TORONTO – Coun. Ana Bailao has won Toronto’s Ward 18, Davenport, in a close race with lawyer Alex Mazer. Bailao finished with 45.8 per cent of the vote, to Mazer’s 41.6 per cent.
Elected in 2010, replacing Adam Giambrone who she lost to in the previous election, Bailao won with over 43 per cent of the vote. The self-described “centre-left, maybe centre” ran on a campaign centered around community priorities and input at City Hall.
In January 2013, she pleaded guilty to impaired driving charges stemming from an incident the previous October. She was charged with having more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in her blood and received a 12-month driving prohibition and $1,000 fine. Bailao apologized, calling the incident a “bad decision,” also stressing she would “absolutely” run in the 2014 election. Following Bailao’s guilty plea, Mayor Rob Ford issued a statement supporting the city councillor.
Mazer, who was campaigning for a “new generation of city councillors,” was one of 11 candidates vying for Bailao’s job. On his campaign website, Mazer criticized Bailao’s support for Rob Ford-championed initiatives including the Scarborough subway and removal of bike lanes.
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