Wellington North mayor elected county warden

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Wellington North’s mayor will be leading the County of Wellington council for a two year term. 

At Friday’s inaugural meeting, Andy Lennox was elected as warden by the rest of council in a secret ballot. In this voting method, councillors’ votes are not revealed. 

He was challenged for the position by Mapleton mayor Gregg Davidson.

“I’m honoured by the confidence all of you placed in me to fulfill the role of warden,” Lennox said in his opening address. “I look forward to working together with you for the coming years.” 

Lennox was recently elected for a third term as Wellington North mayor and was the chair of the county roads committee in the last term.

Lennox replaces former Centre Wellington mayor Kelly Linton, who served as warden from 2018 to 2022. Linton did not seek re-election in the recent municipal election.

He noted the diverse community and interests making up Wellington County which at times may have council at odds with each other on the best path forward. However, he stressed thoughtful discussion will lead them to the best solutions for the issues residents are facing.

“We are facing new challenges, whether it’s inflation at 40-year highs, housing unaffordability, workforce shortages everywhere you look or the worrying changes about the way we operate being fairly rapidly imposed by the province, we have our work cut out for us,” Lennox said.

The County of Wellington wardens acts as chair of county council meetings and sits as a member on all committees. 

Wardens typically serve for two years but are able to seek another two years when there’s another warden’s election midway through the four year municipal term. 

The next warden’s election will be in fall 2024. 

The meeting also saw the swearing in of the 16 councillors – nine elected councillors and seven mayors —  making up this term’s county council, mostly made up of returning councillors.  

Returning councillors include:  Ward 3’s Campbell Cork, Ward 5’s Mary Lloyd, Ward 9’s Jeff Duncan, Puslinch mayor James Seeley, Ward 4’s Steve O’Neill, Guelph/Eramosa mayor Chris White, Ward 8’s Doug Breen, Ward 6’s Diane Ballantyne, Ward 2’s Earl Campbell, Lennox and Davidson. 

Joining them for this term are newly elected mayors Michael Dehn of Erin, Dave Turton of Minto and Shawn Watters of Centre Wellington — Watters was a county councillor in the past. Matthew Bulmer is the new Ward 7 councillor after serving on Puslinch township council for many years.

Committee chairs were also chosen at the inaugural meeting, also chosen by a secret ballot if there was more than one nominee. 

Those elected were:

• White will again be chair of administration, finance and human resources committee as he was uncontested
• Duncan beat Breen for chair of economic development committee
• Lloyd had no challengers for information, heritage and seniors committee chair
• Seeley was elected chair of the planning and land division committee over Watters
• Davidson was acclaimed for chair of the roads committee
• Anderson will sit again as chair of social services after being acclaimed
• O’Neill will be chair of solid waste services as there were no other nominees
• Campbell was elected as county council representative on the police services board after beating Anderson who had that role in the previous term.

White, Duncan, Lloyd, Seeley, Davidson, Anderson, O’Neill and Campbell were also appointed to the warden’s advisory committee.