The race for mayor: A closer look at Bob Bratina

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of three profiles on Hamilton's leading mayoral candidates - Bob Bratina, Keanin Loomis and Andrea Horwath.

Mayoral candidate Bob Bratina waits to make a campaign announcement outside an east Hamilton community centre on a blustery fall morning.

A reporter jokes a late-arriving colleague made it just in time by running from his office.

Frank Kush, head coach of the Tiger-Cats in 1981, used to jog from his nearby apartment to the football stadium, Bratina chimes in.

And when he came back, it was like the Pied Piper of Hamilton because of all the kids who lived around here, running up with him."

It's vintage Bratina, a former radio personality and voice of the Ticats" who easily draws on a deep well of local lore to fill dead air.

He is very energetic. He's quick. He's witty," says Vito Sgro, a campaign volunteer and local Liberal who finished second in the 2018 mayoral race.

Those traits - and his unrivalled knowledge of Hamilton - give Bratina an uncanny ability to connect with regular people, Sgro says.

But at times, that jovial, public persona has given way to a cantankerous, conflict-prone side that has stirred political turmoil.

Nonetheless, the 78-year-old ex-Liberal MP and one-time mayor is running on his record with a slogan to match: Experience. Leadership. Results."

His bid for a city hall comeback focuses on hiring more police officers to tackle crime, and growing the city's industrial and commercial base to help offset residential taxes.

Bratina also aims to supercharge" the local approvals process bogged down in red tape" to boost the housing supply amid an affordability crunch.

He's billed himself the transit mayor" - despite his longtime opposition to LRT - pledging to lead by example" and take the bus rather than drive as much as possible.

Bratina also contends he's a veteran leader that can fix city hall" and unify the next batch of elected officials around the council horseshoe.

He has been very dismayed by the scandals and toxic culture" at city hall in recent years, he told supporters gathered for his campaign launch at Michelangelo Banquet Centre in August.

For a new council to be successful, we need leadership in the mayor's office that helps create a better working environment for our city staff and build trust between council and our community."

But that ambition is undercut by a political track record checkered with bitter disputes, including an ethics sanction as mayor for his role in a $30,000 pay raise to his chief of staff and a falling-out with Liberal colleagues over LRT while MP.

Still, Conservative MP Dan Muys (Flamborough-Glanbrook) told the campaign launch crowd that Bratina has the right stuff to meet overarching challenges like inflation and spiking housing costs.

Hamilton needs someone with Bob's experience at the helm to guide council," Muys said, sparking a round of applause.

My record speaks for itself'

Those steeped in the controversies of Bratina's 2010-14 mayoral term might beg to differ he's the right man for the job. But what about voters who can't recall the details?

I think the specifics are kind of inside baseball," McMaster University political scientist Peter Graefe said. I mean most of the people don't remember."

But voters may wonder why Bratina didn't immediately seek another mayoral term, he suggests.

And that might kind of trigger the idea of, Oh, he was not the most successful mayoralty. There seemed to be a lot of controversy.'"

But ask Bratina and he'll tell you his term was the most successful Hamilton has seen in generations.

I don't think my list of achievements can be matched by any mayor in the 21st century, or people wishing to be mayor. My record speaks for itself," he told The Spectator's editorial board in September.

Asked how he could work more collaboratively, he instead challenged the board to list his council achievements.

I never hear about it. All I hear about is throwing a pen 15 years ago."

More on that later, but Bratina did point to accomplishments under his watch, saying he:

• Started building a football stadium to replace Ivor Wynne;

• Landed the west harbour GO station on James Street North;

• Brought McMaster's downtown health campus;

• Relocated idling buses from Gore Park and into a new terminal;

• Kept tax hikes to a minimum;

• And achieved compromise on the contentious area-rated taxation system.

And he didn't leave with his tail between his legs, Bratina says.

I go back to my previous four years, when I left the mayoralty in 2014, I thought the city was in great shape," he told a mayoral candidates' forum earlier this month. And I thought it was time now for a new mayor to come along and carry it on."

But major issues now dogging the city, including a 24-billion-litre sewage leak into Chedoke Creek that council initially kept under wraps and a $28-million judicial inquiry into a buried Red Hill Valley Parkway friction report, drew him back into the fold.

So I was happy to leave, but I'm not happy to quit yet because (city hall) is broken. It has to be fixed."

So-called scandals'

Raised in the east end with Croatian and Serbian roots, Bratina comes from humble working-class stock.

His father and grandmother came to Canada in the late-1920s, he related during his campaign launch to illustrate the value of frugal finances.

They got through, and know how they did it? Live within their means. Do as much as you can for yourself and others and make the most of what you have."

After graduating from Delta Secondary School, where he met his future wife, Carol, Bratina took a job at Dofasco, following in his dad's footsteps. He quit two years later to pursue a career in radio, eventually settling with CHML in Hamilton.

I loved radio," he told The Spectator in 2004. I didn't want to punch a clock."

That same year, Bratina became Ward 2 councillor, winning a byelection sparked by Andrea Horwath's leap to Queen's Park with the NDP. (Horwath - along with Keanin Loomis - is now one of his main rivals for the chain of office this October.)

He advocated for downtown renewal, and a community centre next to a new elementary school along with the cleanup of an adjacent park in the Beasley neighbourhood.

But Bratina also proved a lighting rod of controversy, for example, finding himself at the centre of a dispute with the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) over its Lister Block restoration plans. To LIUNA's chagrin, Bratina pursued a deal with another builder.

He'd push against the grain on other files, too, advocating the sale of city hall instead of following through with a renovation plan that carried an ever-increasing multimillion-dollar price tag.

It is an idea, in fact, that's still on his mind.

It could be considered. It's an asset that is not being used to its fullest extent, and it hasn't been for the whole COVID time," Bratina told the editorial board.

Workers, however, have since returned to city hall amid the pandemic and the municipality rents downtown office space.

As councillor, Bratina was no stranger to heated confrontations.

In one instance, then-mayor Fred Eisenberger - who is retiring this year after three terms at the helm - alleged he threatened" him during a meeting.

Denying the accusation at the time, Bratina said, What am I going to do to him? ... Give him a super-wedgie?"

In another infamous case, Eisenberger insisted he apologize for tossing a pen across the chambers, narrowly missing the head of Ward 1 councillor Brian McHattie, during a tense discussion.

There was also concern that Bratina was blurring lines on the air by talking politics. But in 2010, he decided to quit his morning show and entered the mayoral race.

At that time - similar to his message in the current campaign - Bratina called for a change in political culture at city hall.

Frankly, I don't see it changing unless we make some systemic changes in the way we operate council."

And he coasted to victory, dispatching Eisenberger and Larry Di Ianni, a previous mayor.

Bratina points to his wins, but is dismissive of the tumult and strife that inspired negative headlines.

The so-called scandals and disagreements amounted to nothing at the ballot box," he told the editorial board, noting his mayoral victory and successful federal campaign in 2015 as evidence.

But as mayor, they piled up.

They included a motion to limit Bratina's ability to speak to upper levels of government on council's behalf after he endorsed the Liberals during a provincial election.

Councillors similarly tried to rein in the mayor's communications with the province after gripes over his mixed messaging on LRT in the face of his focus on all-day GO service to Toronto and complained about strained relations.

In 2012, council broke new ground by censuring him for his role in a $30,000 pay raise to his chief of staff, Peggy Chapman. He'd initially denied involvement in the hike, pinning it on human resources staff, before expressing contrition.

Peggygate" also landed a formal reprimand from the city's integrity commissioner, another first for a Hamilton mayor.

Bratina still bristles when asked about that debacle.

There was no issue," he told The Spectator's editorial board. The outcome of that was nothing, because I'm in charge of my budget as the mayor and that amount was determined by the HR department."

Moreover, he didn't blame staff," he said, but rather the head of HR was upset because she didn't know what was going on, but her staff did know."

And the fact is, Bratina explained, he was contending with a stubborn Old Boys club" that manipulated" staff and council.

Reflecting on his time with Bratina, former Flamborough councillor Robert Pasuta questions his ability to be a political unifier.

The farmer says Bratina called him a two-faced ... asshole" in his city hall office one morning after he took the microphone to congratulate the winners of agricultural awards during an event they'd attended.

Pasuta, who has endorsed Horwath, said he was in shock," recalling that the mayor was upset he'd spoken at the event.

He's going to work with council and be the mayor of this city?"

Bratina, however, denies that testy exchange took place.

It didn't happen."

Coun. Brenda Johnson, who leaves her Glanbrook post at the end of this term, notes a softer side to Bratina, recalling how he took her under his wing during her rookie term.

Johnson agrees that settling on a location for the stadium and finding common ground on area rating were major achievements.

Was it because of Bob or in spite of Bob? It doesn't matter. It still came together."

The negative spotlight also found Bratina during his time as Liberal MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.

In 2019, Hamilton steelworker union members alleged he shouted obscenities at them before kicking the delegation out of his Ottawa office, which Bratina rejected as completely untrue."

Asked what he now says about his role in that dust-up, he responded, Nothing. Wait for my memoirs."

Last year, Bratina decided not to seek re-election in the next federal contest due this party's $1.7-billion contribution to the $3.4-billion LRT project.

Everything comes out of the PMO (Prime Minister's Office). So they made a decision that I don't think was based on the best interests of Hamilton," he told the editorial board.

Perfect catch-all populist'

In late September, COVID-19 sidelined Bratina, leaving rivals Horwath and Loomis to duke it out during the televised debate.

He bounced back, however, and hit the campaign trail, backed by robo-texts to local phone numbers focusing on violent crime," wasteful spending" and soaring" taxes.

The messages also warned of his opponents' far-left policies," calling them special interest candidates."

The strategy accords with Bratina's perfect catch-all populist" profile, local city hall watcher Christopher Erl says.

He will take policies from the left. He will take policies from the right and he will create this Frankenstein monster of an agenda that he thinks will satisfy a particular segment of the electorate."

With Horwath's solid left-wing NDP base and Loomis's challenge to boost recognition, Bratina seems to be after centre-right" and populist" voters," observed Erl, a political scientist with Toronto Metropolitan University.

But the American-style tactics, talking about the radical left, talking about these special-interest groups" could fall flat with Canadian voters, he suggested. They aren't set up to hear these dog whistles."

Bratina told reporters his reference to special interest groups" doesn't refer to community activists who raise issues with city hall, but rather social media users quietly behind the scenes who are manipulating candidates toward their own ends."

For campaign volunteer Vito Sgro, his candidate is a centrist" who transcends partisan politics and appeals to a wide demographic.

He just connects with people who are just everyday Hamiltonians."

He also agrees Bratina's time as mayor was one of the most productive times" in Hamilton in decades. But the city's deterioration" as of late will require a lot of will, and a whole lot of guts and a lot of hard decisions," Sgro adds.

It's not going to be a popularity thing. It's what's best for the city."

For his part - and despite the claim to unmatched achievements this century - Bratina says he doesn't have much of an ego left" after so many years in the political arena.

But I know what I stand for and I stand for the best outcome of the City of Hamilton. I hope we get a team that will play together and work together."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com