Council History

Elected December 2, 1974

Mayor:
Robert Kerr

Councillors:
Ward 1 Paul Nagge
Ward 2 Bernice Adams
Ward 3 Bill Barlow
Ward 4 James Sutherland (Regional Council)
Ward 5 Colin Harrington
Ward 6 Chris Jones (Regional Council)
Ward 7 Ted Fairless (Regional Council)
Ward 8 Dorothy Saltsman
Ward 9 George Irving Jr.
Ward 10 Bill Struck
Ward 11 Fred Kent
Ward 12 Fred Higgins
Ward 14 Erwin Nelson (Regional Council)
Ward 15 Percy Harvey

Elected December 6, 1976

Mayor:
Erwin Nelson

Councillors:
Ward 1 Paul Nagge
Ward 2 Bernice Adams (Regional Council)
Ward 3 Graham Bush
Ward 4 Bob Wall
Ward 5 Colin Harrington
Ward 6 Dave Durward (Regional Council)
Ward 7 Ted Fairless (Regional Council)
Ward 8 Dorothy Saltsman
Ward 9 Uwe Kretschmann
Ward 10 Bill Struck
Ward 11 Fred Kent (Regional Council)
Ward 12 Mary Love
Ward 14 Doug Craig
Ward 15 Charlie Brent 

Elected November 14, 1978

Mayor:
Claudette Millar

Councillors:
Ward 1 Paul Nagge
Ward 2 Bernice Adams (Regional Council)
Ward 3 Graham Bush
Ward 4 Paul Maher
Ward 5 George Gingrich
Ward 6 Dave Durward (Regional Council)
Ward 7 Ted Fairless (Regional Council)
Ward 8 Dorothy Saltsman
Ward 9 Jane Brewer
Ward 10 Bill Struck
Ward 11 Fred Kent (Regional Council)
Ward 12 Mary Love
Ward 14 Doug Craig
Ward 15 Charlie Brent 

Elected November 10, 1980

Mayor:
Claudette Millar

Councillors:
Ward 1 Paul Nagge
Ward 2 Bernice Adams (November 10, 1980-November 26, 1980)
Ward 2 Harry Mazmanian (January 27, 1981 until end of term)
Ward 3 Graham Bush (Regional Council)
Ward 4 Paul Maher
Ward 5 Colin Harrington
Ward 6 Sylvia Takacs
Ward 7 John Florence
Ward 8 Rick Dickson
Ward 9 Jane Brewer
Ward 10 Bill Struck (Regional Council)
Ward 11 Fred Kent (Regional Council)
Ward 12 Mary Love
Ward 14 Scott Nelson
Ward 15 Bob Jeffery (Regional Council)

Bernice Adams passed away November 26, 1980. Harry Mazmanian was elected to replace Mrs. Adams in a By-Election held January 26, 1981.

Elected November 8, 1982

Beginning with this election, council members are elected for three-year terms instead of two years.

Mayor:
Claudette Millar
 
Councillors:
Ward 1 Paul Nagge
Ward 2 Mike Farnan
Ward 3 Bill Woods
Ward 4 Bob Wall
Ward 5 Colin Harrington
Ward 6 Bert Boone
Ward 7 Ted Fairless (Regional Council)
Ward 8 Ronald Blaxley
Ward 9 Jane Brewer (Regional Council)
Ward 10 William Struck (Regional Council)
Ward 11 Fred Kent (Regional Council)
Ward 12 Mary Love
Ward 14 Scott Nelson
Ward 15 Bob Jeffery

Elected November 12, 1985

Beginning with this election, Cambridge voters directly elected their representative to Regional Council.  From 1973 until this election local representatives to sit on Regional council had been selected by Cambridge councillors from among themselves.  The Alderman-at-Large position denotes members of Cambridge council who are also members of Regional Council.  They do not present a local ward on Cambridge Council.  City wards have been reduced from 14 to 6.  (While the wards had been numbered 1 through 15 there was no Ward 13). In this election 20,658 or 38.96% of the city's 53,019 eligible voters cast ballots.

Mayor:
Claudette Millar

Alderman-at-large: (1986-1988)
(Regional Councillors)
Jane Brewer
Fred Kent
Ted Fairless
Bert Boone

Ward Alderman: (1986-1988)
Ward 1 Rick Cowsill
Ward 2 Mary Love
Ward 3 Bill Woods
Ward 4 Ronald Blaxley
Ward 5 Bob Wall
Ward 6 January Mike Farnan (1986 to November 1987)
Ward 6 Paul Nagge (November 9, 1987 to end of term) 

Note:  Mr. Farnan served from January 1986 to November 1987 when he resigned to take a seat in the provincial legislature as the NDP member representing the Cambridge riding. He was replaced by Paul Nagge on November 9, 1987.

Elected November 14, 1988

In this election 24,622 of the city's 55,703 eligible voters (44%) cast ballots at 225 polls throughout the city.

Mayor:
Jane Brewer
 
Aldermen-at-Large: (1989-1991)
Bert Boone
Ted Fairless
Fred Kent
Bill Struck

Ward Aldermen: (1989-1991)
Ward 1 Rick Cowsill
Ward 2 Mary Love
Ward 3 Graham Bush
Ward 4 Ronald Blaxley
Ward 5 Bob Wall
Ward 6 Paul Nagge

Elected November 12, 1991

This was the first local election in which electronic vote tabulating machines were used in Cambridge. In this election 17,731 of the city's 61,861 eligible voters (29%) voted at 130 polls throughout the city.

Mayor:
Jane Brewer
 
Aldermen-at-Large (1992-1994)
Bert Boone
Doug Craig
Fred Kent
Bill Struck

Ward Aldermen: (1992-1994)
Ward 1 Rick Cowsill
Ward 2 Greg Durocher
Ward 3 Karl Kiefer
Ward 4 Robert Adshade
Ward 5 Bob Wall (January 1992 to July 13, 1992)
Ward 5 Victoria Clark (From July 13, 1992 to end of term)
Ward 6 Paul Nagge

Note:  Mr. Wall resigned and was placed by Victoria Clark on July 13, 1992.

Elected November 14, 1994

With this Council the term "alderman" has been replaced by "Councillor". The "Councillor-at-Large" is the new term for the local representatives to Regional Council. In this election 19,776 of the city's 65,629 eligible voters (30%) cast ballots at 163 polls throughout the city.

Mayor:
Jane Brewer
 
Councillor-at-large (1995-1997)
Doug Craig
Ted Fairless
Fred Kent
Bill Struck

Ward Councillors: (1995-1997)
Ward 1 Bill Brown
Ward 2 Greg Durocher
Ward 3 Karl Kiefer
Ward 4 Robert Adshade
Ward 5 Victoria Clark
Ward 6 Gary Price

Elected November 10, 1997

With this election the number of Cambridge Councillors on Regional Council is reduced from 4 to 3. The Mayor continues to be a member of Regional Council. In this election 20,605 of the city's 68,478 eligible voters cast ballots in 204 polls throughout the city.

Mayor:
Jane Brewer
 
Councillors-at-Large (1998-2000)
Doug Craig
Ted Fairless
Fred Kent

Ward Councillors: (1998-2000)
Ward 1 Rick Cowsill
Ward 2 Greg Durocher
Ward 3 Karl Kiefer
Ward 4 Ben Tucci
Ward 5 Victoria Clark
Ward 6 Gary Price

Elected November 13, 2000

With this election Cambridge's representatives to Regional Council do not sit as members of Cambridge Council. Only the Mayor sits on both Cambridge council and Regional Council. The Cambridge members elected to Regional Council in this election are Jane Brewer and Fred Kent. In this election the office of Mayor was won by Doug Craig over Greg Durocher by a margin of 30 votes out of a total of 20,934 votes cast for Mayor. Mr. Durocher requested a hand recount of the ballots. That hand count confirmed Mr. Craig's victory but narrowed the margin to 26 votes. In Ward 3 Linda Whetham defeated Paul Laroque by 34 votes. The victory was upheld in a machine recount of the ballots. Mr. Laroque gained 2 votes in the recount. In this election 23,580 of the city's 75,206 eligible voters cast ballots in 205 polls throughout the city.

Mayor:
Doug Craig

Ward Councillors:

Ward 1: Rick Cowsill
Ward 2: Karl Keifer
Ward 3: Linda Whetham
Ward 4: Ben Tucci
Ward 5: Ted Fairless
Ward 6: Gary Price

Elected on November 10, 2003

Council members took their oaths of office at the Inaugural Meeting on December 1, 2003 and held their first working meeting on December 8, 2003. The Cambridge representatives on Regional Council are former Cambridge Mayors Jane Brewer and Claudette Millar. Long-time Cambridge Councillor and Regional Council member Fred Kent did not run for re-election this year. In this election 18,098 of the City's 82,030 eligible voters (22%) cast ballots in 219 polls throughout the City.

Mayor:
Doug Craig
 
Ward Councillors:
Ward 1: Rick Cowsill
Ward 2: Karl Kiefer
Ward 3: Linda Whetham
Ward 4: Ben Tucci
Ward 5: Ted Fairless
Ward 6: Gary Price
 
Cambridge representatives on Regional Council:
Jane Brewer 
Claudette Millar

Elected November 13, 2006

Doug Craig wins his third mandate as Mayor. The result saw Mr. Craig attracting 11,274 votes (51.01% of the total vote) to Margaret Barr's 8,972 (40.60%). In this election, a total of 22,100 of the City's 85,500 eligible voters (26.33%) cast ballots at 238 City polls in the election. The inaugural meeting of the new council was held on December 4, 2006 while the first business meeting took place on December 11, 2006.

Mayor:
Doug Craig

Ward Councillors:

Ward 1 Rick Cowsill
Ward 2 Karl Kiefer
Ward 3 Linda Whetham
Ward 4 Ben Tucci
Ward 5 Pam Wolf
Ward 6 Gary Price

Regional Council Representatives:

Jane Brewer
Claudette Millar 

Elected October 25, 2010

In this election, Doug Craig won his fourth mandate to serve as mayor of Cambridge soundly defeating two challengers, Councillor Linda Whetham and newcomer Andrew Johnson. The result saw Mr. Craig attracting 11,230 votes, representing 47.80% of the total vote of 23,494. Councillor Whetham who resigned her council seat in Ward 3 to run for mayor drew 6,727 votes or 28.6% of the total vote, while Mr. Johnson won 5,537 votes or 23.6% of the total vote. There were 80,714 eligible voters. This election saw the city newly divided into eight wards from the previous six. Consequently ward boundaries were redrawn and, to some extent, renumbered. All incumbent councillors were returned but not necessarily representing the same ward. For example, Rick Cowsill had been the incumbent in Ward 1 but as of this election won the right to represent Ward 2. Council Karl Kiefer had represented Ward 2 but following his victory in this election he now represented Ward 3. The other wards retained the same numbers although with different boundaries and the incumbents were all successful in their campaigns to return to the council table. Ward 1 was essentially a new ward and Wards 7 and 8 were added. Donna Reid became the first councillor in the revamped Ward 1 while Frank Monteiro was the first Councillor in the new Ward 7 and Nicholas Ermata was elected as the first councillor in the new Ward 8.

Mayor:
Doug Craig

Ward Councillors:

Ward 1:  Donna Reid
Ward 2:  Rick Cowsill
Ward 3:  Karl Kiefer
Ward 4:  Ben Tucci
Ward 5:  Pam Wolf
Ward 6:  Gary Price
Ward 7:  Frank Monteiro
Ward 8:  Nicholas Ermeta

Cambridge Regional Council Representatives: 

Jane Brewer
Claudette Millar

Elected October 27, 2014

The election of 2014 saw the most significant change in Cambridge municipal politics in many years with four new City Councillors being elected. Mike Devine replaced longtime Councillor Rick Cowsill in Ward 2. Mike Mann was elected Councillor in Ward 3 replacing Karl Keifer who did not seek re-election, instead opting to run for Regional Councillor.  Ward 4 saw Jan Liggett elected, taking the seat previously held by Ben Tucci, who did not seek re-election.  The other new City Councillor was Shannon Adshade who unseated longtime City Councillor Gary Price in one of the closest elections in living memory, winning by only 2 votes. Joining the four new Councillors were re-elected incumbents Donna Reid in Ward 1, Pam Wolf in Ward 5, Frank Monteiro in Ward 7 and Nicholas Ermeta in Ward 8.  Doug Craig was re-elected to a fifth term as Mayor defeating six challengers.  Finally, longtime Cambridge politicians Claudette Millar and Jane Brewer both did not seek re-election for the position of Regional Councillor.  Elected in their place were former Ward 3 Councillor Karl Keifer and Helen Jowett.
Council members took their oaths of office at the Inaugural Meeting on December 2, 2014 and held the first working meeting of council on December 15, 2014. This election also marked the introduction of internet and telephone voting.  Voter turnout slightly increased to 29.86% with 25,577 recorded electors of the city's 85,229 eligible voters casting ballots in 50 polls in the city's 8 Wards.

Mayor:
Doug Craig

Ward Councillors:

Ward 1:  Donna Reid
Ward 2:  Mike Devine
Ward 3:  Mike Mann
Ward 4:  Jan Liggett
Ward 5:  Pam Wolf
Ward 6:  Shannon Adshade
Ward 7:  Francisco (Frank) Monteiro
Ward 8:  Nicholas Ermeta

Cambridge representatives on Regional Council: 

Karl Kiefer
Helen Jowett

Elected October 22, 2018

The election of 2018 saw the City of Cambridge elect its first new mayor in 18 years as former Cambridge MPP Kathryn McGarry defeated long time Mayor Doug Craig. It was the only change on Cambridge City Council as all Ward Councillors were re-elected. Re-elected to new terms at Regional Councillor were both Helen Jowett and Karl Keifer.

Council members took their oaths of office at the Inaugural Meeting on December 4, 2018 and held the first working meeting of council on December 11, 2018. Cambridge saw an increase in voter turnout this election with 33.04% of eligible voters casting a ballot, up from 29.72% in 2014.

A referendum question was also put on the ballot as to whether Cambridge should use a ranked ballot system in 2022. It gained support of more than 50% of those who voted, but fell short due to overall voter turnout being below 50%.

Mayor:
Kathryn McGarry

Ward Councillors:

Ward 1:  Donna Reid
Ward 2:  Mike Devine
Ward 3:  Mike Mann
Ward 4:  Jan Liggett
Ward 5:  Pam Wolf
Ward 6:  Shannon Adshade
Ward 7:  Francisco (Frank) Monteiro
Ward 8:  Nicholas Ermeta

Cambridge representatives on Regional Council: 

Karl Kiefer
Helen Jowett