Retired building materials salesman Peter Leon hit the ground running Thursday, joining the city council meeting the same day councillors picked him to represent Etobicoke’s Ward 3 in place of former councillor Doug Holyday.

Shortly after receiving a majority of votes, Leon was sworn in by the city clerk and became a city councillor until the end of the council term, in December 2014.

The Etobicoke Centre council seat was left vacant when Holyday won a provincial by-election Aug. 1 in the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore.

“I will not let you down,” an emotional Leon told council after they picked him on the third ballot. “I will be there for Ward 3.”

Former Progressive Conservative Chris Stockwell was the choice of Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, but Leon, 71, was propelled to victory by Holyday’s endorsement.

A former councillor and Tory MPP, Stockwell won the support of the Etobicoke York Community Council, composed of 10 area councillors, in a preliminary vote last week.

At the community council, Mayor Ford supported Stockwell, who got six votes, while Leon received none. But Holyday wrote a letter urging his former colleagues to ignore the local body and choose Leon.

“I would like to point out that ever since this process began, my calls from my former constituents strongly support the appointment of Peter Leon as opposed to that of any former office holder. Obviously, I agree with them. Hopefully, you will give every consideration to what appears to me to be the wishes of Ward 3 residents,” Holyday wrote in the letter.

Leon needed 22 votes to win, out of 43 councillors in attendance Wednesday. On the third round of voting, he got 26 to Stockwell’s 16. Former Etobicoke councillor Agnes Potts received one vote.

Councillors make $104,147. Leon, a self-described fiscal conservative, has said he will not run in the October 2014 election.

Councillors wanted candidates to agree not to run next year, so as not to gain an unfair advantage from having been appointed.

When the vacancy was advertised, some 45 people applied for it. Four later dropped out, and 15 didn’t show up to make a five-minute pitch at the council meeting, leaving 26 candidates in the contest.

On the first ballot, Leon and Stockwell were tied at 14 votes each. On the second ballot, Leon’s support grew to 21 votes while Stockwell polled 17 votes. Leon went over the top on the third ballot.

Mayor Ford, Councillor Ford and others opposed an appointment process and wanted a by-election. However, with only 13 months left in the four-year term, council voted to appoint and save the roughly $200,000 cost of conducting a ward-wide vote.

Leon, accompanied by wife Barbara and brother Paul, said he will sit down with residents to determine priorities.

“I’m looking forward to this challenge. It really is a special and a wonderful place that we call our home, and let’s make it even bigger and better,” he said.

Leon is a 56-year Etobicoke resident who lives in an adjoining ward. That wasn’t unusual — only nine of the original 45 candidates were Ward 3 residents, while 15 of the candidates didn’t even live in Etobicoke.

Despite his preference for a different candidate, Ford indicated after meeting with Leon that he was prepared to let bygones be bygones.

“We discussed that and I said I was looking for an experienced person, but that’s done now,” Ford said. “You move on.”

Lawyer Stephen Thiele, who had offered to do the job without pay and without dipping into the councillor’s office budget, noted in his speech to council that Stockwell quit the provincial cabinet in 2003 after being caught up in an expense scandal.

“I took full responsibility,” Stockwell said in response. “I stepped down as minister and didn’t run in the next election. I thought I did the right thing.”

Stockwell was asked by Councillor Adam Vaughan about “double dipping,” but Stockwell replied that lavish pensions for retired MPPs had been abolished.

“I don’t get a pension,” Stockwell said.

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Another high-profile candidate, former councillor and MP John Nunziata, received only three votes on the first ballot.

Nunziata’s sister, Councillor Frances Nunziata, a Ford insider who acts as Speaker of council, excused herself from the meeting due to her conflict.