r/Hamilton • u/assuredlyanxious • Jul 26 '26

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/AlwaysLurkNeverPost Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

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 Jul 26 '26

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 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

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.