Burbach, Hunter, Rea send best wishes for Ritz and new council

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After a nail biter election on Oct. 26, Stratford has a new mayor and council for the 2026-2030 term. The mayoral hopefuls who didn’t win the top spot, Jo-Dee Burbach, Mark Hunter and Andrew Rea nevertheless wished Ritz and the new council a productive term.

Second place finisher, with 508 votes between her and Ritz, was Jo-Dee Burbach, who vacated her seat on council to run for mayor this election. While she did not respond to the Times’ request for comment prior to press time, she posted the following statement to her campaign’s Facebook page:

“Thank you Stratford,” Burbach wrote. “It's been an honour to serve you over the past eight years, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who supported me throughout this campaign. To the many generous people who volunteered, knocked on doors, put up signs, donated and encouraged me along the way – thank you. To my family and friends, your support, enthusiasm and love was a vital part of my campaign – thank you.

“I’m proud of the campaign I ran, the conversations we had, and the opportunity to share my vision for Stratford. Congratulations to Rob Ritz and all the elected council members. I wish them success in leading our city.

“To everyone who placed their trust in me – thank you. Please know how much that means to me. Although the campaign has ended, my commitment to Stratford hasn’t changed. I’m proud to call this city home, and I’ll always care deeply about its future.”

Hunter, who likewise vacated his councillor seat to run, came in fourth place with 2,542 votes (21.3 per cent of the share). He posted a video to his campaign’s Instagram page, where he congratulated Ritz and everyone elected to council.

“I wish you every success as you take on the responsibility of shaping the future of our city,” Hunter said. “I would like to thank everyone who put their name forward in this election. Running for public office takes courage, time and a genuine willingness to serve. Regardless of the outcome, your participation has strengthened our community and our democracy.

“… The election is over, but our commitment to Stratford continues. I encourage my supporters to put your support now behind the new council. Although we didn’t agree on every way on how to move our city forward, we all want a city that is a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family.”

“It was an honour to serve our city alongside my council colleagues and city staff,” Hunter further told the Times. “Stratford is lucky to have the staff we do. Everyone I had the pleasure of working with was professional, hardworking and very dedicated to serving our community.”

Andrew Rea, who was a political outsider running on a campaign of top-to-bottom change in city hall, received 206 votes, 1.5 per cent of the share.

He said he was grateful to have been part of this year’s election and feels that Stratford’s citizens had a chance to be as best informed as they could have been.

“I entered this race to set an example; that if it's felt that our council, or our mayor has been inadequately representing citizens, then a regular citizen can, should and will step up and speak out to challenge them – win or lose,” Rea said. “I feel I accomplished that.

“I hold true still, that I did not run for any personal reason, but rather I wanted only for the city to see the benefits of change, to have leadership from a fresh perspective of someone from the outside, looking in ... and I feel that was equally achieved with Mr. Ritz's victory.”