Mayoral hopeful Keanin Loomis releases final platform in bid to woo voters seeking a ‘change’ candidate

Mayoral hopeful Keanin Loomis is selling himself to dissatisfied Hamilton voters as the change" candidate - and as of this week you can now see exactly what he'd like to change, and how.

Were laying everything out there," said Loomis, who spoke to supporters at Merit Brewing downtown ahead of releasing his final campaign platform Thursday.

The 47-year-old promised them real change" - and added in an apparent dig at his main mayoral race competitors, change that brings real leadership to city hall instead of from worn out and recycled politicians who can't help but run again and again."

His main competitors include past mayor and MP Bob Bratina - who by comparison has cited the need for an experienced council leader - and past councillor and MPP Andrea Horwath, who recently stepped down as leader of the provincial NDP.

Loomis, a former chamber of commerce head, was the first mayoral candidate to join the race in May. His early pledges included helping to create 50,000 new homes to ease Hamilton's affordable housing crunch, push ahead with light rail transit, fix rutted roads and actually implement" the city's Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic deaths.

But on Thursday, he added new details to VoteLoomis.ca designed to set apart his platform, including:

• a targeted free-transit proposal for those who could use it most," specifically high schoolers and seniors;

• a codified commitment to respect and decorum at a city hall that became synonymous last term with bullying and bickering;

• a $1-million budget boost for economic development to clear bureaucratic bottlenecks" for new businesses and development, and help the would-be mayor meet his stated goal of creating 5,000 new jobs for the growing city.

Loomis is the first major mayoral candidate to formally announce a final" platform - but Bratina has also posted detailed action" items for many of his platform priorities at VoteBratina.ca. The Spectator has yet to hear back on whether more campaign promises are yet to come in the final six weeks of the campaign.

Bratina has made targeted, recent announcements on housing and transit - on the latter, notably stating the city must move forward" on its long-debated LRT line, despite his previous loud and sometimes controversial opposition to the project.

But if you want to do comparison platform shopping among heavyweight candidates, you'll have to wait until at least Monday.

That's when Andrea Horwath has promised to release an action plan for Hamilton." So far, there are no platform details yet at Andrea4Hamilton.ca.

Horwath announced she would step down as provincial NDP leader shortly after losing the battle to lead Ontario to Conservative Doug Ford in June. After much speculation, the longtime Hamilton politician officially entered the mayoral race in late July but has stayed comparatively silent on the campaign trail.

Horwath has said she wanted to meet with Hamiltonians to learn what's most important to them in the run-up to the Oct. 24 vote. I take seriously the development of an action plan that's informed by the people of this city and the concerns that they've raised with me over the last several weeks," said Horwath this week.

That includes housing affordability for renters and owners alike as well as LRT and other transportation issues, Horwath said.

-With files from Teviah Moro

Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com