Simcoe County election results 2026: five mayors voted out

Results from Ontario's municipal election of Monday, October 26, 2026. All figures are the unofficial counts published by each municipality, and become official once each Clerk certifies them.

Five of Simcoe County's sixteen mayors lost their jobs on Monday — including Bradford's. Here is who is running every town in the county, in one list.

Every mayor in Simcoe County

The five that changed hands

This is the real story of the night. Nearly a third of the county's sitting mayors were voted out:

• Bradford West Gwillimbury — Nickolas Harper beat incumbent James Leduc, who finished fifth in a six-way race.
• Innisfil — Kenneth Fowler defeated Lynn Dollin.
• Clearview — Robert McArthur defeated Doug Measures.
• New Tecumseth — Stephanie MacLellan defeated Richard Norcross.
• Tiny — Dave Brunelle defeated David Evans.

Two more seats were filled without any contest against a sitting mayor: Ramara, where Keith Bell won an open seat with no incumbent running, and Penetanguishene and Tay, where Doug Rawson and Ted Walker were acclaimed with nobody running against them.

How decisive was each win?

The contrast is striking. Alex Nuttall won two thirds of Barrie — 26,054 votes against 9,898 for his nearest rival. Nickolas Harper won Bradford with under a third, by 350 votes, in a field of six.

Both are now mayors with the same authority in their own town. One has an overwhelming mandate; the other leads a town where roughly seven in ten voters picked somebody else. That difference tends to show up in how boldly a council moves in its first year.

Bradford in detail

If Bradford is your town, the full breakdown is on its own page: every Bradford result with vote counts and margins — mayor, deputy mayor, all seven wards, and all four school trustee races, including the French public trustee seat won with 21 votes.

Where to find your own town's vote counts

Being straight about what is on this page: I have verified per-candidate vote counts for Barrie, Wasaga Beach and Bradford West Gwillimbury. For the other thirteen county municipalities I have confirmed who won and whether an incumbent was beaten, but not each candidate's count.

Each municipality publishes its own results, usually as a document on its election page the night of the vote. That is the authoritative source for your town, and it is where the Bradford numbers on this page came from. If you want a specific town's full counts added here, ask and I will add them.

Why this matters beyond politics

Municipal councils decide three things that land directly on what a home costs:

• Development charges — the fee on every new home built, which gets priced into what a buyer pays.
• What gets approved and where — zoning and subdivision decisions determine how much new housing actually appears.
• The municipal property tax rate, set each year in the town budget.

That matters right now because housing supply across this region is behind plan. Bradford built 263 homes in 2024 against a provincial target of 542, Barrie 1,459 against 1,917, and Ontario housing starts have fallen two years running. The councils elected on Monday decide whether those numbers move. The supply figures are here.

Sources and limits. Bradford West Gwillimbury figures from the Town's published results document, tabulated by Simply Voting Inc. Barrie and Wasaga Beach figures from the unofficial counts published by those municipalities and carried in regional coverage; both reproduce exactly from the published vote totals (Barrie 26,054 of 39,108 = 66.62%; Wasaga Beach 6,102 of 11,904 = 51.3%). Winners and incumbent-defeat status for the remaining county municipalities come from regional election coverage; per-candidate counts for those towns were not verified for this page and are available on each municipality's own election results page. Barrie and Orillia are separated cities — geographically within Simcoe but not part of Simcoe County's government — and are noted separately for that reason. All results are unofficial until certified by each municipality's Clerk. Housing figures from Ontario's housing supply tracker (2024 data) and CMHC. This page is an information summary, not affiliated with or endorsed by any municipality, candidate, or school board.