Hamilton municipal election

My sense is some  New Democrats and other progressives are backing incumbent Mayor Fred, who may be a Tory but is not DiIanni,a former mayor and a Liberal convicted on election expense reporting. Bob Bratina, councilor for Ward two might be considered a progressive and was once considered close  to the NDP but when he talked about possibly in the next federal election running against Dave Christoperhosn, NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, he lost my vote. sorry Geoff hi Robbie

Most of the incumbents on council should get re-elected inlcuding the right wing and the few we  might consider NDP or progressive, notably Brian McHattie in Ward 1 and  Sam Merulla in ward 4, a former Liberal who has joined the NDP and has solid credentials with the NDP labour and poor.   There is some talk  Scott Duvall, New Democrat and former president of the Lake Erie steelworkers locla , may be in trouble and I am sure he is working hard to get re-elected, I have done some work to portray Ken Chartrand  as the best bet to knock off Dave Mitchell but others are backing Brenda Johnson.

We have a good chunk of seats on the English public school board and hopefully most of them get re-elected.

on balance we should be able to hold our own, no great victories, no great defeats.

Let's keep the discussion going, starting with the polling/power analysis of the Hamilton Spectator as part of its excellent  Code Red series documenting how  the high rates of poverty in Hamilton is bad  for your health.:

Code Red: Of polls and poverty
Hamilton’s poorest neighbourhoods also have the city’s worst voter turnout, making it difficult for those living there to have their voices heard.

"A Spectator investigation shows there’s a strong correlation between high rates of poverty and low voter turnout rates across Hamilton’s neighbourhoods.

The three Hamilton wards with the highest rates of people living in poverty—Wards 2, 3 and 4 -- are the same three wards that had the lowest rates of voter turnout for the 2006 municipal election.

For Hamilton’s poorest residents, it’s a discouraging double whammy.

Not only do they lack economic power within the city, their reluctance to cast votes costs them political power, as well."

and add  the Hamiton Specator/Ekos poll that shows: "Hamilton west and the upper city have the largest percentage of undecided voters, setting up those areas as key battlegrounds for election day, Nanos said."

http://www.thespec.com/news/elections/article/267946--3-way-race

we get an argument the Chamber of Commerce and the Bourgeois of the upper mountain, Ancaster and Winona, will  make the candidate who best represents their interests,  Larry DiIanni,  the winner,  unless the poor and the proletariat get together to stop that. Geoff, want to talk to your people and I talk to mine and see if we can cut another deal?

Code Red

A 21-year difference in life expectancy separates some of our neighbourhoods. 

A neighbourhood where nearly half of all babies are born underweight. That's three times greater than some Third World countries. A neighbourhood where 662 of every 1,000 adults have a university degree. Another neighbourhood where only seven of every 1,000 adults have a university degree.

Code Red is about your health and your neighbourhood.

Who is the most most progressive (or least regressive) of the three frontrunners?

There are also diversity issues ,partisan and personal and endorsement issues.

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A photo provided by Ward 5 candidate Jaswinder Bedi shows the mayor smiling and standing between Bedi and Hamilton District Labour Council president Mary Long as Long cuts a ceremonial ribbon opening Bedi’s office.

There’s even the statement in an accompanying release where Bedi’s campaign says the mayor noted the similarities between his and the candidate’s platform and said Bedi “is the best candidate to represent people and wants to see him sitting in the next council.”

The Ward 5 seat is currently held by Eisenberger’s former ward-mate Chad Collins. (They were the two Ward 5 councillors from 1995 to 2000.)

Eisenberger says his presence at Bedi’s event was “absolutely not” an endorsement. The words in the release, the mayor says, are “a little distortion.”

Eisenberger says he attended Bedi’s campaign opening because he wants to promote the idea of people from Hamilton’s diverse communities running for political office. Bedi, who came to Canada from India six years ago, is a financial consultant and a part-time cab driver and making his first foray into Hamilton politics.

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[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/10/25/gta-elections-mayors-d... for Hamilton:[/url]

Quote:

In Hamilton, one-term mayor Fred Eisenberger, who won office in 2006 by the narrowest margin in city history (452 votes), was turfed in favour of downtown councillor Bob Bratina. In a three-way race that included former mayor Larry Di Ianni, Bratina triumphed with a campaign focused on poverty, seniors and the city's waterfront. Bratina had 37 per cent to Di Ianni's 29 per cent and Eisenberger's 27 per cent, with 206 of 207 polls reported.

Heartfelt congratulations to Alex Johnstone, an NDPer through and through (ONDY to boot), who is now public school trustee for Wards 11 and 12. She won her race easily. She's full of passion, and will do her constituents proud.

Thank you Edmund! New Democrat Todd White also won!