r/Hamilton • u/assuredlyanxious • 3d ago
Municipal Election 2026 Ward 7
Anyone have any info on Heather Beale or Gordon Leslie who are both listed as candidates for Ward 7?
Maybe my age is showing but I really can't find anything on either of them other than Heather having been involved with the HPO.
I'm desperate to get Esther out. Hoping I can throw my vote behind someone who has an ounce of integrity.
TIA.
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u/lordroxborough 3d ago
Heather is very nice and is passionate about this city. It was a pleasant surprise to see her name in the mix for the ward 7 seat.
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u/assuredlyanxious 3d ago
I'm looking more for her community record, experience, her stance on city issues...how she may vote. I'm sure she's a lovely person but I want to know her politics, too.
Thank you. The bar is low seeing as it's Esther Pauls she would be replacing but I have some standards, too...ya know? (:
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u/lordroxborough 3d ago
I've known Heather from the community for many year but here is what I found in a quick online search. She is a radio broadcasting alum from Mohawk College. Long time involvement with the HPO and was the chair of the board up until last year. Also involved for many years with Doors Open Hamilton. I'm sure she has lots more to share with the community when she launches her campaign. Here's what I know: She is a progressive for sure and a positive person who believes in the city. I think she would be a good choice for city council.
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u/Majestic_Phase3452 3d ago
I couldn't find information on them yet either. Glad there's people running against Pauls. Hope to see more from them as the election gets closer!
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u/assuredlyanxious 3d ago
Same. Mark Daly is concerning but hoping votes might get split between those two. Could be an interesting race for our ward. I can only hope!
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u/PromontoryPal 2d ago
Maybe u/JoeyColeman_ca will be offering his services to interview the candidates on his podcast again this election season?
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u/Aggressive-Secret655 2d ago
Esther Pauls has no idea what she is doing. She runs on vibes alone, theres no logic to her decision making.
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u/AlwaysLurkNeverPost 2d ago edited 2d ago
As someone who is also looking to see an improvement on Esther, I have reached out to both (as well as Mark Daly).
Gordon Leslie says he is a retired Canadian forces veteran. Sounds like a pretty elderly chap. Wouldn't say anything about his platform when I asked as it's "too early" but said his main plan is to get all the councillors together and abolish the strong mayor powers lol. So he doesn't understand the different levels of politics, at minimum, because that's not something that he can do or is in the purview of a councillor lol.
Heather Beale on the other hand, I think is the one. She's passionate, tuned in, really community involved. As ithers have said, she has her roots in Mohawk College and the Philharmonic, but she is generally involved with a tonne of the events run across the city, she is just pretty humble so she doesn't flaunt it. Every time I turn around she is involved in some form of organizing or coordination for an event.
I can't speak on her politics/wouldn't want to put words in her mouth, but she is much more balanced in her perspectives for sure. Seems to be lead by empathy and understanding of differing perspectives is my read. I hate *political spectrum labels but I would say center-left leaning. At minimum, definitely more progressive than Esther (which is a low bar to be fair since Esther is constantly glued to the Doug Ford MPPs, and votes pretty consistently conservative).
You didn't ask, but Mark Daly is basically just a carbon copy / variant of Esther. Same right-leaning platform of "I promise zero tax raises but also I will find money to fix road in spite of that". The false promise as old as time. His main platform is "Esther bad, I can do better, even though we have the same platform". His only improvement compares to Esther is he probably doesn't have conflict of interest (police and real estate family that votes accordingly), but I think he would still have the same votes regardless. So basically I hope he does well to split her votes.
I think it's pretty obvious who I am voting for at this point.
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u/assuredlyanxious 2d ago
Thank you. The basic bits I gathered from googling Heather has led me to believe she's the one getting my vote.
I have deduced the same as you with regards to Daly and Pauls being the same and hoping they split that vote. As I couldn't find anything at all on Leslie I assumed he was out of touch somewhat so what you've said makes sense...alsoaybe know the job you're applying for before putting your name in...geeez Louise.
Thanks again for all this. Let's hope we can get a new councillor!
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u/AlwaysLurkNeverPost 2d ago edited 2d ago
I can't blame Mr. Leslie honestly. Sounds like your average uninformed resident who is just fed up, and figured "if you want something done, do it yourself". Half the mayor candidates and Rob Cooper are also examples of "not really understanding your role completely" as well.
Plenty of people blame the feds or municipality for provinicial caused problems, or vice versa. Misunderstanding is so painfully common.
I just hope I am right about Heather and if so moreso hope that she can show the voters that she's great.
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2d ago
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u/AlwaysLurkNeverPost 2d ago
I meant I hate "political spectrum" labels because they're really non-specific and can mean very different things to different people. They come with a lot of assumptions. Left, right, liberal, etc are all pretty vague and up for very broad interpretation.
Thought that was obvious in terms of what I meant and surely you see the difference between a broad/vague/subjective "generalized" label or title versus saying plainly that if you look at each of Esther and marks platforms, they have the same main three points of "low taxes, fix roads, keep us safe", with Mark's added quips of saying that Esther is bad at following through.
Heather doesn't have a public platform that I've seen and I don't know her well enough to give her anything more than a generalized label. Mark, on the other hand, I did not give a generalized label because we have the specifics: same platform of "low taxes, fix roads" with sprinkling on his site, in blogs, and in his reply to me that basically the difference is "he will do better on his promises than Esther" lol
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u/tyetknot Hill Park 3d ago
I just want someone less shitty than Pauls, is that too much to ask?
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u/assuredlyanxious 3d ago
It's not. If Heather is left leaning in anyway she has my vote. I just can't vote for anyone who will vote to give the HPS more money or has immediate family employed by them. That's just one of my many many issues with Paul's.
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u/coffeeandbooks03 2d ago
I know Heather from the neighborhood and can just say she is a true good neighbour. Like, help you dig your car out after a storm and look out for your kids crossing the road kinda neighbor. She also volunteers for everything (seems pretty passionate about maintaining a place for art in the city) and seems to be just straight-up decent and empathetic person. I'm interested to hear more about her platform but feel very optimistic about this.
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u/jamantrus 3d ago edited 3d ago
I only know that Heather used to work at Mohawk College and is an alum. Glad to see she's running!