Bratina campaigns to de-amalgamate city

Mayoral candidate Bob Bratina is looking to the past to improve the city’s future.

Bratina, characterizing the Hamilton community as more divided than ever after nearly 10 years of amalgamation, is advocating for the de-amalgamation of the city.

“It’s a possibility and I want to confront it,” said Bratina, during his mayor kick-off campaign celebration on Main Street West. “Montreal de-amalgamated.”

“(Hamilton) is not working,” he said. “Everybody agrees with that. I said (in a 2007 interview) that amalgamation is the elephant in the room. The elephant is even bigger now. The city seems more divided.”

Bratina, who entertained the gathering of over 80 people with his clarinet playing and his singing voice, says if elected mayor he would meet with former suburban area de-amalgamation groups, including Free Flamborough, to gauge their interest in de-amalgamation. He would then take his concerns to the province.

“Municipalities are the creation of the province,” he said.

Soon after amalgamation, residents in Glanbrook and Flamborough strenuously attempted to convince both the former Progressive Conservative government and the current Liberals to allow Hamilton to de-amalgamate. Referendums introduced by rural politicians at council soon after amalgamation took place were defeated. Suburban residents have since complained about paying ever rising taxes for services they don’t receive, and for providing money to the city that seems to remain in the downtown area.