George Minakakis Wins Milton Ward 1 Byelection

It’s official: George Minakakis is the new Ward 1 councillor. The Town of Milton has announced the official results for the Ward 1 byelection. George Minakakis won with 1,804 votes.

Former councillor Rick Di Lorenzo came in second with 958 votes. Minakakis, who serves as chair of both Milton Hydro and ACTION Milton, had also run for the Ward 1 seat in 2022 but lost to Kristina Tesser Derksen.

The byelection was held after Tesser Derksen left her council seat to become the Member of Parliament for the new Milton East—Halton Hills South riding.

Here are the official results released on Oct. 7:

• George Minakakis — 1,804

• Rick Di Lorenzo — 958

• Zainab Raza — 565

• Zaheer Ashraf — 364

• Adejisola Atiba — 96

• Pat O’Reilly — 79

• Gourav Suri — 51

• Shahbaz Khan — 29

• Cecil Young — 25

Voter turnout was low at only 17 per cent — 3,971 out of 23,155 eligible voters. In comparison, 5,871 people voted in Ward 1 during the 2022 municipal election.

Mayor Gord Krantz said he expected the main race to be between Minakakis and Di Lorenzo.“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” he said. “The only surprise was the difference in votes.”

Minakakis will soon join council as it works on the 2026 municipal budget. Town staff said the date for his swearing-in will be announced this week.

Mayor Krantz added, “George will become a colleague of mine for another year or so. We’ll organize the swearing-in and get him started as quickly as possible.”

The byelection is expected to cost between $185,000 and $200,000. Town staff had suggested filling the vacancy through an appointment process, which would have cost less and likely resulted in Minakakis being chosen anyway.

The final costs of the byelection will be shared in the 2025 operating variance report, which is scheduled to go to council in spring 2026.

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