Hamilton mayoral candidate interview: Bob Bratina

Mayoral candidate Bob Bratina sat down with CBC Hamilton on Oct. 11, 2022.

He said people in the city are feeling unsafe, and spoke about his plan to add more police to help address crime. In his campaign messages, Bratina has said violent crime in Hamiltonis "soaring."As Statistics Canada offers a number of ways to measure crime rates in the city, including a 26 per cent drop inpolice-reported crime between 2008 and 2018,CBC Hamilton asked Bratina to clarify the statistics his team was using. He said "information was drawnfrom people who actually live in houses in the city." [His campaign team has since sharedthe Statistics Canada data they used, which is a report released in August that says there were 6,585incidents ofviolent Criminal Code violations in Hamilton in 2021, up from 5,000 in 2014.]

Bratina also said heacknowledgedthat adding more police would take money away from other items in the budget, butas he wants to keep taxes low, he feels there is plenty of wasteful spending that could be redirected.

CBC Hamilton also asked him about whether the planned light-rail transit project will continue under his watch andhis relationship with the federal government.

Following the interview, we askedBratina to further clarify how he defined "special interests" afterhis campaign sent a text to Hamilton residents urging themto help him "stop these special interest candidates from taking over." Bratinasaid he does not view people fighting racism or any marginalized groups as special interests, saying he meant "the people who sit back and throw pot shots."

When asked what constitutes the type of "far-left policies"the text also said would "hurt our city," he cited defunding the police and trying to eliminate car use as examples.

Watch the video for the full interview. The questions we asked and the corresponding time stamps are below.

1:56-What are youhearing at the doors?

3:20- It seems like you've been focusing a lot of effort on the outlying areas of the city. Why?

5:00- What kinds of voters do you think you are attracting and why?

6:23- Do you still have a strong relationship with the federal Liberals after declining to run again as an MP?

7:41- What do you bring to the role this time that is different from what has been done in the past?

9:55- Can you elaborate onsome ways you will better support the Indigenous community?

11:50- How specifically will you do that? Through events? Policy?

12:20- You have said 'far left policies' and 'special interest candidates' would hurt the city. What is a 'far-left policy' and what is a 'special interest' in your view?

15:00- So it's more about the way they are participating as opposed to their politics?

15:33- What is the better way to have these discussions?

16:52- What do you think people are caring about the most?

18:10- Last year, you took a hard-enough stance against LRT that you decided not to run again as MP. This year you say you are the best possible steward of the project and will be a "Transit Mayor." Can you explain the turnaround?

20:47- Are you are leaving the door open to cancel the LRT?

21:50- Your campaign recently sent out a text stating violent crime in the city is soaring. Statistics Canada said in 2020 that violent crime was down 26 per cent in Hamilton over 10 years. Where was yourinformationfrom?

23:30- You don'tsee it as your responsibility to accurately represent those statistics? It sounds more like you are describing property crime.

24:25- You proposehiring more police, but have also said taxes are rising too quickly. How would you increase this line item while keepingtaxes in check?

25:20: Do you have any thoughts on what those might be?

25:55: Tell us more about your leadership style and how council would be different under your leadership.