John Graham wins Iqaluit mayoral race

Unofficial election results show Iqaluit's former airport manager, John Graham,won the race to become the city's new mayor.

Graham won by a large margin, with 71 per cent of the vote. Al Hayward, a former city councillor, and disabilities activist Noah Papatsie took 15 per cent of the vote and 14 per cent of the vote, respectively.

"I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the support I received in the vote today," Graham said Monday.

Graham will join eight councillors elected yesterday, five back from the previous council.

The unofficial results also show that Iqaluit's eight city councillors are:

Joanasie Akumalik Kenny Bell Terry Dobbin Jimmy Kilabuk Mark Morrissey Simon Nattaq Romeyn Stevenson Mary Ekho Wilman

Returning councillor Mary Wilman had more votes than any other candidate. She said shes ready to get down to business.

"We are in desperate need to improve the landfillthat's going to be a top priorityand of course the need for recreation," she said.

Ratepayers vote in favour of new pool

Ratepayers also voted in favour of allowing the city to borrow up to $40 million for a new aquatics centre.

Unofficial results showed 57 per cent in favour of the action. Just over 500 ratepayers were eligible to vote in the referendum.

Graham said he will respect that decision without borrowing one dollar more than he needs.

Returning councillor Romeyn Stevenson said the city is ready to tackle the multi-million dollar project.

"People worry that the city is not capable of doing this and that worry I think is unfounded," he said.

"In three years working with the city I have had nothing but respect for the way things are run by the staff and I know the City of Iqaluit is capable of dealing with this kind of large-scale project."

This was the first time electronic tabulation machines were used to count the ballots. Results didn't come in as quickly as expected, though.

Kirt Ejesiak, the city's chief electoral officer, said last month that he had expected results to be in 30 minutes after polls closed. However, the results took more than two hours to come in.