32-year-old defeats Peterborough mayor in landslide win

The new mayor of Peterborough says her city was looking to the future when they voted her into office Monday night.

32-year-old Diane Therrien upset the 70-year-old incumbent Daryl Bennett who was looking for a third term.

Therrien who had been a Peterborough councillor won with nearly 70 per cent of the vote.

"We were just ecstatic," Therrien told Wei Chen, Host of CBC's Ontario Morning on Tuesday.

Therrien campaigned on change. Throughout the campaign she talked about wanting to see change at City Hall and about politicians not working together, focusing instead on their "vanity projects".

"There's a bit of a culture that I want to work on in terms of having a council that's a bit more unified, "Therrien explained, saying she plans to hold a strategic retreat with her new council so there's a clear view of common priorities come December.

Daryl Bennett, very gracious in his defeat said, "This is not about us anymore. This is about the next generation and the next generation after them."

Therrien said there's growing concern in the city with issues around climate change, upgrading infrastructure, and leaving a better community for the next generation.

"The decisions that we make today are impacting our kids and grand kids, and so we need to be mindful of that when we're making any decision at council," she said.

Therrien said her vision for the city is crystal clear and her priorities are in order, "Housing is one of the key issues we're dealing with in the city. We have a one per cent vacancy rate and housing prices are skyrocketing beyond the measures that people from here can afford." She said they need to be working with developers to ensure new builds incorporate a mixed variety of housing types.

Technical Glitches

Both the polls and online voting stayed open an extra hour in Peterborough — until 9 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. — because of technical issues with the online voting system.

Results came rolling in around 9:45 p.m. declaring Therrien the winner by 19,254 votes to 8,659 votes.