The campaign is over and the dust is still settling, but Barrie’s mayor is already looking ahead to the next term.
Jeff Lehman was delivered an astounding mandate on Monday night by Barrie voters who cast a ballot in the municipal election.
Lehman pinned down his third term as mayor, and fourth overall once factoring in a stint as city councillor, by receiving just shy of 91 per cent of the vote to defeat challenger Ram Faerber.
The mayor said he hopes people still see him as a voice for change, “because that’s what I’m all about.”
Lehman is already eyeballing how the next four years could look and some of the pressing issues.
“Building the economy is always going to be Job 1, because this is not going to be a bedroom community,” Lehman told reporters Monday night at PIE restaurant along the lakeshore.
“We are our own economic centre and we’re going to carve our own path and chart our own course for the future.”
Lehman said he’d like to see the city build on its manufacturing and technology sector.
Another area he says Barrie residents want addressed immediately is the growing drug problem.
“There are other new challenges right now, no question,” Lehman said. “The opioid crisis has hit Barrie hard and that’s going to require a lot of organization and multiple levels of government to get together and really tackle this.
“That’s going to be an early task for council,” he added.
And what would a new term of city council be without discussing the topic of growth.
“We’re seeing the first communities start in the annexed lands now,” Lehman said of development in the city’s south end.
“We’re also seeing an unprecedented amount of condos and townhouses along our major and arterial roads, so as always with Barrie, one of the challenges is going to be making sure we get it right and we don’t get behind.”
Lehman said his message is the same as it was eight years ago in his first mayoral run: he wants to make the city a better place.
To make that happen, it will be with a decidedly new look around council table at city hall.
“The people who are going to join me on this next council have significant challenges, but we have an absolutely enormous responsibility as well,” Lehman said.
Returning from the last term are Lehman, Doug Shipley, Barry Ward, Sergio Morales and Mike McCann. New to the council chambers will be Clare Riepma, Keenan Aylwin, Robert Thomson, Natalie Harris, Gary Harvey and Jim Harris.
