Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a city with half a million inhabitants located in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is the 10th largest city in Canada.

Politics

Politically, Hamilton is known for producing groundbreaking, colourful and left-wing politicians — illustrated by the polarizing and erratic career of Sheila Copps. Locally, though, the big political stories have included the controversial amalgamation of Hamilton with its suburbs in 2001, and the destruction of green space around the Red Hill Valley to make way for the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

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Municipal politics

Hamilton has had a city charter since 1846. In 1974, it combined with the Wentworth County and the latter's other towns and townships to form the two-tier municipal federation of Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. Portions of the former county became part of Burlington and Cambridge.

Related Topics:
1974 - Towns - Townships - Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth - Burlington - Cambridge

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The old city of Hamilton was represented at regional council by one councillor each from its two-councillor wards; the other municipalities by their mayors and an additional regional councillor each. The regional chair was appointed by the Ontario government rather than by the residents or the regional councillors. After a successful drive to make the office elective, the point became moot in 2001.

Related Topics:
Ontario - 2001

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Municipal powers were divided or shared in turn by the city and the county (or its constituent parts besides Hamilton). For instance, the city and county continued their separate boards of education, while the police service and social services became regional responsibilities, and fire service and business licensing remained second-tier responsibilities.

Related Topics:
Boards of education - Police service - Social services - Fire service

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In 2001, over the vociferous but hitherto futile objections of rural and suburban voters, the former two-tier Hamilton-Wentworth region was amalgamated into a one-tier city called Hamilton like one of its predecessor governments. New ward boundaries coincided substantially or exactly with old Hamilton's wards and the former municipal boundaries of its suburbs.

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As in most Ontario cities, incumbent councillors and mayors tend to be re-elected in municipal elections marked by low turnout. However, in the 1940s, Hamilton City Council was presided over by Sam Lawrence, a unionized worker called the Labour Mayor. However, for most of the time, moderates of the centre-right or centre-left — such as Lloyd D. Jackson in the 1960s and Robert Morrow in the 1980s — presided over council.

Related Topics:
Sam Lawrence - Lloyd D. Jackson - Robert Morrow

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Victor "Vic" Copps was a popular centre-left mayor in the 1970s. While taking part in the Around the Bay Race in 1976, he suffered a stroke which incapacitated him. His wife Geraldine Copps served as a city councillor after that unfortunate event. Copps Coliseum is named after him rather than his daughter, Sheila Copps.

Related Topics:
1970 - 1976 - Geraldine Copps - Copps Coliseum - Sheila Copps

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Provincial politics

New Hamilton has historically been represented by four to six MPPs or MLAs in the Ontario legislature. Old Hamilton was always suspicious of its larger neighbour and provincial capital, Toronto and had a reputation for being highly unionized. These factors combined to electing working class and left wing MPPs, often from the New Democratic and Liberal parties, who frequently achieved notoriety if not power outside Hamilton.

Related Topics:
Ontario legislature - Toronto - Unionized - New Democratic - Liberal

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Liberal MPP Lily Munro was caught in the Patti Starr scandal which contributed to Premier David Peterson's electoral defeat in 1990. So often under- or unrepresented in at Queen's Park, the old city of Hamilton boasted that each of its three MPPs were ministers in the NDP government of Bob Rae in the 1990s.

Related Topics:
Lily Munro - Patti Starr - David Peterson's - NDP - Bob Rae - 1990s

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In contrast, the former suburbs and rural precincts of old Hamilton voted for less radical and less noteworthy Conservative representatives, including government backbenchers for Rae's successor, Mike Harris. The Harris government's forced amalgamation of Hamilton was highly controversial among suburban and urban Hamilton voters. It also made provincial riding boundaries and names automatically coincide with those at the federal level, reducing new Hamilton's representation in Toronto by one member.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Mike Harris

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Federal politics

Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed the late Ellen Fairclough as Secretary of State, making her Canada's first female cabinet minister, in 1957. A downtown provincial office building is named in her honour.

Related Topics:
John Diefenbaker - Ellen Fairclough - Cabinet minister - 1957

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John Munro, a Trudeau era Liberal cabinet minister and a sometime husband of Lilly Munro, was the subject of political innuendo and criminal allegations dismissed after an RCMP probe. He came in fourth in the first mayoral election for amalgamated Hamilton. The Hamilton International Airport was renamed in his honour.

Related Topics:
John Munro - Trudeau - Lilly Munro - RCMP

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Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed Lincoln "Linc" Alexander, the first Black Canadian MP, as Minister of Labour in his short-lived government. Alexander later became Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, another first for blacks in Ontario and Canada. Ironically for a man who never learned to drive, Linc was honoured by having the long-awaited Mountain east-west expressway named after him.

Related Topics:
Joe Clark - Lincoln "Linc" Alexander - Black Canadian - MP - Lieutenant Governor of Ontario

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Sheila Copps, daughter of Victor and Geraldine, was a Liberal candidate, first for the Ontario legislature and then for the House of Commons, where she represented Hamilton East from 1984 until 2000. She was a leading and vociferous member of the Liberal Party of Canada Rat Pack while the Liberals were in opposition until 1993. An early and strong supporter of the leadership of Jean Chrétien, she served in several posts including Deputy Prime Minister. When Paul Martin assumed the prime ministership, Copps' star waned as she was excluded from cabinet and lost her bitter nomination campaign in her re-districted riding.

Related Topics:
Sheila Copps - Liberal - 1984 - 2000 - Liberal Party of Canada Rat Pack - 1993 - Jean Chrétien - Deputy Prime Minister - Paul Martin

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