Hamilton, Ontario municipal election, 2014
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The fifteen wards of the City of Hamilton contested in the 2014 election.
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The 2014 Hamilton municipal election occurred on October 27, 2014 to select one Mayor, fifteen members of the Hamilton, Ontario City Council and members of both English and French Public and Catholic School Boards. As per the Ontario Municipal Elections Act, nominations opened on January 2, 2014 and closed on September 12, 2014. Four new councillors were elected in open seats across Hamilton while all incumbents who stood for reelection were returned to office. Though marked by a steep decline in voter turnout, this election was historic, as it saw the election of Hamiton's first openly gay and first racialized members of city council.
Following a decision by the 2006–2010 council to put off examining electoral reform in Hamilton until after the 2010 election, the 2010–2014 council heard a staff recommendation for moving forward on redrawing ward boundaries. They moved to defer the issue to a later date, which would see the city miss the deadline of December 31, 2013 set by the Ontario Municipal Board for having district changes implemented before the municipal election in 2014.
Councillors provided a number of arguments for and against the plan to redraw ward boundaries, most notably highlighting the discrepancies between councillors in terms of the number of constituents represented, with Ward 7's councillor representing 64,000 constituents and Ward 11's councillor representing 14,000, and the $340,000 cost to taxpayers for maintaining a new council seat.
In April 2012, a number of community activists began circulating a petition that aimed to force councillors to act on the issue of ward boundaries. A provision in the Ontario Municipal Act states that residents of a municipality can actively seek to change ward boundaries by collecting 500 signatures of registered voters and submitting them to their respective city council. Municipal officials then have 90 days to act on the matter, following which, the petitioners can appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board if the decision rendered by their council is unsatisfactory. That same month, the Spectator published an editorial stating their position on the issue, calling for a public debate on the matter of ward boundaries and Hamilton's 'democratic inequality'. The petition was officially submitted to the city on April 23, 2012.
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