The group known as StopSOP — which had tried to mobilize support to repeal the statement of principles and elect candidates explicitly against it — said all 22 of the candidates who had run on their slate were successfully elected.

“Myself and many other candidates made it very clear that we thought the compulsory statement of principles was an overreach and a rather serious infringement of some basic freedoms of thought and conscience. The voters seemed to have shared that concern,” says Murray Klippenstein, a lawyer in Toronto who ran his own law firm before striking out as a sole practitioner after the statement of principles requirement was announced.

Klippenstein was one of a number of candidates who had been vocal about their opposition to the statement of principles and ran on a slate that said they would repeal the statement of principles, if elected.

This year’s election included a record-setting number of candidates, with 145 lawyers and paralegals on the ballot, the highest number since 1995, the last year figures were available from the Law Society of Ontario.

Approximately 120 candidates submitted candidate profiles to a website set up by Law Times to cover issues of importance to the election, including candidates’ stance on the statement of principles.

Top vote-getters included: Cheryl Lean, a sole practitioner in Prince Edward County, Ont., who received 5,184 votes; Ryan Alford, a law professor in Thunder Bay, Ont., who received 5,062 votes; and Klippenstein, who received 5,017 votes and was the top vote-getter for the region. Malcolm Mercer, whose current term as treasurer began last June, was re-elected as a bencher, with 2,971 votes.