For the first time in 22 years, Barry Ward will not be at the Barrie city council table when the fall 2022 session begins.
Ward lost the mayor’s race to Alex Nuttall by 777 votes in Monday's municipal election.
Ward spoke to BarrieToday at Dunlop Street Diner on Monday night where his election night party was being held.
The now-former Ward 4 councillor said he was always of the nature to “prepare for the worst and you won’t be disappointed.”
“I aimed to win, but if I lost I knew I would go on with my life. I have many things I want to do,” Ward said. “To be honest, until Jeff (Lehman) announced he wasn’t running this year, I had actually planned to not run again for council myself. I have been prepared to move on to the next stage of my life, but obviously a little disappointed with the result tonight.”
Ward has been Ward 4 councillor since 2000, and is Barrie’s longest-serving member of council. He was also deputy mayor for council’s last term, as appointed by council, and was acting mayor while Lehman campaigned for MPP in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte this past summer.
Ward’s two sons, Oliver and Julian, hugged him when the results came in. In his concession speech, Ward thanked his sons and his wife, who was home sick.
“I still have my other editing job and me and my wife have always talked about doing a bit more travelling, so that's what we’ll do,” Ward said when asked what was next for him.
Barrie residents were voting for the first new mayor in 12 years no matter who won, as Lehman opted not to seek a fourth term.
Nuttall took 13,401 of the votes to Ward’s 12,624. Rounding out the rest of the field were Gerry Marshall in third with 2,745 votes, followed by Mike McCann (1,700), Andrew Gordon (449), Weldon Hachey (315), and Rob Haverson (134).
Ward told BarrieToday that highlights from his 22-year career as a city councillors include construction of two recreation centres and the banning of cigarette smoking in public places.
“It's not often as a councillor you get a chance to save people’s lives. I have no doubt in my mind that decision saved lives and as chair of the health unit for six years, that was a great accomplishment,” said Ward.
“I have no regrets.”
