What Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo’s highest officials spent during election campaigns

The votes have long since been tallied across Waterloo Region for last year’s municipal election but the deadline just recently passed for the winners and losers to submit their campaign expenses.

There was a changing of the guard in Waterloo as incumbent mayor Dave Jaworsky decided to step away from politics after two terms in office.

Four people entered the race to replace Jaworsky with Dorothy McCabe edging out Shannon Weber by just over 300 votes when all was said and done.

Weber was the top spender in the region, as her campaign bills added up to $73,725, with much of that money being poured into advertising, brochures and flyers, signs and office expenses as well as salaries, benefits, honoraria and professional fees.

Weber’s campaign spending was well over twice that of the woman she lost to.

McCabe spent $30,106 on her campaign with $18,706 of that having gone to flyers.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic was the top spender in Kitchener, having shelled out $70,048 on his election campaign, including $25,695 on advertising as well as $25,365 on flyers and brochures.

The incumbent easily held off his four challengers as he recorded 26,846 votes, which is more than the others combined.

He also spent considerably more than all his competitors, none of whom dropped as much as $4,000 in their attempts to dethrone Vrbanovic.

Manikantan Nair, who finished third in the election to become Kitchener mayor, was the second-highest spender at $3,438.

Down in Cambridge, a much tighter race saw incumbent former mayor Kathryn McGarry ousted by Jan Liggett by just over 1,000 votes (12567- 11441).

McGarry, who remains in politics having recently been selected as president of the Ontario Liberal party, spent $46,201 on her campaign, with her biggest expense proving to be salaries, benefits, honoraria and professional fees at $17,193.

Meanwhile, Liggett’s expense report totaled $35,361, a number which included $8,437 for office expenses.

The woman who is sitting in the region’s highest municipal seat, Karen Redman, spent less than all of those who are occupying mayor’s offices.

According to the regional chair’s campaign filings, her election expenses worked out to $29,790.

Redman collected 68,084 votes, which is well above her closest rival Brendon John Da Costa, who garnered 19,909. Still, he got a pretty good bang for his buck as his filings show that just $2,280 was spent on his campaign.

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