The 2022 Hamilton municipal election was a municipal election that occurred on 24 October 2022, as per the Ontario Municipal Elections Act, 1996. Residents of Hamilton selected one mayor, members of the Hamilton City Council, as well as members of both the English and French public and Catholic school boards using a first-past-the-post electoral system in single-member constituencies, called wards. Based on their electoral registration, voters also selected one of 11 Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustees, nine Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board trustees, one Conseil scolaire Viamonde trustee, or one Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir trustee. Hamiltonians had the options of voting in-person or through a mail-in ballot.
On election day, Hamiltonians elected Andrea Horwath to serve as mayor of the City of Hamilton. She is the first female mayor of the city. Each elected official's term began on 15 November 2022 and will end on 14 November 2026.
Issues Light rail transit Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) project had been a contentious issue since proposals surfaced in 2008. Supported by Hamilton city council and Metrolinx, the transit agency responsible for projects across the Toronto and Hamilton areas, the new rapid transit system was intended to ease congestion on the city's Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) system. In September 2008, a city-commissioned survey found that 94% of Hamiltonians surveyed supported investment in rapid transit, with 66% supporting LRT, 8% favouring bus rapid transit (BRT), and 20% endorsing either option.
Following Doug Ford's election as premier in 2018, the provincial government maintained tacit support for the city's LRT project, with Ford telling Eisenberger, "[if you] want an LRT, [you'll] get an LRT". In a surprise move, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney announced in December 2019 that the province would no longer support the project, citing a new cost estimate of $5.5 billion. By August 2020, it was revealed that the revised $5.5 billion estimate was overinflated, as it included 30 years of capital and operating costs. Initial capital costs were estimated at $2.3 billion, prompting NDP leader Andrea Horwath to say "It's very clear the minister of transportation and [Premier Doug Ford] pretty much made this stuff [the new costs] up."
The provincial government suffered from notable backlash and opted to strike a task force to study alternatives to LRT. The resulting report confirmed earlier reports, indicating that LRT was a viable system, but provided the option between LRT and a bus rapid transit (BRT) system. Councillors Collins (Ward 5 - Redhill), Jackson (Ward 6 - East Mountain), Clark (Ward 9 - Upper Stoney Creek), Pearson (Ward 10 - Lower Stoney Creek), Johnson (Ward 11 - Glanbrook), Whitehead (Ward 14 - West Mountain), and Partridge (Ward 15 - Flamborough) all announced they either preferred BRT or wanted it to be studied further, while Councillor Ferguson (Ward 12 - Ancaster) indicated he was uncertain regarding either proposal. The Federal Infrastructure Minister, Catherine McKenna, indicated that, were LRT to be revived by the provincial government, the federal government would consider providing funds to the project.
In September 2020, Metrolinx announced plans to demolish 21 buildings it had purchased along King Street East between "The Delta" (the intersection of King and Main Streets) and Wellington Street in preparation for LRT construction.
During the mayor's annual State of the City address in October 2020, Eisenberger said that the province was considering reviving the LRT project, but was waiting for federal, municipal, and private-sector buy-in.
Over 13 months after announcing the project had been cancelled, the Progressive Conservative provincial government announced they were willing to fund a portion of the LRT project if funds were matched by the federal government. In May, 2021, the federal announced it would provide the necessary funding for the project to proceed with the stipulation that the full, original B-Line from Eastgate Square to McMaster University be built. The announcement from the federal government drew swift backlash from former mayor and then Hamilton East—Stoney Creek MP Bob Bratina who, despite being a member of the governing Liberal Party, remained firmly opposed to the LRT project. Less than a week after LRT funding was announced by the Liberals, Bratina announced that he would not seek re-election. A poll conducted after the announcement by LiUNA found that 54% of Hamiltonians supported the LRT while only 34% opposed the project.
On 8 September 2021, Hamilton City Council approved a "memorandum of understanding" with Metrolinx by a vote of 11 to 3, which enabled initial construction and demolition to begin, preceding full construction starting following the 2022 municipal election.
Commonwealth Games In 2019, a group of prominent local developers and investors created the Hamilton 100 Committee - an organization seeking to bring the 2030 Commonwealth Games to Hamilton in honour of the city's hosting the first games in 1930. In April 2020, the Commonwealth Games announced that, after a bid from Calgary was rejected, no other Commonwealth city intended to bid for the games in 2026 and, should Hamilton want to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, there would be no competition for the bid. While City Council intended to hear from the Hamilton 100 Committee (renamed Hamilton2026) in August 2020, the committee requested a delay until October 2020 to finalize their proposal. During the summer of 2020, over 500 Hamiltonians signed a petition opposing the Commonwealth Games bid. Designer Matt Jelly critiqued the plan, noting, "The city has a long waiting list for housing, and more and more in the pandemic the problem is pretty visible. It's not abstract: we either spend that money on Games or on things we actually need." Kojo Damptey of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion similarly critiqued the bid, telling The Spectator, "It's better to spend money on public health, housing, and transit, and other initiatives that will ensure the safety of residents of the city."
In October 2020, Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly announced that the province was unlikely to support the city's 2026 bid as it had allocated significant resources to supporting a bid for Toronto to serve as the Canadian host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Skelly encouraged the city to consider a bid in 2027 or 2030.
Ranked ballots and ward boundaries In November 2016, councillors rejected an attempt by then councillor Matthew Green (Ward 3 - Hamilton Centre) to initiate a study into the feasibility of ranked balloting. Opponents of the plan called ranked ballots "confusing" and worried they would hinder voter turnout. Council then voted 9–5 against making any moves toward the change.
After the 2018 election, the issue was once again raised by council. During this attempt, council voted 8-7 against a move to ranked ballots for 2022. Mayor Eisenberger and Councillors Wilson (Ward 1 - Chedoke-Cootes), Farr (Ward 2 - Downtown), Nann (Ward 3 - Hamilton Centre), Merulla (Ward 4 - Hamilton East), Danko (Ward 8 - Central/West Mountain), and Clark (Ward 9 - Upper Stoney Creek) voted in favour of the move, while the remainder of council opposed the change.
A debate appeared in the Hamilton Spectator in the fall of 2020 about Hamilton's ward boundaries. New wards were created in 2018. Spectator sports columnist Scott Radley wrote that city council should move to an at-large system. Radley made the argument that an at-large system would make councillors think about the needs of different areas and discourage councillors from acting like lords or ladies of a fiefdom. PhD candidate in urban political geography Chris Erl wrote a response saying Hamilton needed to keep wards and have elected neighbourhood councils like in Los Angeles or Montreal to make it easier for women, youth, LGBT people and people of colour to run and to connect people to city government.
In October 2020, as part of the provincial government's "Supporting Ontario's Recovery Act" omnibus bill, it was announced that the right for municipalities to hold elections using a ranked ballot would be revoked. Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark said that "Now is not the time for municipalities to experiment with costly changes to how municipal elections are conducted". This provincial act would forcibly change London, Ontario's electoral system and prevent Hamilton from pursuing a ranked ballot.
On 28 February 2022, HWDSB trustees were provided a report by school board staff outlining issues with the board's current ward parings. Provincial legislation affords the HWDSB 11 trustees, requiring the board to combine some municipal wards to create a single trustee ward. For the 2018–2022 term, Wards 1 & 2 (West Lower City), Wards 9 & 10 (Stoney Creek), Wards 8 & 14 (West Mountain), and Wards 11 & 12 (Ancaster-Glanbrook) were combined. Population growth in Wards 1 & 2 necessitated the wards being offered their own trustees, requiring new ward parings. The trustees rejected a request by staff to select a new pairing, opting instead to offer members of the public a chance to comment on new proposed pairings. On 28 March 2022, trustees approved new ward parings, dividing Wards 1 & 2 and creating new pairings out of Wards 5 & 10 and 6 & 9.
Hamilton Pride violence During the annual Pride Hamilton celebrations in Gage Park in June 2019, an agglomeration of anti-gay Evangelical Christian preachers, Yellow Vest protesters, and supporters of the far-right Canadian Nationalist Party converged on the Pride celebrations with the intent to incite violence. A group of activists attempted to erect a curtain between the anti-gay protesters and the Pride festivities, but were attacked. In the immediate aftermath, the Hamilton Police Service was condemned for not responding to the violence and, following the attack, arresting some of the activists attempting to shield Pride participants from the protest. In late July 2019, the Hamilton Police Service also arrested Christopher Vanderweide, a Kitchener-based ultra-nationalist and white supremacist behind much of the violence, who used a helmet to attack Pride participants Among the 'counter-protesters' arrested were Cedar Hopperton, a local anarchist activist, who Hamilton Police said was violating parole by attending the event. There was some contention as to whether Hopperton, a trans person who had previously been arrested after a vandalism spree by local anarchists on Locke Street, was actually at Pride. In response to their arrest, Hopperton began a hunger strike while held at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre. Hopperton was released from jail in July 2019 after a parole hearing found insufficient evidence to place Hopperton at Pride.
In an attempt to mend relations, Mayor Eisenberger appointed LGBT community members Deirdre Pike and Cole Gately to liaise with the city's LGBT community. This move was critiqued by Cameron Kroetsch, chair of the city's LGBTQ Advisory Committee and candidate for councillor (Ward 2 - Downtown) in 2018, who said, "There is a lot that has to happen before people are going to feel comfortable sitting down with the mayor". LGBT community members across Hamilton criticized Eisenberger's extremely delayed response to the Pride violence and the characterization by Councillor Sam Merulla that blamed people "on both sides". LGBT community activists Darren Stewart-Jones, Graham Crawford, and Chris Erl all took issue with Eisenberger's handling of the situation, with the latter critiquing the mayor's "excruciatingly slow response and lack of leadership".