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Runner-up for mayor hoping to build upon his support in the next election

October 27, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Runner-up in Orangeville’s mayoral race, Jeffrey Patterson said four years can go by quite fast, and if the direction of the town doesn’t change, he’s planning to return to the campaign trail in 2026.

Patterson, who received 1,804 votes in the Oct. 24 municipal election, compared to incoming Mayor Lisa Post’s 2,984 votes, said one of the greatest challenges getting elected, as a first-time candidate, is name recognition.

“Post, who has been on council now for four years, well, people recognize the name,” he said. “So it’s a huge push, and push I did, to try and get my name out there and meet as many people as I could. It’s a relatively short timeframe that you got to work with.”

Patterson told the Citizen he knocked on about 5,000 doors and enjoyed meeting fellow residents in the community to hear their concerns.

He offered his congratulations to Post as the new mayor, along with the councillors who were elected, and those who ran but were unsuccessful.

Although, he expressed concerns about there not being enough development in Orangeville to offset tax increases if council continues on its past trajectory.

A recurring theme Patterson said he hears when knocking on doors was concerns about taxation, which was one of his key platforms.

“My campaign was based on freezing taxation for people for the next four years,” he said, noting that the cost savings from the transition to OPP from Orangeville Police Service and the railway lands sale of $32 million could be utilized. 

As an accountant, he said he went through the town’s financials and saw this as a clear path for the next four years.

Patterson also noted that he was hoping to do more for seniors than what the town is doing currently if he was elected.

He told the Citizen he was very grateful for the support he did receive, for those that believed in him and his platform, as well as the work of his campaign team.

“We had a fabulous team that came together very quickly to both advise me and provide actual on-the-street support as well as helping me with communication… thanks to them,” Patterson said. “I very much enjoyed the experience [running for mayor]. I learned a lot. I thought I knew a lot about the town but I know a whole lot more than now than I did at the start of the campaign.”

He added, “It was marvellous to meet so many people in the town and get to know what their concerns were from one neighbourhood to the next, from one street to the next, and literally from one house to the next.”

Patterson said he plans to stay involved in the community, monitor the current council’s actions, and advocate for Orangeville taxpayers.

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