Keith Hobbs wins Thunder Bay election

Keith Hobbs will serve a second term as Thunder Bay's mayor. The incumbent took an early lead and never lost it.

Challenger Ken Boshcoff came second by about 2,000 votes. Before the final results were tallied, Hobbs called Boshcoff his major competition, but he was critical of his rival's campaign.

"He was too negative on the trail, you can't be like that," Hobbs said. "You have to be positive. This is a moving city, it's moving forward. That's how I kept my campaign. Positive, positive, positive."

For his part, Boshcoff said his campaign went smoothly, according to plan, "whether that fits the people's plan is another matter."

Victory for the 'small people'

By the end of the night, Boshcoff was resigned to the results.

"By staying with the status quo the community has made their decision, and they seem to be happy with it. And, if that is the case, then so be it," he said.

Hobbs claimed his victory was "for the small people."

"I'm looking forward to four years of looking after our social needs in this city," he said. "We're going to beat down crime. We're going to look at poverty, we're going to look at all those kinds of issues, and we're going to build an event centre."

First-time candidate Shane Judge campaigned against the event centre and received about 5,000 fewer votes than Hobbs.

"I think I turned it away from a personality, a popularity contest between two strong incumbents," Judge said. "I'm the outsider trying to bust his way in, and I think that I at least busted in with my name." 

Final election results for mayor are:

• Keith Hobbs: 14,463
• Ken Boshcoff: 12,051
• Shane Judge: 9,531
• Colin Burridge: 412
• Douglas Mackay 362
• Henry Wojak 304

At-large race

The four incumbents in the at-large race, Rebecca Johnson, Iain Angus, Larry Hebert and Aldo Roberto each easily won their seats. Former councillor Frank Pullia will take the fifth at-large seat with 14,112 votes.

The next closest candidate in the at-large race was Tamara Johnson. She garnered just over 10,000 votes.

Upset in Northwood

Shelby Ch'ng is the only new ward councillor, beating out incumbent Mark Bentz.

Incumbent ward councillors Andrew Foulds, Brian McKinnon, Paul Pugh, Trevor Giertuga, Joe Virdiramo and Linda Rydholm were all re-elected.

Delayed results

Some candidates and voters were frustrated by delays in getting election results that were caused by two issues.

First,city clerk John Hannam said "considerable delays" occurred after some polls stayed open late to accommodate a last minute rush of voters.

Hannam said internet voting might alleviate that problem, but he added that council would have to decide to make that change for the next election.

The city's internet server crashed, causing a second problem with results. Only people receiving a direct feed in council chambers could see updated results. Final results were available by about 11 p.m.

Voter turn-out was slightly less than the 2010 election, with 46 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot this year.