The 2014 Hamilton municipal election was a municipal election that occurred on October 27, 2014, to select one mayor, fifteen members of the Hamilton 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 re-election had returned to office. Though marked by a steep decline in voter turnout, this election was historic, as it saw the election of Hamilton's first openly gay and first racialized members of city council.
Issues
Ward boundary reform
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 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.
In response to the growing pressure from the community on the issue, councillors Terry Whitehead (Ward 8) and Scott Duvall (Ward 7) co-authored a piece outlining their reasoning for not supporting redrawing Hamilton's ward boundaries, noting that the costs associated with doing so would be prohibitive and that, with the area's projected growth for the coming years being considerable, it would be irresponsible for them to engage in a discussion about ward boundary revisions before the 2014 vote.
By June 2012, councillors had decided to commit $260,000 to a study that would examine boundary reform in 2015, with a proposal to come forward regarding changes for the 2018 Municipal Election.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board attempted to reallocate the ward boundaries for trustees in 2013, suggesting a number of alterations that would have alleviated some of the pressures on representatives. Bound to 11 trustees divided across Hamilton's 15 wards, the necessity to combine wards caused controversy among sitting trustees. The proposals suggested would have created two large wards each represented by two trustees and merged Wards Two and Three, which drew criticism from community groups. Trustees eventually decided to task the 2014–2018 Board with examining ward boundary reform after city council redraws boundaries.
Proposed Casino
In 2012, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation sought to consult local governments on the location of new casinos across the province. At the city's lottery and gaming subcommittee, Councillor Sam Merulla (Ward 4) called for a referendum to be held concurrent with the 2014 election to determine whether citizens were supportive of a casino being located in the downtown core. The call for a public vote was supported by leader of the Ontario New Democrats Andrea Horwath and opposed by Ancaster—Dundas—Flambrough—Westdale MPP Ted McMeekin.
A poll commissioned by the Hamilton Spectator indicated that 56% of Hamiltonians opposed a casino opening in the city, with a majority of disapproval coming from residents in the city's west end and more support coming from residents of the mountain. The OLG rejected the idea for a referendum due to time constraints, leading the city's lottery and gaming commission to opt for telephone polls and public meetings to decide on the issue.