New Hamilton councillors experience ‘formal onboarding’ a week prior to official start

Hamilton’s incoming mayor says there wasn’t a large turnover in councillors when she was sworn in for her first gig 25 years ago at city hall.

Andrea Horwath, who snapped up the job as the city’s top politician in the October election, says when she entered city politics as a downtown councillor in 1997 there were few changes following that election.

“When I was elected, there wasn’t all that much turnover, a couple of councillors,” Horwath recalled.

The former NDP leader says this week’s orientation with the latest edition of Hamilton’s council “is very necessary” considering close to two-thirds of the panel will be new to the process.

“This seems to be more of a formal onboarding process,” Horwath suggested. “More of an opportunity for the newly elected councillors … to kind of get their arms around what it is they’re about to start to do.”

Nine of the city’s 15 wards have new councillors, a significant change compared with the one new body elected in 2018.

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Much of the change was due to five sitting councillors not seeking re-election and one moving to federal politics.

Two days of sessions began Tuesday at the David Braley Health Centre and Dundurn Castle for the incoming councillors, six returnees and Horwath preparing for a job that officially begins with a swearing-in next Wednesday night.

The sittings, in groups of three councillors per boardroom stop, were the first opportunity for the city’s departmental managers to get to know who they will be working with.

Incoming Ward 13 (Central Flamborough and Dundas) Coun. Alex Wilson, who was born in 1997, is excited about being the youngest council member, potentially representing a shift in Hamilton’s voting demographics.

“What I think is nice is we’re entering a cohort with so many different people, with so many new identities … and excited that there is, on average, a shift younger,” Wilson said.

Just 35 per cent of the city’s residents engaged in the Oct. 24 municipal election — 143,375 out of the 405,288 eligible voters in the city.

Inauguration for the new council will be held Nov. 16 at the Hamilton Convention Centre.