The 1988 Hamilton municipal election was held on November 14, 1988 to elect a Regional Chairman, a Mayor, sixteen members to Hamilton, Ontario City Council, seventeen members to the Hamilton Board of Education and thirteen members to the Hamilton-Wentworth Roman Catholic Separate School Board.
Regional Chairman election
|-
!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Candidate
!colspan="3"|Popular vote
|-
! Votes
! %
! ±%
|-
| style="background-color:#56A0D3;" |
| style="text-align:left;" | Reg Whynott
| style="text-align:right;" |45,417
| style="text-align:right;" |35.03%
| style="text-align:right;" |n/a
|-
| style="background-color:#FF0000;" |
| style="text-align:left;" | Reg Wheeler
| style="text-align:right;" |38,203
| style="text-align:right;" |29.47%
| style="text-align:right;" |n/a
|-
| style="background-color:#1C39BB;" |
| style="text-align:left;" | Pat Valeriano
| style="text-align:right;" |21,116
| style="text-align:right;" |16.29%
| style="text-align:right;" |n/a
|-
| style="background-color:#B768A2;" |
| style="text-align:left;" | Paul Cowell
| style="text-align:right;" |21,116
| style="text-align:right;" |12.70%
| style="text-align:right;" |n/a
|-
| style="background-color:#74C365;" |
| style="text-align:left;" | Ian Stout
| style="text-align:right;" |21,116
| style="text-align:right;" |6.52%
| style="text-align:right;" |n/a
|-
| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" |Total Votes
| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |129,655
| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |100%
| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |
|-
| style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" |Registered Voters | style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |n/a | style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |n/a | style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" |n/a |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" |Note: The 1988 election was the first where voters elected the Regional Chairman. Note: All Hamilton Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan. Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates. |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" |Sources: LeFaive, Doug. "New chairman tackles province," Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, November 15, 1988,Metro, B1 |}
Mayoral Election
The 1988 Mayoral race was overshadowed by a number of events, namely aldermanic contests, the 1988 Federal election and the first general election for the Hamilton-Wentworth regional chairman. The two-person race drew little attention from local media, with reporters and commentators noting that Church of the Universe minister Michael Baldasaro had little chance of defeating incumbent mayor Bob Morrow.
On election night, Morrow said that his return with over 90% of the vote was nearly an acclamation, while Baldasaro indicated that he would not stop contesting elections and advancing the use of marijuana.