Toronto Centre-Rosedale winner celebrates

Ward 27 winner Kristyn Wong-Tam is all smiles as she works the room at her victory party and her supporters recount the night's horse race between Wong-Tam and Ken Chan.
Wong Tam says her first act as councillor will be to meet with local citizen groups, Rob Ford and other councillors.

10:07 p.m. One poll left

One poll is left to report in Ward 9, where incumbent Maria Augimeri is currently up by 23 votes. The tabulator broke down at that poll and votes are now being manually counted in Scarborough, where the elections head office is. 
Augimeri's staff has driven out to Scarborough and her supporters at the victory party are waiting for outcome.

10:01 p.m. Ford says people of Toronto are united

Toronto mayor elect Rob Ford says he ran a disciplined and tireless campaign and that his was a victory for every Torontonian. “They want change and they want respect,” Ford says of his voters.
Taxpayers said “enough is enough,” he tells a cheering throng at the Toronto Congress Centre. “People of Toronto are not divided, they are united,” he says.
“For people who didn’t vote for me, I will work harder to earn your trust,” Ford says.

Mayor elect Rob Ford promises to answer “every email, every telephone call” to city hall and to add 100 police officers, while cutting political retirement accounts. He says he will protect essential services, “especially for the most vulnerable” in the city.

9:54 p.m. Aurora Mayoralty Race

Incumbent Mayor Phyllis Morris, formerly a three-term councillor, and deputy mayor, failed to win re-election in the town of Aurora.
Fighting mostly on a pro-environment and anti-developer platform, Morris was defeated by Geoff Dawe by a margin of 4,500 votes.
Aurora’s code of conduct and its integrity-commissioner position have been hot topics during the campaign — a number of mayoral candidates have vowed to scrap the latter and take a close look at the former.
But the election has been relatively quiet compared to the raucous events of the summer of 2009, when Aurora council was bitterly divided, with one camp favouring Morris and the other, her vocal, long-time critic, Councillor Evelyn Buck.
The two were embroiled in a nasty battle that started with Buck’s outspoken political blog and culminated in a $5.2-million lawsuit that Buck filed against Morris and five other council members, alleging they abused their power by launching an ethics complaint against her.

 

9:49 p.m. Ford attributes win to hard work

“It’s just hard work, everyday getting up and getting out,” Ford says of his victory.

9:45 Ford greeted by supporters

Mayor elect Rob Ford mobbed by elated crowd at the Toronto Congress Centre

Voter turnout, 9:33 p.m.

The hotly contested mayor's race in Toronto has produced a stunning increase in voter turnout -- although that still means only half the eligible voters cast their ballots.

Reflecting the intense interest in the battle between Rob Ford and George Smitherman, voter turnout in Toronto increased significantly over the 2006 election. Of 1.5 million eligible voters in Toronto, 750,719 cast votes in the city's mayoral race. That's a 50 per cent turnout, compared to 41 per cent in 2006.

Meanwhile,

Deputy Toronto mayor Joe Pantalone says he won’t run for mayor or council in next municipal election after finishing a distant third in mayoral race. “That part of my life is closed,” he says.

 

A cliffhanger in Ward 27, 9:28 p.m.

Waiting on pins and needles for the final four polling stations to report results in the Ward 27 battle. There are currently a little more than 400 votes seperating Wong-Tam (6866) from Chan (6438).

Caledon, 9:26 p.m.

Marolyn Morrison used a smart-growth platform to win her third term as mayor of this rural municipality along the Niagara Escarpment.

Her only challenger was veteran councillor Annette Groves, who took a decidedly more pro-development stance.

Morrison appeared near tears as early projections showed she more than doubled Groves' votes.

"Good always prevails and you are just so good," she told cheering supporters.

She said she wasn't surprised by the landslide, saying support was strong throughout the campaign, even in Groves' home community of Bolton.

"This is clear: a clear victory," she said.

 

 

Ward 15, 9:25 p.m.

Josh Colle has edged out Rob Davis in a Ward 15 race that was a shining example of good old-fashioned, shoe-leather campaigning. With 42 of 44 polls reporting, Colle led with 6,027 votes to Davis’s 4,848. Davis and Colle quickly set themselves apart from the pack of contenders, with Davis saying he knocked on 23,905 doors -- and then went back for a second round.