Hamilton voters say it’s time for better leadership after years of scandals

Hamilton City Hall can be seen above. (cityofhamilton/Instagram)

After numerous covers ups, poor decision making, and mismanagement, Hamiltonians want “new leadership for a better Hamilton.”

That’s the vision of a grassroots, volunteer-run organization called IELECT Hamilton, which since May 2021 has advocated for new faces around the council table who best represent the needs and interest of Canada’s 10th largest city.

“It’s time for change for our city. … We need better leadership and better accountability,” board member Ryan Moran told CP24.com.

“It’s a big time of change in Hamilton.”

The city has been rocked by a number of “disasterous” scandals in recent years, Moran said, which have resulted in the “erosion of voter trust.”

They include:

• The Red Hill Valley Parkway road surfacing cover up. In this case, concerns were raised about the type of paving that was used for this new roadway and how it may have played role in several fatalities. A 2013 friction/safety report was somehow placed in a locked folder and not found for six years until 2018.
• The 24-billion litre sewage leak in Chedoke Creek. Known as “sewergate,” the public had no idea about the extent of this four-year-long environmental disaster until a whistleblower contacted The Hamilton Spectator in the fall of 2019.
• The Cootes Paradise sewage cover up. Following the Chedoke Creek scandal, Hamilton City Council reportedly voted to not inform the public of another sewage leak at Cootes Paradise claiming they were only following legal advice.

There have also been a number of incidents in Hamilton involving racism, including the police’s alleged slow response to white supremacists harassing attendees at the 2019 Pride Day Festival, the perceived lack of response and support from city councillors when community members protesting demonstrations by reported hate group Yellow Vests Canada in the City Hall forecourt, the removal of the name of a suspected white supremacist employed by the city from the organizational chart, and the city’s take-over of Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre. A 2019 Stats Canada report also found the city of almost 600,000 residents had a higher number of reported hate crimes-per-capita than any other in the country.

Further, Hamilton council has also been going back and forth for more than a decade when it comes to the construction of a new light rail transit line. Other issues include how to address the affordable housing crisis and how to even out tax rates post-amalgamation across the municipality.

Moran said IELECT Hamilton’s goal is to play a role in furthering important conversations, and gathering and sharing information about the candidates vying for to represent the city’s 15 wards and the nine mayoral candidates so that the public can make more informed decisions about how they should vote for on Oct. 24.

Those running for mayor in Hamilton include former Ontario NDP leader and ex-Hamilton councillor Andrea Horwath; Keanin Loomis, the former president and CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce; and Bob Bratina, who was Hamilton’s mayor from 2010 to 2014. Bratina is also a former Hamilton city councillor and was the MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek from 2015 to 2021. Ejaz Butt, Paul Fromm, Jim Davis, and Solomon Ikhuiwu, Hermiz Ishaya, and Michael Pattison are also vying to be Hamilton’s next mayor.

The race is open as the city’s current Mayor Fred Eisenberger has decided to not seek re-election after serving three terms. Eisenberger, who is the former chair of the Hamilton Port Authority, was first elected as the city’s mayor in 2014.

Hamilton will also be electing at least six new city councillors this term.

According to a Mainstreet Research poll, Horwath is in the lead heading into Monday’s election. She polled at 36.5 per cent, next to Loomis who has 28.7 per cent. Just over 12 per cent of those surveyed said Bratina would be the winner.

Horwath said she’s eager to be Hamilton’s mayor as the city’s “best days are ahead.”

If elected, she said she’d bring stability to the city and would work to strengthen Hamilton’s relationships with the province and the federal government.

Horwath said some of her key priorities include building more good, affordable, and purpose-built rental and supportive housing and ensuring people have the supports they need to successfully remain housed, managing urban sprawl, fostering the city’s art and culture scene, bringing in new investments and business opportunities that would create high-paying jobs, and improving infrastructure and road safety.

“We also need to turn around the culture at city hall, the secrecy, the lack of transparency,” she said.

Loomis, who is running for office for the first time, said he tossed his hat in the ring “after years of banging his head against the wall at city hall.”

Motivated to run after the Pride 2019 incident and the infamous “sewergate” scandal, Loomis said he feels he’s the best person to lead Hamilton through this period of change.

“I know I would do better. … Hamilton needs somebody who can lead collaboratively, who can bring people together,” he told CP24.com.

“And while there are challenges, this is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Hamilton. … There’s a huge desire for change, a huge desire for effective leadership at city hall.”

Loomis said his first priority if elected would be to restore trust and transparency at city hall. One of the ways he plans to do that is by holding town halls in every municipal ward.

“I want to build strong relationships and find areas of cohesion and move forward on issues with some consensus,” he said.

Some of Loomis’ area of focus include getting a new LRT line and other public transit routes built, ensuring there’s proper return on investment for the high taxes Hamiltonians pay, smart growth/intensification, housing affordability, and addressing traffic congestion.

“We have to be able to say yes to projects that are impacting our neighbourhoods,” he said.

Bratina, who said he’s running because the city’s “administration is broken,” said the first thing he’ll do if elected is clean house and work on restoring trust.

“Hamilton was run for a long time by an old boys club. … This old culture has lasted for almost three decades,” he said, adding the “culture of bullying” and “making bad decisions” has got to go.

“We’ll be getting new people in now and I’ll set a new standard of cultural behaviour for councillors,” he vowed.

“I want city hall to be run like a board of directors.”

Bratina, who is a believer in term limits, said his main focus would be to simply do his job well.

“I’m not worried about getting re-elected. I’m worried about getting things done,” he said.

Some of Bratina’s main priorities would be to restore “respect for law” by ensuring the police have “proper resources” to do their job, seek efficiencies and clear out excess, ensure affordability, and find opportunities to increase employment and industry growth.

“The mantra of an immigrant family like mine was to live within our means and make the most of what we had,” he said, adding that’s the approach he’ll take as mayor.

“We have opportunities to come up with creative solutions.”

The optimism for the future expressed by Hamilton’s mayoral candidates appears to be showing at the advance polls as almost 32,000 people voted early this election.

In 2018, 17,052 people cast their votes in advance in the Hamilton municipal election, while just 13,242 residents did so in 2014.

HamiltoNEXT, a non-partisan alliance of local business organizations “committed to helping our city become a champion for long-term prosperity, grow our economy, and create a better quality of life for everyone in Hamilton," said they’re encouraged by the early voter turnout as it shows local voters are engaged and interested in what happens at Hamilton city hall in the next term and want to ensure their voices are heard.

“This isn’t a normal election. We’ll be getting a new (mayoral) candidate coming into office with a new plan,” said the group’s spokesperson Ryan Kneisz.

“It’s an opportunity for Hamiltonians to truly voice what they want for a prosperous future. … People are looking for a concrete action items, for a leader who will implement plans.”