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What does it take to beat a 24-year council veteran?

In the case of Ward 2’s Shawn Lewis, it’s nearly $20,000.

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Lewis’ financial statements show he came close to the maximum spending in his successful bid last year to knock off Bill Armstrong, who held the seat for more than two decades.

Lewis, who spent $19,092 — just shy of the $20,037 spending limit for his ward — said he “knew it was going to take everything I could muster” to win against a longtime councillor.

“From the very beginning, it was my intention to run a fully funded, fully resourced campaign,” he said. “It was my intention to spend as close to the max as I could possibly fundraise, because I was running against a 24-year incumbent.”

That included $15,600 in campaign donations to fuel Lewis’s campaign, including $200 from MP Irene Mathyssen — for whom Lewis worked until leaving to focus on city council — and a hefty $1,000 donation from former city councillor Stephen Orser, who ran and lost in Ward 4.