Two popular candidates going head-to-head in Ward 2

When taking a look at election lawn signs in Ward 2, it's difficult to tell which of the two city council candidates is more popular.

Without an exact count, it's hard to tell who has more — challenger Fabio Costante or incumbent John Elliott.

"I think Fabio stands for change. I think the incumbent John Elliott hasn't been campaigning much," said resident Andre Mallet.

"I'm not happy with [Elliott's] performance," said resident Tammy Drouillard. "He's been here so many years and [the west end] is still the way it is. It hasn't changed."

But it isn't hard to find supporters of Elliott.

"I'm happy with him," said resident Julie Tanner who lives on Prince Road, adding she's thankful for new showers installed at the Adie Knox pool.

"He's done a lot of changes around here," said resident Dennis Jones.

Elliott points to his record over the past four years bringing in $10.9 million in improvements to the area, such as the statue of Tecumseh and Brock at the Sandwich Towne roundabout, the new Muir library branch on Mill Street and soon-to-be-built washrooms at Mic Mac Park.

"I certainly have to be proud of the amount of projects we brought to the community," said Elliott.

Elliott narrowly won the last election over challenger Frank Favot by 446 votes.

There has been criticism in the media of Elliott's performance at council meetings. But according to the ward incumbent, he is always there for his constituents when they call.

"I've been known to say okay, where do you live? I'll be right there," said Elliott, who is also proud that he has lived in the Sandwich Towne community since 1973.

As for Costante, he's campaigning on a get-back-to-basics platform of increasing city services and improving infrastructure.

"The first thing I'm really going to be pushing for is, we do have a community improvement plan here in Sandwich but I'd love to see more aggressive tax incentives similar to what we're seeing downtown and at Ford City," said Costante, referring to incentives for commercial development.

Doing something about the derelict homes the Ambassador Bridge owns is a perennial concern among most of the residents in Ward 2.

Both candidates want to see a plan from the bridge before agreeing to exempting it from a bylaw, preventing demolition.

It's one of the main concerns of resident David Steptoe, who lives across the street from several of the houses. He's also concerned with truck traffic on College Avenue and Prince Road, coming from the bridge.

"Prince Road, College Avenue is really starting to disintegrate," said Steptoe, an undecided voter.

"The trucks aren't supposed to be on Prince Road," said Tanner. "There's signs at both ends. And every meeting you go to everybody complains about them and nothing gets done."

Steptoe said police conducted a blitz last year. But it only had temporary effects.