Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall smiles during a victory speech at Pie Restaurant in Barrie, Ont. after winning re-election in the city’s municipal election, Oct. 26, 2026. BARRIE360/Julius Hern
Cheers of “four more years” echoed through Pie Restaurant on Monday night as Alex Nuttall prepared to give his victory speech.
The Barrie mayor has secured a second term to head the city’s council, achieving victory with 26,054 votes, which is 66.62 percent according to unofficial results.
“When you door knock 35,000 doors with the (campaign) team, you get to know your city really well,” he shared in his speech. “We did that last time, and we did that this time.”
Tanya Saari came in second with 9,898 votes (25.3 percent), followed by Russell J. Tighe with 2,419 votes (6.1 percent), and Kay Sayer with 737 votes (1.8 percent).
Voter turnout was recorded at 30.21 percent, marking the lowest since the turnout of 30.01 percent in 2018.
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Nuttall’s win margin was considerably larger than during his first mayoral election in 2022 when he edged out former deputy mayor Barry Ward by just three percent.
“I think it means stability; I think it means steadiness,” Nuttall told reporters about the increased margin. “But I also think it means there’s a lot more work to do.. We’re going to take the support for our mandate but also do it in a way that’s going to try to bring more and more people on board.”
Much of Nuttall’s campaign focused on achievements from his initial term while emphasizing safer streets, housing solutions, and job growth.
Among his commitments was dedicating $3 million towards traffic-calming measures, creating 2,000 new manufacturing jobs within the city, and ensuring that 800 affordable housing units are built and occupied.
Nuttall recognized that some of these targets would extend beyond just one four-year term.
“There’s no way that we could fully get all of the finances of the city where we want them to be in just a four-year term,” he noted. “We’ve made considerable progress toward it but there’s still much work ahead.”
In his remarks, Nuttall also urged residents to restore what he referred to as a “social contract” within the community; this idea suggests that everyone is there for each other and willing to lend a hand.
“We’ve let that social contract go,” he remarked. “We need to re-engage back into that community where it’s not about each of us but it’s about all of us – about how we all step up together.”
He used this metaphor as an encouragement for residents to become more active locally including participating within various committees associated with the City of Barrie.
Nuttall will start his second term as Barrie’s mayor alongside many familiar faces from council.
All seven incumbent councillors who sought re-election will keep their positions while Amy Courser transitioned from representing Ward 4 last term to being elected in Ward 3.
By numbers alone, one tight race took place in Ward 9 where Sergio Morales narrowly defeated challenger Norm Costello by only 236 votes.
Two other wards will welcome new councillors: Pauline Stevenson won her spot in Ward 1 while Arif Khan returns after serving on city council from 2012-2018 but now represents Ward 4.
The city clerk’s office will confirm these results later this week.
Barrie’s upcoming city council session kicks off on November 15.
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UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
MAYOR CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESAlex Nuttall26,05466.62Tanya Saari9,89825.31Russell J. Tighe2,4196.19Kay Sayer7371.88Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD 1 CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESPauline Stevenson2,03845.47Shaughna Ainsworth1,02721.73Stefano Agostino89218.87Brent Bowser54011.43Christian Earl Cadera1172.48Hafiz Rahman1122.37Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD 2 CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESCraig Nixon1,77645.47Shanicka Edwards97324.91Frank Casera54313.9Tracy Strohm3779.65Ajmal Noushahi2376.07Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD 3 CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESAmy Courser2,54048.00Ben Hughes1,24223.47Bryan Jones1,12521.26Ryan Rijo3857.28Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD 4 CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESArif Khan1,80141.34Lori Galeazza1,16126.65Matthew Corbett66515. 26Iradat Ahmad55212. 67Patrick Harriott-Stewart1784. 09Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD 5 CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESRobert Thomson3, 34677. 65Duarte Da Silva96322. 35Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD SIX CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESNigussie Nigussie3, 04768. 92Christel Pena1, 11525. 22Nader Nasar George2595. 86Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD SEVEN CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESGary Harvey2, 08583. 57Michael Lewis41016. 43Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD EIGHT CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESJim Harris1, 85263. 25Amanda Fellows86229. 44Samina Alim2147. 31Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD NINE CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTE SSergio Morales1, 61248. 15Norm Costello1, 37641. 10Dave Weingarten2808. 36Asmar Naveed802. 39Unofficial results courtesy City of Barrie WARD TEN CANDIDATEVOTESPERCENTAGE OF VOTESBryn Hamilton1, 97574. 14George Kapustin38914. 60William Cadeau30011. 26Unofficial results courtesy City of barries SCDSB TRUSTEE – BARRIE (WARDS ONE TO THREE) CANDIDATE Votes Percentage of Votes David William O’Brien4 , 39542.62Tim Ware3 , 57734.69Wes Ayranto2 , 33922.68Unofficial results courtsey city of barries SCDSB TRUSTEE – BARRIE (WARDS FOUR TO SIX) Candidate Vote Percentage Of Votes Candice Thomas4 ,03842.12Dana Powell4 ,01941.92Beth Mouratidis 50
