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Orangeville elects two newcomers, returns three incumbents

October 29, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

The results are in, and Orangeville voters have spoken.

Incumbent Mayor Lisa has been returned to office by a wide margin, receiving 4,804 votes, followed by Jeremy Williams with 1,868, Sandy Brown with 1,408, Christopher DeCastro with 561, and Nick Garisto with 535.

Incumbent Todd Taylor won the deputy mayoral race with 5,496 votes, compared to his sole competitor, Sheila Hall, who received 2,302.

Three of five council seats are being filled by incumbents Joe Andrews, Debbie Sherwood and Tess Prendergast. Two new faces on council are Carrie-Anne DeCaprio and Matthew Smith.

They will begin serving their four-year council term on Nov. 16.

All of the successful candidates gathered at the Taphouse in Orangeville on Oct. 26 after the results came in.

“I think reflecting on the campaign, we ran our campaigns with a lot of positivity, but also a lot of honesty. There was never a time where we were going to tell a constituent something that they wanted to hear in order to get a vote,” said Post.

“It’s such an honour that the community is putting their trust back in me and I won’t let them down. I’m going to keep showing up every day like I do with leadership, with passion, with honesty, with integrity.”

Post said she’s happy to see incumbents returning to council and looking forward to working with newcomers DeCaprio and Smith.

“I think they both bring different skill sets that are really going to round out the council in a strong way,” she told the Citizen.

Taylor shared that he felt relieved after the results came in, noting the importance of having a qualified group of people representing the town.

Looking ahead, he said addressing financial pressures will require Orangeville to rethink how it works with neighbouring municipalities and the county.

“We are going to have to explore our relationship with the other municipalities and find a new way of working together,” Taylor said. “Part of that could be land acquisition. It could be ways of working in terms of agreements that we have with them financially.”

Returning to council, Andrews shared a similar sentiment surrounding the acquisition of neighbouring lands.

I think we’ve got to do a better job of trying to attract additional business and also looking at expansion of our business industrial land,” he said. “That is probably our biggest Achilles heel right now — not having enough land to expand.”

Reflecting on his past term of office, Andrews, who sits on the town’s economic development committee, highlighted over $65 million in new business investment in Orangeville.

He said his focus going forward is finding ways of reducing the tax burden on residential ratepayers, with a view of attracting new business investment.

Coun. Sherwood, who was also re-elected, said critiquing the town’s budget will be a priority.

“We heard over and over that taxes are high, and we might have put [forward] increases that were a little bit burdensome to some people, so I really want to make sure that we’re really cautious with our budgeting,” she said.

Sherwood also pointed to transit as an area requiring attention. She shared that residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the service during her campaign.

“We’ve heard over and over, it’s just not working,” she said. “I think that’s going to be one of the priorities, and of course we want to make sure that we can get some affordable housing in here as well.”

While financial pressures and economic development remain priorities, returning Coun. Tess Prendergast said she looks forward to working with the town’s newest councillors on environmental initiatives.

“I am encouraged to work with new Coun. Smith on the environment portfolio. As he was a member of Sustainable Orangeville, I think we have a lot of work that we can accomplish together. We aligned on that topic for sure,” Prendergast said.

Reflecting on the canvassing period, she told the Citizen, “I ran a positive campaign, and it gave people hope.”

She continued, “There’s so many things that we can do at a local level, and each individual has the potential to affect change in their community.”

Smith, who is entering municipal politics for the first time, is hoping to bring that potential for change to town council.

He said pedestrian safety was a concern he heard repeatedly from residents during the election, particularly around school zones and routes children use to get to school.

“Something as simple as crossing the street shouldn’t be unsafe,” Smith said.

Looking at ways to support active transportation could help to reduce congestion and increase safety, he said.

Part of Smith’s success on the campaign trail can be attributed to his civic engagement in the lead-up to the election. He’s attended almost every Orangeville council meeting over the past four years and posts relevant information online to keep residents informed about what’s happening at town hall.

“Keeping people in the loop, keeping people informed. People appreciated that. Just knowing what’s going on,” Smith said.

He also took a hands-on approach to understanding the town’s transit system, riding Orangeville Transit to experience its routes from a passenger’s perspective.

The experience helped him better understand the challenges riders face, which he hopes to bring forward as a member of council.

Fellow newcomer to council, Carrie-Anne DeCaprio, said her approach will centre on how municipal decisions affect residents.

“At the end of every conversation I had, at the end of every social media post, my slogan and the way I build my life is, ‘People matter most,’” she said. “At the end of the day, every decision will affect the people that are living in Orangeville, so that’s the lens that we need to be thinking about.”

Her four core pillars are collaboration and advocacy, affordability, responsible growth, and accessibility.

DeCaprio said affordability is a growing concern, pointing to the cost of living, increased use of food banks and the town’s unhoused population. She said council must scrutinize spending while considering the effects of its decisions on residents.

Under responsible growth, particularly youth development, she suggested collaboration with local organizations to find additional funding and bring groups together.

Accessibility was another focus of her campaign. DeCaprio held “coffee and conversations” at local venues throughout the campaign to meet residents where they feel comfortable and hear their concerns.

“I got to dive both feet into all things Orangeville,” she said of her campaign. “I got to go out and talk to people that I’ve never met before. I got to sit down and do spreadsheets about budgets and learn about what’s happening behind the scenes.”

Orangeville saw a higher voter turnout than in the 2022 election, increasing from 26.9 per cent to 36.5 per cent. Out of 25,544 eligible voters, 9,310 cast ballots. The majority of votes were cast online, totalling 6,863, compared to 529 at advance polls and 1,918 on election day.

The inaugural meeting for the 2026–2030 term of council is scheduled for Nov. 16.

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