[ScreamingViking]

After being oh-so-impressed with him as mayor the first time around, of course I'd *LOVE* to see what he can do in an encore.

I wonder if he's thrown any pens in Ottawa...


Liberal MP Bob Bratina eyes Hamilton mayoral bid after split with party

By Richard Leitner
Stoney Creek News via the Hamilton Spectator
Thu., Aug. 12, 2021

https://www.thespec.com/local-stoney...ith-party.html



Hamilton East—Stoney Creek Liberal MP Bob Bratina says he may yet run for mayor next year now that he won't seek re-election because he opposes his government’s funding of the city’s light-rail transit line.

“I’m not ruling it out,” he said in an interview at his constituency office in downtown Stoney Creek.

“I have lots of options, including fully retiring, but I don’t feel like I’m done yet. I feel good and I have a lot of concerns about the city, the vision around its growth.”

Bratina, 77, who stepped down as mayor after a single term to run for the federal Liberals in 2015, said he still believes the shared $3.4 billion that Ottawa and the province will spend on the LRT has many better uses.

They include fixing “bedbug ridden” public housing units and addressing the city’s $3 billion in infrastructure repair needs.

But he said he is also following the current debate on whether to expand Hamilton’s urban boundary and sides with opponents who favour building more multiple-unit dwellings over urban sprawl.

Bratina said he pushed for the west harbour GO station while mayor because he realized the all-day service it now offers could spur housing intensification in the downtown core and turn it into “a powerhouse.”

“There’s lots of things that I’m proud of that I was a part of (as mayor) and they’re bearing fruit as we speak,” he said. “I’ve got a few more good ideas that may get to be exploited, but we’ll see what happens.”

...

“It kind of gives a sense of how unimportant Bob Bratina was to that government.”

Full story here