The brakes have been slammed on Hamilton’s Andrea Horwath years.
On Monday night, the one-term mayor appeared headed towards a resounding defeat to local businessman Keanin Loomis who narrowly lost a contest with Horwath in 2022.
The campaign for mayor of the industrial city west of Toronto was a bitter, bruising municipal campaign with a packed 13-candidate field vying for the job of mayor.
But as the night progressed the city’s the former Ontario NDP leader Horwath, was fighting for her political life and watching two strong challengers eat her lunch
Fight of her political life
With 86 of 237 polls reporting, Loomis was in the lead with 38,865 votes to councilor Rob Cooper’s 31,905 votes. Horwath was pulling up the rear with 12,285 votes.
Challenging Horwath were 2022 runner-up and local businessman Loomis and Cooper . And as the campaign ground down to its dying days, embattled Horwath pulled out the T-word. That’s T as in Trump to describe challenger Cooper, a longtime Conservative party power player and organizer.
Horwath slammed Cooper as a “hatchet man.”
Loomis didn’t escape unscathed from Horwath’s lash. He was blasted in a YouTube ad for flip-flopping on policies. The two challengers have also levelled pot shots at the mayor and each other. Cooper claimed Loomis’ policies would result in a 50% tax hike. Loomis fired back, painting Cooper as a spendthrift who blew $10,000 on office furniture and almost $14,000 on billboards.
Hamilton plagued by problems
Across Steeltown, 76 candidates battled it out for seats in the 15 wards. Results did not begin rolling in until more than 90 minutes after the polls closed.
Hamilton has been plagued with a slew of problems in recent years including a small army of fentanyl-addicted zombies who have claimed the city core as their own. Crime remains a pressing issue.
The three front-runners all agreed that public safety is a priority.
Homelessness, housing, affordability and property tax hikes were all hot-button issues on the hustings. According to The Spectator , Hamilton homeowners are carrying the heaviest property tax burden in the GTA.
Replacing or repairing the city’s crumbling infrastructure is also pressing.
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Roads look like a war zone
Retired Stelco employee and lifelong Hamiltonian Bob Drennan agreed that things in the Hammer have gone downhill.
“I want to see responsible — or no — tax increases. Homelessness and the condition of the roads in downtown Hamilton are issues I want to see addressed,” Drennan told the Toronto Sun .
Roads in the lower part of the city are consistently rated among the worst in the country. There is kilometre after kilometre of cratered streets that make parts of the city look like a war zone.
Not ‘managing their money very well’
But Drennan added that city hall also appears to be spendthrift, citing Horwath’s tiny housing initiative that saw its cost skyrocket from an initial $2.8 million to around $7.9 million. Adding insult to injury, Hamilton awarded a non-competitive contract to MicroShelters Inc. to supply the 40 units.
The units were sourced from China, bypassing local Ontario-based manufacturers like Fero International.
“They just aren’t managing their money very well,” Drennan added.
bhunter@postmedia.com
X : @HunterTOSun