Adam Vaughan Defeats Helen Kennedy In Trinity-Spadina

For years he walked the beat as a political reporter for Citytv, asking the tough questions, and uncovering the good, the bad, and the ugly at City Hall and throughout the G.T.A.   But on Monday Adam Vaughan went from reporting headlines, to making them, pulling off a huge victory in the tough riding of Trinity-Spadina.

Vaughan defeated Olivia Chow’s handpicked replacement, Helen Kennedy.

“We fought this campaign with ideas, with the people of Trinity-Spadina, we won this with everybody in the Ward, I’m overjoyed, I’m touched,” he said in the midst of a celebratory party.  

“What we have to do is create affordable and beautiful housing downtown for everybody, we have to create a process that makes sure we have a city that everyone feels at home in and everyone can live in.”

When asked how tough a blow his victory was to the N.D.P., Vaughan responded; “City Hall belongs to the people who live and build the neighbourhoods from the ground up, not the political parties, not the machines, or the left or the right of the city or the suburbs, it belongs to the people in the neighbourhoods.   We’re going to change City Hall forever.”

But while former councillor Chow is disappointed with the outcome, she believes Vaughan’s philosophy isn’t too far from her own.

“His points of view, if you look at it, is very similar to, say, the mayor, whether it’s on the environment, on building housing and getting the waterfront fixed up,” she argues. “All of that is N.D.P. values.”

Vaughan was famous for his run-ins with politicians during his time as a reporter. Now he’ll be sitting next to the very people he tormented for so many years.

He claims his tutelage under his father, the late Colin Vaughan, has prepared him for everything.

Colin was not only CityNews‘ original Political Specialist, he was also a city councillor for many years. “He taught me how to read a city,” he explains simply.

His son only wishes his father and mother were here to see him now.

“When you’ve lost both your parents, you never stop thinking about them,” he sighs. 

Some believe the ambitious Vaughan will eventually work his way into the Mayor’s office.  

“I think Adam Vaughan’s win is a big win for the city, and I think Adam Vaughan is the kind of person you want to watch to see as the next mayor in the city of Toronto,” said politcal analyst Warren Kinsella.

What would Colin Vaughan have had to say about that?