2026 Hamilton Mayoral Election: Andrea Horwath

We're going to do things a little differently in this interview.

Listeners can find your platform planks on your website.

There are plenty of surveys on the widely known issues that they can read, and they can visit hamiltonvotes.ca to watch debates, read transcripts, and find links to those surveys.

Before I turn to how you will govern and how you will lead, briefly, I wish you to explain two of your platform priorities and why you think they are important.

One of the platform priorities I have is fighting against the Trump tariffs.

We cannot control Donald Trump.

I cannot control Donald Trump.

But what I can do is put forward a response that protects Hamilton businesses, workers, and our community.

And that's what I'm doing.

So I've put a seven-point plan out, which people can look to in the links that you're providing, and I'm grateful for that.

And I will be bringing the motion.

I circulated the motion to clerks and the councillors yesterday.

So I'm looking for them to add anything that they think I might have missed so that we can prepare for the very destabilizing situation that Trump has brought to us yet again.

That's number one.

Another of the major platform planks that I'm running on is our downtown because I love our downtown and it's the front door to our city.

It's also the heartbeat of our city.

I've brought a lot of interest, I think, to our downtown.

When the TD Coliseum was stuck, I unstuck the TD Coliseum to get that investment increased from the $50 million original investment to the $300 million.

I got that Delta Agreement, if you will, over the finish line.

I was able to assist with a number of other initiatives, including the ones that deal with our challenges.

So downtown is at a bit of a crossroads, and it's a very complex place.

We have some difficulties, but we also have a great deal of momentum.

And so whether that's bringing acts like the Junos, the Great Cup, Connecting with those kinds of organizations and the Minister of Tourism, which I did do quite a bit when Stan Cho was in that portfolio.

That's what brings the acts and the dollars to our downtown and animates our downtown.

But we now have a downtown strategy.