Monday’s election was a resounding victory for Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger, in what the mayor and many other pundits labelled as a de facto referendum on LRT.
The results certainly bring into question the numbers in a Forum poll from last week that indicated that Eisenberger and Vito Sgro were in a virtual tie heading toward the finish line on Monday evening, but, then again political polling has pretty much become a hit-and-miss exercise of late.
READ MORE: Fred Eisenberger re-elected Hamilton mayor, defeats LRT opponent Vito Sgro
While the Mayor would like to put the LRT issue to bed and simply move on with the project, the numbers on the new council tell us that the LRT issue is as murky as ever.
Despite the five new faces on the new council, there are still only six solid supporters of LRT and that’s clearly not enough to carry the day.
READ MORE: Hamilton election results 2018
Sgro’s “stop the train” campaign certainly resonated with tens of thousands of voters and even though it wasn’t enough to propel him into the mayor’s office, the councillors elected in those areas of anti-LRT sentiment feel that they need to represent those contrary views.
With his new mandate, the mayor will now attempt to convince those councillors who are vacillating on LRT to get behind the project, but given some of the strident comments from the anti-LRT side last night, it’s clear that mandate or no mandate, this debate is far from over.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.