at the Latcham Centre in Port Perry. Mr. Moffatt gathered 2,563 votes compared to the incumbent's 2,216. John Wolters also turned in a strong showing, winning Cartwright and gathering 1,613 ballots. J. PETER HVIDSTEN/PORT PERRY STAR It's Moffatt as mayor in Scugog From page 1 cil) all care deeply about this munici- pality." Howard Hall arrived at the Latcham Centre about 10:30 PM election night to concede to defeat to Moffatt and told the crowd there that "you win some, lose some and get some by acclamation." "I am a bit surprised (at the results) I must say that. But we'll just carry on," said the long time Port Perry resi- dent. In a brief interview later with the Star, Hall said he is "disappointed, but not mad or angry" with the results. But he had some words of warning for the mayor elect about what he called "Regional bashing." e (Moffatt) won't be too darn wel- come at the Region. He's going to have some problems," said Hall. 'And he said he is very disturbed that Moffatt has talked about taking Scugog out of Durham Region. "Phat's not our decision to make," said Hall. "That will be made by the provincial government." Asked to assess if there was a single issue that led to his defeat Monday, Hall said he did not get a sense of one major problem being voiced by the elec- torate during the month-long campaign. He said he was surprised at how well Wolters polled and suggested that this may have cut into this support. Also, he said he was hearing people say 'don't worry, Howard, you've nothing to worry about.' When I hear people saying that, I get worried," said Hall. As for the future, Hall, who has been active in civic affairs all his life, said he has no immediate plans, but his days in politics are over. "We have a great community here. I just hope it stays that way," said Hall, adding that he's had a "good run in pol- itics," but now "I've had enough." John Wolters, who has known defeat at the polls before, was gracious in losing Monday night, offering congrat- ulations to Moffatt. "He (Moffatt) has a big responsibility ahead of him," Wolters told the crowd at the Latcham Centre. "We all have to co-operate with him as much as possi- ble." Wolters went onto suggest that his campaign seemed to build momentum in the last couple of weeks. "When I first started, my wife said I have rocks in my head and at first I thought she was right," he quipped, adding things brightened up consider- ably as election day neared. Official final vote tallies were not available as the Star went to press late Monday night, but Moffatt had about 2563 votes to 2216 for Hall and 1613 for Wolters. Hall, as expected, won his polls in Ward 2 (Port Perry) but not by a huge margin, and Moffatt won all ten polls in his home Ward 1 by a hefty margin. He was first elected to council as the Ward 1 rep in 1994.