Turner in, Christensen only Fort Erie councillor voted out

Daniel Turner will be Fort Erie’s next Ward 4 councillor after defeating incumbent Joan Christensen in Monday’s municipal election.

Turner won with 1,586 votes, or 64.6 per cent, according to unofficial results posted by the town. Tavis McGlashan finished second with 452 votes, or 18.4 per cent. Christensen finished third with 360 votes, or 14.7 per cent, and Matt Paul received 56 votes.

Christensen, who was seeking a second term, was the only one of Fort Erie’s six ward councillors to lose a seat. Turner and Mayor-elect Tom Insinna will be the only new members of the town’s seven-member council.

What to know about Ward 4’s new councillor

Turner works in Niagara Region’s economic development office and previously worked as an economic development officer for the Town of Fort Erie. He holds a master’s degree in business economics and volunteers as a firefighter at Ridgeway Station 4.

During the campaign, Turner argued Fort Erie deserves the same kind of provincial investment that built the nearly $250-million West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.

At an October 22 forum at the Crystal Ridge Community Centre, he said Fort Erie could avoid raising taxes by sharing staff, such as a town solicitor, with other municipalities and by buying road salt and equipment together with them.

“Economics is really about maximizing our results with a limited budget,” said Turner.

Christensen, a former senior policy adviser with Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, pointed to the $4.5 million the town won from the province to replace a three-kilometre lakeshore watermain serving 84 properties on Colony Road and two nearby streets.

“One of the options was to revert to the old form of water access, cisterns, and I said, ‘Over my dead body,’” Christensen said.

Five councillors return

In Ward 5, Tom Lewis kept his seat with 1,128 votes, or 47 per cent. Kassandra Ryerson finished second with 491 votes, or 20.4 per cent. Thomas Mete, 21, received 411 votes and Scott Boumeester received 372.

Lewis, who first won the Ward 5 seat in 2003 at age 19, led council’s decision to withhold the $3 million Fort Erie pledged in 2013 toward Niagara Health’s new hospital. Council has held back the money since June 2025 to press Niagara Health to keep urgent care in Fort Erie.

In Ward 2, Nick Dubanow won a third term with 1,080 votes, or 56 per cent, to Jon Nadeau’s 848, or 44 per cent. Dubanow, who chairs Community Living Fort Erie, campaigned on defending Fort Erie’s independence after he opposed the former regional chair’s bid to amalgamate Niagara’s municipalities.

Darren Flagg won a second term in Ward 3 with 1,066 votes, or 46.9 per cent. Andrew Holdsworth, a process operator for Niagara Region, finished second with 638 votes, or 28.1 per cent, and Jennifer Priestley received 570, or 25.1 per cent.

George McDermott in Ward 1 and Ann-Marie Noyes in Ward 6 kept their seats without opposition after town clerk Peter Todd declared both acclaimed on August 21.

Seven votes separate top trustee candidates

Seven votes separated the top two candidates in Fort Erie’s count for the District School Board of Niagara trustee seat. Steve Webb received 3,626 votes, or 37.2 per cent. Susan Jovanovic, who resigned the same seat in March, received 3,619, or 37.1 per cent.

Todd must still certify the results before Fort Erie’s new council takes office on November 15.

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