Robert Ritz can add mayor of Stratford to his resume.
The local architect won the mayoral race on Monday night’s election, according to unofficial results, with 4,246 votes, or 31.1 per cent of the votes.
He defeated runner-up Jo-Dee Burbach (3,738, 27.4 per cent) by 508 votes in another close Festival City mayoral race.
Martin Ritsma finished in third place with 2,899 votes, while Mark Hunter was fourth with 2,542 and Andrew Rea picked up 206 votes.
In an interview with MyStratfordNow, Ritz said he feels great about the victory.
“It’s meaning a lot for our city now, they will have true involvement with council, the interactions are going to be a lot stronger, we’re already talking about little changes up here tonight and how the citizens can feel like they’re really part of the decision-making process.”
He stated the reason why he won is because people wanted a change.
“I was truly the outsider looking in, people saw me delegating on a regular basis over the last 40 years which illustrates that I did have the experience. I have ideas, and I think they also like my creative side, and the side to speak up for the people and more than speaking up for the people, having the people speak.”
He said taxes were the number one issue he heard from the community when going door-to-door, adding that housing and the unhoused will be another priority for him as mayor.
He aims to have both no encampments and everybody be properly housed by the end of his four-year term.
Ritz lost in the 2022 election to Martin Ritsma by 345 votes.
He said he learned a lot from his first time running.
“We had a stronger team this year, last time it was me and Tim who were the door-to-door guys, this time we had 10 groups out doing door-to-door. We weren’t on the radio last time, and our social media presence wasn’t as good as this one was.”
A mix of new and old faces have been elected to city council.
Incumbents Cody Sebben, Lesley Biehn, Harj Nijjar, Brad Beatty, Larry McCabe, Geza Wordofa and Bonnie Henderson were re-elected, while Sarah Merkel, Ian Morton and Christopher Giannakopoulos are the new city councillors.
Ritz said he thinks with the people elected, there is going to be more interaction and everybody will have more of a voice.
Ritz plans to have a chat with CAO André Morin about next steps moving forward and speaking to council on a ward representation concept.
He hopes to bring the public in more as mayor.
