Former NDP leader Andrea Horwath set to join Hamilton’s race for mayor — source

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Published July 25, 2022 at 4:40 pm

Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath

Tuesday marks 90 days until Hamilton voters elect a new mayor — and that is when Andrea Horwath will conform she’ll be on the ballot.

Reports this afternoon said that Horwath, the erstwhile Ontario New Democratic Party leader, who has been rumoured to be joining the open race for mayor for over a month, has scheduled an announcement for 9:30 a.m. tomorrow (July 26). The announcement did not come from an Ontario NDP account, meaning the news is not associated with the party that the Hamilton-born Horwath led through the past four provincial elections.

Following that report, a source confirmed to inthehammer.com that Horwath is announcing a mayoral run tomorrow.

Former mayor and Liberal member of Parliament Bob Bratina; former taxi drivers’ union head Ejaz Butt and former Hamilton Chamber of Commerce president Keanin Loomis are also declared candidates. Election day is on Oct. 24, which happens to be Horwath’s 60th birthday.

Horwath retained her seat in Hamilton Centre in the June 2 election, but resigned that night as party leader after the Ontario PC Party and Premier Doug Ford increased their legislative majority at Queen’s Park. Later in June, departing Mayor Fred Eisenberger endorsed Horwath as his potential successor during an interview on AM900 CHML.

In response, Horwath issued an open-ended statement on June 20. It said, “I’m not ready today to make any announcements about Hamilton’s municipal election. But I can tell you that my heart is always in Hamilton.”

Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla, who is moving on after 22 years in office, has also posted several Instagram videos urging Horwath to join the race.

Jama to run in byelection

To run as mayor, a member of Parliament or a provincial legislature has to resign their seat. Horwath running for mayor means Hamilton Centre will have a byelection to elect a MPP.

Community activist Sarah Jama, the co-founder of Disability Justice Network Ontario, will announce on Wednesday that she will seek the NDP nomination in the riding, a source said.

The riding is an NDP stronghold, with the orange team’s candidate typically winning by safe margins. Horwath’s smallest winning margin in Hamilton Centre was 28.5 percentage points in 2011.

Federally, Hamilton Centre New Democrat Matthew Green had a 22-point win over Liberal challenger Margaret Bennett in the 2021 election.

Horwath was thrice elected to city council in Ward 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She moved to provincial politics in 2004 after winning a byelection in the old Hamilton East riding. She became Ontario NDP leader in 2009, and shifted to Hamilton Centre after riding boundaries were redrawn.

Hamilton is the ninth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada, but has never had a female mayor. Among larger cities, only Vancouver has never had a female mayor.

The city councils in both neighbouring Burlington (Marianne Meed Ward) and nearby Mississauga (Bonnie Crombie) are led by women.

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