It is pretty hard to beat an incumbent in the city. I kind of wish that there was provincial legislation so that whoever placed second automatically becomes councillor if the first one resigns even it was within the first month, so that there would be at least some incentive for running against an incumbent.

I hope there are more changes to the election act to make it easier to challenge an incumbent. I think recent changes help a bit. I am curious what the recent changes will yield.

Well, like Steeltown predicted, many have filed in the past week.

Terry Whitehead is running in the new ward 14. He was apparently upset that is exec assistant is running in ward 8 but decided in the end not to go up against her in ward 8. That leaves a manageable 5 candidates in this open riding.

12 candidates in both of wards 1 and 3 right now. 10 candidates in Skelly's ward 7.

Brad Clark is running against Conley in ward 9.

13 candidates for mayor with many returning from last time.

Wards 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9-15 all have incumbents (if you count Whitehead).

Here's who's running in Hamilton's municipal election - and who's already won

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...ates-1.4764013

Eve Adams has filed in ward 8! That's a bit of a bombshell. I know this because the number she listed is the number for a public relations firm called Elevate8, which Adams apparently once worked with.

There might be a bit of weird resemblance here to Adams' parachute bid to become a Toronto MP, where Marco Mendocino drew a grassroots rebellion against that kind of macromanagement. Interesting to see whether John-Paul Danko who lost to Skelly by 92 votes, and was one of the first to file this year, can be another to best a celebrity politician. Kind of strange that she ran in Hamilton and not Mississauga or Oakville.

Municipal by-laws can determine this. My city had this policy until the last election, when a racist came in 6th in an at-large race for 5 positions, and they eliminated the policy to prevent her from automatically being appointed if one of the at-large councillors died/resigned because they thought by-elections are better.

The only thing that can really clear out incumbents is term limits, and as far as I know our laws don't allow for that. Now that I think of it, the municipal elections act was changed last year to eliminate residency requirements (anyone can now run in any ward whether they live there or not, as long as they live in the municipality) so it might have changed the policy for replacing councillors who step down or die.

Eve Adams, jeez. We don't need that drama.

I don't mind Brad Clark, he's a PC however he's a sensible conservative and brings a lot of good valid questions to council.

I'm in the new ward of 14 and based on the list it's Whitehead vs. Vincent Samuel, who is a Ford nation loyalist, eck.

Yes, Brad Clark is a big improvement over Conley. Don't think Samuel will be able to knock off Whitehead.

There really don't seem to be any credible Eisenberger challengers. Sgro is the closest to viable and he's an accountant liberal insider. Doubt he can pull off much in the way of momentum.

As far as anti-LRT goes, Carol Lazich one of the perennial delegates on all LRT matters, is running...in ward 1 of all places. :koko:

I was previously in Ward 2, but with the new boundaries, I'm now in Ward 3. No idea who I'm going to vote for. I've heard very little beyond "I'm going to make this city better"-style rhetoric.

^ Check out Nrinder Nann

https://www.nrinder.ca

• Video Link

That is by far the most professional video I've seen for a municipal election candidate, probably ever, at least as far as Hamilton goes. I'd toss her a vote in a heartbeat, really hope she ends up replacing Green.

Highly recommend Laura Farr in Ward 3. I would fear Nrinder would be just as averse to development as Green.

I second this about Nrinder. Also if she has the same attitude towards the BIAs Green did that's another strike against her.

Was Matthew Green adverse to development? And BIAs? I might not have been paying attention but I never got that impression.

My wife is sweet on Nrinder however neither of us would vote for Matthew Green again so if she really is Green 2.0 we'll have to dig deeper.

Don't know about Green on BIAs, but certainly adverse to market-rate and highrise development.

Yes 100%.

Here are the aspiring mayors and councillors who want your vote this October

05:00 AM Hamilton Spectator
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8...-this-october/

A quick skim and what's striking is the number of candidates and especially incumbents who are hedging or opposed to LRT. Just picking from the names I think are viable:

In support: Eisenberger, Farr, Maureen Wilson, Nrinder Nann, Laura Farr, Merulla, Danko, Clark

Qualified: Collins, Jackson, Wicken, Ruddick, Ferguson, Whitehead

opposed: Sgro, Conley, Johnson, Partridge

No response: Pearson, Vanderbeek

So it looks like we'll have support from the mayor and wards 1-4, but if the province says you can use the money for other projects, solid chance this is getting killed.

Fred should have no probs romping to victory this year. Thank goodness...we need to steer LRT over the finish line.

If the LRT gets killed it will be interesting to see what happens with the large volume of empty buildings that Metrolinx now owns that are on King Street between The Delta and Wellington.

I would be too if my ward had the highest concentration of families living in poverty in the entire city.