Bradford West Gwillimbury election results 2026: who won, and by how much

Voting closed Monday, October 26, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. These are the unofficial results published by the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, tabulated by Simply Voting. They become official once certified by the Town Clerk.

Bradford has a new mayor. Nickolas Harper won by 350 votes — the closest race on the ballot. Here is every result, in plain numbers, with the margin for each one.

Your new council

Nine people. One mayor, one deputy mayor, and seven ward councillors. That is the group making decisions on your property taxes, development approvals, and local services for the next four years.

Mayor

Harper won by 350 votes. Out of 14,892 ballots, that is a margin of about 2.3 percentage points — close enough that a few hundred people changing their minds would have changed the outcome.

Two things stand out. The incumbent mayor, James Leduc, finished fifth with 1,497 votes. And no candidate came close to a majority: Harper takes the job with 30.7% support, meaning roughly seven in ten voters picked someone else. That is normal in a six-way race, but it is worth knowing.

Deputy Mayor

Giordano won by 1,283 votes and was the only candidate on the whole ballot to clear 50% in a contested town-wide race, at 51.4%.

Who won each ward

The full numbers for every ward are below. Two races were genuinely tight: Ward 1 came down to 74 votes and Ward 4 to 119.

Ward 1 — Cheraldean Duhaney

Cheraldean Duhaney won by 74 votes. 3,434 ballots in Ward 1.

Ward 2 — Jennifer Harrison

Jennifer Harrison won by 650 votes. 1,834 ballots in Ward 2.

Ward 3 — Ben Verkaik

Ben Verkaik won by 341 votes. 587 ballots in Ward 3.

Ward 4 — Kash Toor

Kash Toor won by 119 votes. 2,680 ballots in Ward 4.

Ward 5 — Darryl Eek

Darryl Eek won by 502 votes. 1,280 ballots in Ward 5.

Ward 6 — Elizabeth Lambert

Elizabeth Lambert won by 305 votes. 2,696 ballots in Ward 6.

Ward 7 — Peter Dykie

Peter Dykie won by 599 votes. 2,486 ballots in Ward 7.

Your school trustees

There were four trustee races, not one. Which one appeared on your ballot depended on the school board you are registered with — English public, English Catholic, French public, or French Catholic.

English Public — Simcoe County District School Board

Won by 352 votes. 11,526 ballots cast in this race.

English Separate — Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board

Won by 1,541 votes. 3,373 ballots cast in this race.

French Public — Conseil scolaire Viamonde

Won by 11 votes. 31 ballots cast in this race.

French Separate — Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir

Won by 34 votes. 61 ballots cast in this race.

Look at those last two numbers again. 31 people voted in the French public trustee race, and 61 in the French Catholic one. Eric Lapointe won a seat on a school board with 21 votes. That is not a mistake — it reflects how few Bradford residents are registered to those boards. If you have ever wondered whether one vote matters, these races are your answer.

Turnout: 40.7%

Four in ten eligible residents voted. That means Harper's 4,579 votes represent about 12% of all eligible voters in town — a reminder of how much weight a single ballot carries in a municipal election compared with a provincial or federal one.

What council actually controls

Plain version, because this is the part most people are fuzzy on. Your new council decides:

• Your property tax rate — the municipal portion, set every year in the town budget.
• What gets built and where — zoning, subdivision approvals, and development charges on new homes.
• Local services — roads, water and sewer, snow clearing, parks, the library, fire service.
• Development charges, which feed directly into the price of a new build in Bradford.

They do not set your mortgage rate, income taxes, health care, or schools — that last one is what the trustees handle. And the Bradford Bypass is a provincial project, not a municipal one, though council has a voice in how land around it gets developed.

What happens next

• Results become official once certified by the Town Clerk.
• The new council's term begins November 15, 2026 and runs four years.
• The town publishes the full results document, including every candidate and the declined ballots, on its election results page.

Source. All figures from the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury's published 2026 Municipal and School Board Election results document, tabulated and certified as accurately processed by Simply Voting Inc. (Election ID 300860). Voting ran October 16 to October 26, 2026. Results are labelled unofficial until certified by the Town Clerk. Every race on this page has been checked so that candidate votes plus abstentions equal the reported ballot count, and the seven ward totals sum to the town-wide total of 14,997. Bradford housing target figures from Ontario's housing supply tracker, 2024 data. This page is an information summary and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Town, any candidate, or any school board.