Bortolin mulls running for mayor, Kaschak considers switch to provincial politics ahead of Oct. 24 municipal election – Windsor Star

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With one Windsor councillor weighing a run for mayor and another hoping to run in the June provincial election, a rundown of who on council intends to seek re-election on Oct. 24 remains — at this point — imprecise.

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What is clear following a survey of all 10 councillors and Mayor Drew Dilkens is: No one is saying they’re NOT running. Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin intends to run but hasn’t yet determined whether it will be for mayor or his current seat. Ward 8 Coun. Gary Kaschak has put his name in to run provincially in Windsor-Tecumseh but would otherwise seek council re-election. Four or five say they’re still undecided and a similar number say they intend to run again barring any major roadblock such as a health issue.

“Yes, I do plan to run for another term, I’m not keeping it any kind of secret,” Ward 10 Coun. Jim Morrison said this week in the most definitive comment from an incumbent councillor. In his first term, Morrison said he found the workload more than he expected, but “very gratifying.”

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Other councillors answering in the affirmative or almost-certain affirmative included Ward 5’s Ed Sleiman, who suffered a serious health setback two years ago (a brain bleed) and says he’s thought hard and consulted with constituents about whether to run again. First elected in 2010, he said he’s been invigorated by the ongoing revitalization of areas within his ward like Ford City.

“I thought about it and I really would like to be part of the revitalization,” he said. “And as of this minute, I say yes, I’m running.”

Bortolin also said he can “confidently” say he’s running, but is yet to decide whether to run again for the downtown councillor seat he’s held since 2014, or for mayor, which could set up a major battle with Dilkens, a high-profile incumbent who has yet to say whether he’ll seek re-election.

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“I’m telling you I’m considering (running for mayor),” Bortolin said. “This is not an ‘I’m running,’ because there are still a lot of boxes to check.”

Some of those factors include whether Dilkens seeks re-election and the prospect being off council for the next four-year term if he were to lose. Other considerations involve the mood of the electorate, he said. He said after more than seven years on council, people know what he stands for — making the city a more desirable, walkable, prosperous place to live, as opposed to delivering a “hold the line on taxes” budget every year. He’s in the process of finding out if voters believe in his vision.

“It’s really doing a scan of the landscape and seeing if there’s an appetite for change to a different vision of the city,” he said.

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Kaschak said he is awaiting word from the Ontario Liberal Party on whether he’ll be its candidate for Windsor-Tecumseh in the June 2 provincial election. It’s a seat without an incumbent with the retirement of longtime MPP Percy Hatfield (NDP).

“If I don’t do that, I’d certainly be running again for city council, sure,” Kaschak said.

“I’m torn. I really like being on city council, I think I’ve really come into my own over the last 18 months or so.”

But the prospect of representing the interests of people in Ward 8 as well as people all around Windsor-Tecumseh at the provincial level is “intriguing,” he said.

Kaschak said if he runs provincially and loses, he’d still “absolutely” be able to run for city council re-election in the fall.

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According to council watcher and campaign manager Paul Synnott, Windsor is a “real incumbent town” meaning incumbents’ name recognition and high profile gives them a tremendous advantage over challengers.

“To really seriously challenge an incumbent you really have to spend the limit,” he said, referring to the maximum dollars allowed for campaign expenses. “You’re talking $17,000 to $18,000, which is really hard to raise at the municipal level.”

Because of that incumbent advantage, when a seat becomes open there tends to be close to a dozen candidates vying for it. That was the case in the Ward 7 by-election in 2020, when Jeewen Gill defeated 11 other candidates with less than 20 per cent of the vote. Reached this week, Gill said he’s “most probably going to run” again.

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Synnott is managing Morrison’s campaign as well as Darcy Renaud’s, who is challenging incumbent Fred Francis in Ward 1 for the second time. In 2018, Francis received 53 per cent of the votes compared to 33 per cent for Renaud.

Francis appears to be grappling with whether to run for a third term in the South Windsor ward. He was recently announced as the new executive director of the Multicultural Council, and he said running would be a mutual decision with his new wife Carolyn.

“I’m not being political, I don’t know,” he said when asked this week. He also expressed his frustration during this 2018-2022 term, when he said a changed council makeup weakened the influence of the “fiscally responsible” councillors like him, whose priorities centre on low taxes, paying off debt and keeping Windsor affordable.

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“It’s been hard, it’s been frustrating to deal with that,” he said. “That is going to go into my decision-making. If I run and if I win, do I want to be part of the next term that is like this term?”

At the same time, he said he feels compelled to run again to push for the new acute care hospital. In 2020, council voted 7-4 in support of the proposed location on County Road 42. Francis said fears what would happen to the ongoing campaign to get the $2-billion hospital built if two more opponents were elected and council support for the hospital location collapsed.

“A big motivation to put my name back in the ring is the hospital — that frightens me where we’re at with that.”

Ward 6’s Jo-Anne Gignac, one of the other fiscal conservatives on council, agreed with Francis that the hospital project is one of the “scary issues” moving into the next term. Windsor’s longest-serving councillor at 19 years, she remains undecided on whether to run again.

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“I generally don’t focus on the election until it gets closer to the date where you have to file those papers (nominations open May 2 and close Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.), because I like to give residents an opportunity to think about it a little bit and then I speak to them,” said Gignac, who usually wins her Riverside ward by wide margins. “If I get a strong indication that they’re strongly supporting me as I have in the past then I throw my hat in the ring.”

Another undecided is Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt, who works full-time at Ford, co-owns a business and has one of the busiest schedules among councillors. He told the Star this week it’s still too early to say.

First-term councillors Kieran McKenzie in Ward 9 and Fabio Costante in Ward 2 were sounding pretty positive about running again. McKenzie was effusive in how much he loves the job.

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“It’s been a dream come true to serve in this role and it would take a lot for me to walk away at this point because I think there are a lot of great things this council has been able to achieve in the last four years,” said McKenzie, who previously worked as MP Brian Masse’s constituency assistant. “I don’t think I’ve ever had in my professional endeavours a greater opportunity to serve the community.”

Costante said he’s still undecided, but then talked about the “ton of advocacy” still needed for such issues as the upcoming rental licencing regime, rat control bylaw, vacant home tax and redevelopment of the Adie Knox Recreation Complex. The dilemma of the boarded-up homes in his west-side ward is also a big issue that still needs tackling, he said.

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“I’ll turn my mind to the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ closer to springtime,” Costante said. “But there’s a lot of work I’m excited about.”

The mayor, meanwhile, is not yet saying whether he’s running for re-election. “I’m not focused on running for mayor,” he said in a statement. “There will be plenty of time later this year to contemplate the future — including my potential candidacy in the 2022 municipal election.”

Dilkens, mayor since 2014, took the same approach leading up to the 2018 election. He declared his candidacy on July 24.

“I love what I do. I care deeply about the City of Windsor, its residents and our collective future,” he said last week. “I’m focused on being mayor and delivering on the commitments I made to residents in 2018.”

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