St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston has shared that he won’t be running for re-election in the upcoming Ontario municipal election this fall and will retire after serving two terms.
Preston, who also represented Elgin-Middlesex-London as a member of Parliament from 2004 to 2015, made his announcement during an online mayoral update.
“St. Thomas has incredible momentum,” Preston said. “I’m proud to have been part of this journey and excited for what comes next.”
During his time in office, St. Thomas has seen rapid growth and was selected as the location for the large Power Co battery plant. This facility, a part of Volkswagen, is currently under construction and has nearly 400 employees on board. Norway’s Vianode has also confirmed plans to set up a battery materials plant in St. Thomas.
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St. Thomas, Ont., Mayor Joe Preston, left, with Premier Doug Ford announcing Vianode’s investment in St. Thomas. ( Robert Krbavac/CBC News)
In an interview with CBC News, Preston expressed his happiness over the economic developments in St. Thomas but highlighted that he’s most proud of the efforts made to assist unhoused individuals-a challenge faced by cities across Canada.
“I hope that we’re ahead of the curve on most of the communities in Canada and southern Ontario in removing homelessness,” he said. “I hope that some time in the next year to 18 months, we get to zero on our by-name list and our homeless list. It’s a huge accomplishment.”
Preston, who also runs a Wendy’s restaurant franchise in St. Thomas, mentioned he’s proud of how he’s worked with council to manage the city’s rapid expansion. He plans to keep running the Wendy’s alongside his business partner.
The mayor noted that his time leading has benefited from having a cooperative relationship with council rather than an adversarial one-something he hopes continues after a new mayor takes office this fall.
“I had the best council that I’ve ever seen a mayor have,” said Preston. “We work well together; we don’t have long meetings and we get things done because we concentrate on the governance of our community and not the management of our community.”
For now, Preston stated he’ll continue serving as mayor until his term concludes.
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