It was a busy year in Hamilton city politics. There was a municipal election on Oct. 27, when two sitting councillors tried for the mayor's chair and lost to Fred Eisenberger, who had been mayor before.
There were also some beachheads reached – arguably ones that were long overdue. Matthew Green was elected to represent Ward 3, and he became the city's first black councillor. Aidan Johnson of Ward 1 became the first openly gay councillor.
And Arlene VanderBeek was elected for Ward 13, upping the female quotient on the 16-member council from three to four.
We asked McMaster University political scientist Peter Graefe what he thought was noteworthy in 2014. Here's what he had to say:
1. Fred Eisenberger's election
Eisenberger was mayor from 2006 to 2010. In October, he beat out two sitting councillors with strong campaigns — Brad Clark and Brian McHattie — to become mayor again.
Eisenberger's campaign was more understated than the other two. He presented ideas, Graefe said, but it's hard to say how effective they were.
"I'm not sure if those ideas in his platform really reached the voters, or if they were voting for the image of the man, which is of a competent and inoffensive administrator," Graefe said.
"Bland works in Ontario politics, and it works in Hamilton politics."
Eisenberger achieved what former mayor Larry Di Ianni couldn't — he was voted out and came back again. In 2010, Eisenberger even placed third.
"I'm hard pressed to think of anyone in the modern era who's done that," Graefe said.
In Eisenberger's previous term, he brought a lot of ideas to the council table, but was often unsuccessful in gaining consensus. City hall watchers might want to pay attention in 2015 to see if Eisenberger develops relationships with key members of council.
"We'll see if it's a new dynamic, or if we fall back on the old ways."
2. Cannon bike lanes
In March, city council voted to implement a bidirectional bicycle lane on part of Cannon Street. This was noteworthy, Graefe said, because a citizen group, Yes We Cannon, got council's ear and convinced them to enact the pilot project.
"It's an example of a citizen group that word hard for a year and a half to make something move at city hall."
The flipside, Graefe said, is council's decision to scale back proposed improvements to transit on the Mountain. "They discussed how they could improve it and only half improved it."
3. More diversity on council
The election of Green, Johnson and VanderBeek was noteworthy, Graefe said. This is particularly true in light of a September YWCA report showing an underrepresentation of women in power. But he's not sure how many Hamiltonians actually noticed.
"We live in a period of kind of assumed equality, even though we have a lot of inequality still," he said.
He does hope that the new councillors, particularly Green, can bring in communities that haven't traditionally been invited in to city politics and events, he said.
4. LRT (of course)
The notion of a $1-billion light rail transit system running from McMaster University to Eastgate Square was an issue this year. Many election candidates tried to make it a wedge issue.
Even though it's an important issue, Graefe said, not much happened.
"There seems to be little capacity to define a vision and follow through," he said of council. "LRT is one most talked about in those terms. Council is saying 'we want this' but not doing anything to achieve it."
5. The provincial election
Kathleen Wynne took the Liberals to a handy victory despite being "the old, scandal-plagued, tired government," Graefe said. The party seemed to make people forget issues such as the gas plant scandal, and came out ahead.
Two of the three major party leaders in the election were from Hamilton. Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is the MPP for Hamilton Centre, and came second to the Conservatives in many rural southwestern Ontario ridings. Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, led the Conservatives, but stepped down after the election.
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