2018 Hamilton Municipal Election

Hamilton held its municipal election on Monday, October 22, 2018. Voters elected a mayor citywide, one councillor in each of the city's 15 wards, and school board trustees. Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who had held the office from 2006 to 2010 and again since 2014, sought another term against 14 challengers. His main opponent, Vito Sgro, campaigned against the city's planned light rail transit (LRT) line. Nominations closed on July 27; the City certified 158 candidates for all offices, including 15 for mayor and 89 for the 15 council seats. Four wards had no incumbent on the ballot: Aidan Johnson (Ward 1) and Matthew Green (Ward 3) did not run again, Donna Skelly had left Ward 7 on her election as a Progressive Conservative MPP, and Terry Whitehead, the Ward 8 councillor, ran in the new Ward 14.

The election was the first held on new ward boundaries. The 15 wards set at amalgamation in 2001 largely followed the old municipal lines, and by 2016 the smallest had about 16,000 residents and the largest well over 60,000. The City spent $270,000 on a review by Watson and Associates, but council adopted boundaries only slightly different from the existing ones. Two residents appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board. In a decision issued on December 12, 2017, the Board found that the review had been "dominated by a concerted mandate to preserve" the split of urban and suburban/rural interests agreed at amalgamation and Ward 14 as an exclusively rural ward, and ordered the City to adopt Option 2 of the Watson report. The new map split the Flamborough ward along Highway 8, placing its northern part with Dundas in Ward 13 and its southern part with Ancaster in Ward 12; created a fourth ward on the Mountain, numbered 14; and redrew the east-end Wards 9, 10 and 11. On December 18, 2017, council voted 8–7 not to appeal.

Voters cast 138,549 ballots, a turnout of 38.36%, up from 34.02% in 2014. Eisenberger was re-elected with 54.03% of the vote. Nine councillors were returned in their wards, Whitehead won Ward 14, and Doug Conley in Ward 9 was the only incumbent defeated.

Mayoral Race

Eisenberger won with 74,093 votes, 54.03% of the 137,137 votes cast for mayor, to 52,190 (38.06%) for Sgro, a margin of 21,903. George Rusich was third with 2,220 (1.62%) and Jim Davis fourth with 2,071 (1.51%); none of the other 11 candidates received 1%. In 2014, Eisenberger had won with 49,020 votes (39.93%), ahead of Brad Clark and Brian McHattie.

Computed from the City's poll-by-poll results, Eisenberger led in 13 of the 15 wards. His share was highest in the lower city: Ward 1 (70.6%), Ward 2 (67.7%) and Ward 3 (63.8%). Sgro led in Ward 15, which combines Waterdown and part of Flamborough, with 50.0% to 39.1%, and in Ward 9 by 106 votes (45.9% to 44.3%). Eisenberger's narrowest leads were in Ward 11 (50.2% to 43.6%) and Ward 10 (46.7% to 42.2%). Of the 206 polls listed, he led in 173 and Sgro in 31; two were tied. In the advance polls, which the City reports by ward, Eisenberger received 57.4% of the 17,052 votes for mayor, compared with 53.6% in the other polls. CBC News reported that his support was concentrated in urban areas and central Hamilton and Sgro's in rural and outlying areas; in Ward 13, Dundas largely voted for Eisenberger and Flamborough for Sgro.

Sgro conceded shortly before 9:30 p.m. Eisenberger said: "For those that wanted to make this a referendum, I think they can consider this a referendum." Sgro said the number of LRT opponents elected to council meant the result was not as clear as Eisenberger suggested: "If anyone thinks this is over, this is far from over." The next day, Eisenberger said: "They did make it a quasi-referendum on LRT and I'm going to accept it as that."

The Candidates

Fred Eisenberger won a third term, his second in a row. He had headed the Canadian Urban Institute. In October he named his priorities as "economic development and jobs, affordable housing, and building and improving our infrastructure, including roads and transit." He supported LRT but said it was not "the riveting issue some are trying to make it." In the final weekend he pointed to $1 billion in building permits issued in six of the previous seven years and to a Conference Board of Canada study that found Hamilton's economy the most diversified in Canada. Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, the MPP for Hamilton Centre, endorsed him; it was the first time she had backed a municipal candidate.

Vito Sgro, a partner with CBM Chartered Accountants, had worked on federal Liberal campaigns, including those of Bob Bratina and Tony Valeri. He had recently resigned from the board of Infrastructure Ontario and had served as a director of the Hamilton Port Authority. In early July, confirming that he would register as a candidate, he said: "I've run out of reasons why not to." His signs read "Stop the train. Fix infrastructure." He proposed spending about $300 million on express buses along the BLAST rapid transit network and the rest on infrastructure projects, including a bypass in Waterdown. Bob Bratina, a former mayor and Liberal MP, endorsed him, as did councillors Judi Partridge, Terry Whitehead and Maria Pearson and Ward 9 candidate Brad Clark.

Other candidates. Paul Fromm, described by CBC News as a "notorious white nationalist", had founded the Canadian Association for Free Expression and had run for mayor of Mississauga; he said he was running to draw attention to traffic gridlock. He received 706 votes (0.51%).

Campaign Issues

The LRT line was planned to run 14 kilometres, with 17 stops, from McMaster University to Eastgate Square, and to open by 2024. Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government had announced the $1 billion project in 2015, with Metrolinx as the lead agency. Before the June 2018 provincial election, PC leader Doug Ford said: "I will wait to see what council decides, and if they decide against the LRT, under a PC government, the funding will stay with Hamilton." In August, after Ford's government took office, Metrolinx paused property purchases for the line, the only Metrolinx project paused by the province's halt on discretionary spending; it had bought 45 properties, about half of those needed.

Whether the money could be spent on other projects was disputed throughout the campaign. At Sgro's telephone town hall on October 3, which his team said more than 7,000 people joined, Flamborough—Glanbrook PC MPP Donna Skelly said the province stood by its commitment to pay for LRT or other approved infrastructure, and that "the final decision as to whether the LRT is built or not does rest with the new city council." On October 11, Sgro said the Premier's office had confirmed the money could be used for "transit or infrastructure"; the office said it had pointed him to earlier statements from the Minister of Transportation's office, which did not make clear whether the whole $1 billion would be available. A group called #yesLRT campaigned for the project, and members of a "No LRT" group ran for council in Wards 1, 3 and 13.

A Forum Research poll late in the campaign found Eisenberger and Sgro in a virtual tie. One-third of respondents named LRT as the most important issue; others named property taxes (17%), roads and infrastructure (15%), public safety and crime (9%) and the cost of housing (7%).

In Flamborough, LRT and its effect on taxpayers dominated an October 2 debate in Waterdown. Under area rating, suburban and rural wards paid only for the transit they received, and Partridge said ending area rating for transit would drive up taxes for her residents. On the central Mountain, several Ward 7 candidates said they would fight Sonoma Towers, a planned 489-unit, four-building development at Upper Sherman and Acadia.

Council

Of the councillors who sought re-election, all but Doug Conley were returned. By CBC News's count after the election, seven of the 16 members of the new council, including the mayor, supported LRT, four gave it soft support and five opposed it.

• Ward 1: Maureen Wilson won the open seat with 3,664 votes (41.5%) in a field of 13. Jason Allen, endorsed by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, received 1,501 (17.0%). Wilson had served as chief of staff to former mayor Bob Wade. Aidan Johnson left the seat for a job with the Niagara Community Legal Clinic. Turnout was 42.52%.
• Ward 2: Jason Farr, a former broadcaster first elected in 2010, was re-elected with 3,162 votes (46.9%). Cameron Kroetsch received 2,024 (30.0%) and six other candidates 1,562 between them.
• Ward 3: Nrinder Nann, who had managed Matthew Green's 2014 campaign and was a former manager of community development for the City of Toronto, won with 2,618 votes (34.0%) in a field of 13. Laura Farr received 1,471 (19.1%) and Ned Kuruc 1,066. The ward's turnout, 31.31%, was the lowest in the city.
• Ward 4: Sam Merulla, the ward's councillor since 2000, was re-elected with 6,913 votes (78.4%) to 1,910 for Rod Douglas.
• Ward 5: Chad Collins, first elected in a 1995 by-election, won with 7,596 votes (80.3%). Juanita Maldonado received 1,340.
• Ward 6: Tom Jackson, Hamilton's longest-serving councillor, received 8,247 votes (82.3%), the most of any council candidate.
• Ward 7: Esther Pauls won the seat Skelly had left, with 3,016 votes (25.0%) among 11 candidates, the lowest winning share in the city. Geraldine McMullen received 1,878 and Dan MacIntyre 1,735. Pauls named safe streets and neighbourhoods, public transit and infrastructure, and responsible government as her priorities.
• Ward 8: The new boundaries divided the former Ward 8 into Wards 8 and 14. John-Paul Danko, a civil engineer who had finished 92 votes behind Skelly in the 2016 by-election she won, won with 3,752 votes (41.7%). Eve Adams, a former Mississauga councillor and Conservative MP who had crossed the floor to the Liberals, received 2,097 (23.3%), and Steve Ruddick, a CHCH-TV weather personality endorsed by Whitehead, 1,905.
• Ward 9: Under the new boundaries the ward covered only upper Stoney Creek. Brad Clark, a former PC transportation minister who had represented Ward 9 for nine years before running for mayor in 2014, defeated Doug Conley, who had served one term, by 2,539 votes (38.7%) to 1,961 (29.9%). Peter Lanza received 1,529.
• Ward 10: Maria Pearson, who had represented Stoney Creek for 15 years, was re-elected in the redrawn ward with 3,988 votes (36.3%). Louie Milojevic received 2,990, public school trustee Jeff Beattie 2,692 and Ian Thompson, who campaigned for term limits and online voting, 1,304.
• Ward 11: Brenda Johnson, representing the Binbrook and Glanbrook area, was re-elected with 6,129 votes (88.0%), the highest share in the city, to 838 for Waleed Shewayhat.
• Ward 12: Lloyd Ferguson, a retired general manager of Dufferin Construction and chair of the police services board, was re-elected in Ancaster with 7,000 votes (58.3%). Miranda Reis, an accountant who ran against LRT, received 2,296.
• Ward 13: Now combining Dundas with part of rural Flamborough, the ward re-elected Arlene VanderBeek with 3,953 votes (34.5%). Rich Gelder, a high school teacher and the only Ward 13 candidate to support LRT "unequivocally", received 3,087 (26.9%), and John Mykytyshyn 2,091. Turnout was 43.63%, the highest in the city.
• Ward 14: Terry Whitehead won the new west Mountain ward with 5,358 votes (57.8%). Bryan Wilson received 2,535 (27.3%). Vincent Samuel, who announced in October that he was withdrawing, received 249.
• Ward 15: The closest race in the city. Judi Partridge, who had run unsuccessfully for the Liberals in that year's provincial election, was re-elected by 216 votes, 3,471 (51.6%) to 3,255 (48.4%) for Susan McKechnie.

Voting and Turnout

Advance polls were held on October 4, 6, 9, 11 and 13. The City recorded 17,052 advance ballots, up from 13,242 in 2014. On election day, polls were open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting by mail was introduced only in 2022. The City's results report 222 polls and 252 tabulators. Its poll-by-poll results give each ward's advance votes as a single advance poll, so the map cannot place them by poll.

Turnout rose from 34.02% in 2014 (124,550 ballots) to 38.36% (138,549 ballots). By ward, turnout ranged from 31.31% in Ward 3 to 43.63% in Ward 13; it was also above 42% in Ward 1. The City recorded 104 declined and 4 rejected ballots, and 137,137 votes for mayor, 1,412 fewer than ballots cast.