'Change-focused voters' drive the conversation in Hamilton election sure to see massive turnover

It's a blustery, bright fall afternoon at Beasley Park, a downtown Hamilton meeting place and community crossroads popular with families whose children attend the adjacent Dr. J.E. Davey elementary school; users of the Beasley Skatepark; clients of the nearby Good Shepherd Centre, which offers meals and shelter beds; and many new immigrants whose homes dot the neighbourhood.

Change is in the air both in terms of the shifting seasons and in people's visions for the upcoming municipal election.

While not everyone knows the candidates, or even the specific policies they'd like to see, nearly everyone CBC Hamilton spoke to thatlate September day said the city needs to do better for Beasley, a neighbourhood in Ward 2. Providing more support to encampment residents and low-income renters, two groups at constant risk of being forced to move, were top-of-mind for nearly everyone.

"Everybody in the downtown centre is being pushed out," said Brittany Simpson, while pushing her child on a swing. "We can't afford to live here.So where are we supposed to go?"

Roopali Ghorpade, in Hamilton for a year after moving from India, says she doesn't love seeing people camping in the park and she's surprised the city hasn't done more to build supportive housing.

"There's so many encampments and everyone wonders what we can do," she says. "When they move them, they just move to a different place. It doesn't solve the problem."

Ghorpade points out her friend Alissa Fairley, suggesting she's the one in the group who knows the most about the Oct. 24 municipal election. As far as Fairley is concerned, it's time for a fresh start.

"We just really want change here," she says, adding she'd like council to move faster on improving transit, creating safer streets and taking a different approach to encampments that would see residents treated with more compassion.

"We definitely need a new council altogether."

Council could seefirst 'progressive majority'since 1910:expert

While it's unlikely Fairley will get her wish of a completely new council, there is no avoiding drastic change in this year's election.

Six out of 15 city councillors aren't running for re-election this time: Sam Merulla (Ward 4), Russ Powers (Ward 5), Brenda Johnson (Ward 11), Lloyd Ferguson (Ward 12), Terry Whitehead (Ward 14) and Judi Partridge (Ward 15).

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is also stepping down, paving the way for what appears to be a three-way race between frontrunners Bob Bratina, a former Hamilton mayor; Andrea Horwath, the former Ontario NDP leader; and Keanin Loomis, former president and CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.

There are also several ward races where incumbents face tough challenges, says Chris Erl, a Hamilton-bred political geographer currently doing post-doctoral work at Toronto Metropolitan University.

For example, the Ward 7 race features only two candidates, current councillor Esther Pauls and former councillor Scott Duvall. Ward 2challenger Cameron Kroetsch has been present in the area for years, Erl adds, and is in his second election campaign against incumbent Jason Farr. In Ward 13, there appears to be growing support for environmental campaigner Alex Wilson, the sole opponent to incumbent Arlene VanderBeek, he says.

Erl notes Ward 3 councillor Nrinder Nann is also facing powerful opposition from two candidates whose views are seen as muchlessleft-leaningthan hers.

"Walter Furlan is running a very aggressive campaign from the right and Laura Farr is attracting support as a sort-of 'middle ground' candidate. Some voters in Ward 3 may see Farr as a more moderate choice and opt for her this time," Erl says.

Erl says left and right labels do not always speak to party affiliations and in this case rather to campaign styles and platform proposals. He points to Furlan's"combative stance"against Nann's advocacy on social policy issues, his support for the police and critique of safe injection sites in residential areas as ways the two candidates are at odds this election.

Erl also notes a change is possible in Ward 10,which might seem counterintuitive since incumbent Maria Pearson is one of the longest-sitting members of council.

"Councillor Pearson's per cent of the popular vote has dropped in every election since 2006 (in which she earned 75 per cent of the vote) to 36 per cent in the 2018 election," he told CBC in an email, adding both of her opponents Jeff Beattie and Louie Milojevic have political experience and are running what he considers serious campaigns.

So many changes could see council take on a new ideological makeup, Erl adds.

"For the first time since 1910 we could have progressive majority on council that was back when organized labour was running candidates," Erl said, noting young community activists are driving the agenda for change in several races, many motivated by environmental concerns and social justice issues such as defunding the police and racism at the Hamilton-WentworthDistrictSchool Board.

He cites the iElect campaign, which is pushing for renewal at council through newspaper ads and media interviews, as working to drive change within a somewhat older demographic.

Having fresh faces at the table eliminates some of those deeply personal divides- Former city councillorand current MPMatthew Green

"The majority of our councillors have each served more than a decade. Some more than 20 years. One, more than 32 years," states the iElect website. "Our current leaders have had their chance to make Hamilton the great city we deserve to be. To achieve our vision of a better Hamilton for everyone, we need to change our leaders in the next election."

Erl cautions it's possible that the people pushing for change are a vocal minority, noting many residents may be disengaged from the campaign due to the pandemic, economic insecurity and recent elections at other levels of government. But he says Hamilton's "change-focused voters" are likely driven by issues such as sewergate, where council covered up a massive sewage leak into Cootes Paradise, and what seemslike endless bickering over whether Hamilton should get a long-awaited light-rail transit line.

"When voters are looking at open seats and new candidates they'll mostly be thinking about who's the best equipped to manage those issues," he said. "Most voters don't consider the steps required to ease into a role."

Councillor job doesn't come with much training

Several current and past Hamilton councillors have said the role doesn't come with much training, and that understanding the complex city bureaucracy does not happen quickly.

Current Hamilton Centre Member of Parliament Matthew Green, a former Ward 3 councillor, said he was surprised to discover that beyond the lack of training, there was often a set of unwritten rules based on the ways things were done in the past, affecting things such as how council meetings were being run.

"The tenure of some of these people was so long that anybody who threatened to disrupt the way they had done their work was seen as a threat," said Green, who is a member of the federal government's Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee.

Meanwhile, "When it came to municipal governance, operations and management none of those things are ever fully explained," he said.

Outgoing Ward 11 councillor Brenda Johnson told CBC Hamiltonthe job had a steeper learning curve than any other role she's taken on, but says experienced councillors were a big help. She says such colleagues often developed specialized roles that benefitted the entire group.

"I understand people want a change, but you have no idea how much this council has relied on [longtime Ward 6 councillor] Tom Jackson's memory," she said, noting colleagues often count on his recollection skills when piecing together what has happened previously on a certain file.

"Then you have [former Ward 5 councillor Chad] Collins. We always relied on Collins for the budgeting because there was a guy who knew the books inside out. Not having that this time, it will be a struggle He's the one that found all the money all the time."

Johnson recently seen on social mediacanvassing for challenger Jeff Beattie in Ward 10 says those seeking change may be reacting to the louder, more outrageous councillors, who often garner most of the public's attention. She says she learned to stop focusing on personality over time if there was common ground they could find on the issues.

"When you're first [on council], it's all new to you and all you're noticing is the loudmouths or the ones who are so off the wall, you can't believe they're sitting across from you," she said. "Now I'm more willing to tolerate personalities and less willing to tolerate bullshit."

But the way Green sees it, the reduction in personality-driven politics likely to come with the amount ofnew faces could leave more time for council to focus on working for residents.

"Having fresh faces at the table eliminates some of those deeply personal divides," he says, noting he's seen many debates, during his time on council and since, that seem more like wars of attrition than exchanges of ideas.

"You'd just get stonewalled by this culture of power that was concentrated in [people] who seemed to be so toxic that their colleagues didn't want to deal with them."

Further, when councillors' bad behaviour takes centre stage, it means less time for dealing with issues such as houselessness, climate change or poverty, Green adds. He cited examples including Ward 14 Coun. Terry Whitehead's multiple council sanctions or the probe that followed a 2015 incident where Ward 12 Coun. Lloyd Ferguson pushed independent journalist Joey Coleman,both issues that took significant council time away from other civic matters, he says.

"What's lost is the negative impact that has on residents," he says, "The failure to get basic stuff done."

'It shouldn't be hard to be empathetic'

Campaign volunteer Sherly Kyorkis is part of a team made up almost entirely of political newcomers and says the real possibility of change on council is what motivated her participation.

"I always go out to vote and encourage people to vote, but I understood when people did not want to vote," says Kyorkis, who has long been active in the Assyrian community, and is now volunteering for Ward 14 candidate Kojo Damptey, the interim executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. "They felt it didn't matter who they voted for, that things would stay the same."

She says door-knocking has given her new admiration for Hamilton residents and their level of knowledge about municipal politics, noting many on the Mountain are very interested in improving public transit, despite common narratives that people there would rather drive.

"Hamiltonians are very engaged and they're so informed," she told CBC Hamilton.

She says that's in contrast to what she's heard from council in the past. She recalls one councillor suggesting the thousands of people who wrote in to protest against expanding the urban boundary didn't have all the information. "They went out of their way to get informed and you're still dismissing them and saying they're disengaged."

She's hoping Damptey will be among a movement of fresh faces who will take issues including climate change, anti-racism and public transit more seriously.

"Things like listening to Indigenous communities in Hamilton there are the decisions that are being made or not made on the last city council that are so easy. It shouldn't take a debate, or reports, when people in the Indigenous community are telling you to take down a racist statue.

"It shouldn't be hard to be empathetic but here we are."

'They talk the talk'

Back at Beasley Park, John Black says he sees vast inequality every day, and is tired of it.

Black lives on Ontario Disability Support Payments, but says he still makes meals for less fortunate people in his building, as he used to be a chef. He says being in rent-geared-to-income housing makes his generosity possible, and he'd like to see that kind of arrangement expanded to more people in need immediately.

"We need to start improving things in this area," he said, noting he's planning to vote for Ward 2 candidate Raquel Rakovac, a Beasley resident who was holding an event in the park later that day. "Everything I hear from the council They talk the talk, but they do not walk the walk if someone needs help.

"They seldom actually do anything."

For more of CBC Hamilton'selection coverage:

• Will you be voting this municipal election? Tell us why, why not and what matters to you
• What some Hamilton residents who can't vote say about being shut out of local democracy
• OPINION:At 18, I only recently realized the importance of community engagement and politics