Former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca elected mayor of Vaughan

Former Ontario Transportation Minister and Ontario Liberal Party leader Steven Del Duca has been elected the new mayor of Vaughan.

Del Duca narrowly won a mayoral race in which he largely campaigned on a promise to continue the legacy of popular outgoing mayor Mauricio Bevilacqua.

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He beat out long-time Ward 4 Councillor Sandra Yeung-Racco by less than a thousand votes in a tighter-than expected race.

Bevilacqua all but anointed the mayor-elect as his successor several weeks after announcing that he would not be seeking another term himself. The two released a joint accord promising to focus on a number of bread-and butter issues such as keeping a respectful tone at city hall, delivering good value for taxpayers, relieving gridlock and doing more to preserve the environment.

Del Duca’s election as mayor hands a much-needed electoral win to the 49-year-old who came up short in his bid to defeat Premier Doug Ford in the provincial election in June and failed to win a seat in that election too.

Steven Del Duca speaks to journalists following an announcement in Etobicoke, Ont., on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

While he has recently been rivals with the premier, Del Duca told cp24.com in the weeks ahead of the vote that municipal politics allows people the chance to “park partisanship at the door” and to work with people from all parties and levels of government to move things forward.

Del Duca, a lawyer by training, is married and has two daughters. He has been involved in politics since going to work for former MP Joe Volpe in his teens.

The city’s mayoral race was mostly quiet in a city sometimes known for its fiery local politics.

While Yeung-Racco slammed Bevilacqua’s open endorsement of Del Duca, others endorsed him too, including former councillor and MP Deb Schulte, who dropped out of the race because of health concerns. Observers say he comes prepared to meetings and is passionate about creating good policy.

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Del Duca will now inherit a city that has changed substantially since Bevilacqua took office in 2011.

The city now is connected to Toronto with a subway extension to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre at Highway 7, with another subway extension into the city planned along Yonge Street from Finch Avenue to High Tech Road in Richmond Hill. It also has a hospital, a rapid bus line and mushrooming crop of new condo towers.

The challenge going forward, Bevilacqua told cp24.com ahead of the election, will be figuring out how to accommodate thousands of new residents in the coming years while respecting existing ones. Crime was also cited as a concern in the election campaign, amid a rising trend of carjackings that has hit the GTA.