LRT raised Sgro from obscurity to contender
But incumbent Eisenberger more comfortable and experienced campaigner
If Vito Sgro defeats Fred Eisenberger he’ll be the first candidate in almost 100 years to become mayor of Hamilton without prior experience as a publicly elected official.
As far as I can tell, the last person to make the leap directly from the private sector into the mayor’s chair was clothing manufacturer Charles Coppley, who was elected in 1921.
The same thing could happen to Sgro, if the Forum Research poll suggesting he and Eisenberger are in a neck-and-neck race is accurate.
A Sgro victory would also rank as the largest upset in this city’s postamalgamation political history, topping both Bob Wade’s unexpected win over Bob Morrow in 2000 and Bob Bratina’s triumph over Eisenberger in 2010.
But win or lose, Sgro’s progress from political obscurity to serious contender in the three and half months since he entered the race is nothing short of extraordinary.
Back in late January of this year when Sgro first told The Spectator he was seriously considering running he was as far from being a household name as one possibly can be.
Though the 53-year-old chartered accountant was known in political circles as a Liberal campaign organizer, he had no community name recognition whatsoever, unlike Eisenberger who, besides being the incumbent mayor, has been a fixture on the political scene since the early 1990s.
Sgro’s employment record includes some 30 years as a chartered accountant — including a now severed partnership with CBM Chartered accountants LLP — and a short spell with the Hamilton branch of Revenue Canada.
His resumé, among other things, contains an appointment to the Ontario Infrastructure Corporation, which he resigned from in May. He’s also been a director of the Hamilton Port Authority.
But the downtown resident’s main political asset is being an east-end Liberal organizer.
Over the years he’s served as a yard-sign volunteer, campaign manager, local-area organizer, and president (now resigned) of the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek Liberal riding association.
Obviously a political junkie, he worked on campaigns for John Munro, Tony Valeri, Tyler Banham, Ivan Luksic and Bratina. He even sharpened his skills by volunteering on the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign.
Though Sgro had plenty of experience at organizing, he’s always been in the background, never the foreground.
Making that switch has clearly been a major challenge. He became better at it as the campaign progressed, but Eisenberger, for all his low-key style, seemed far more comfortable and smooth in front of the cameras and with print media.
What gave Sgro the legs to be a serious challenger was his conviction light rail transit is wrong for Hamilton, a position which received immense lift from Premier Doug Ford’s commitment to let the city use the $1 billion earmarked for LRT for other transit and infrastructure projects.
Like it or not, that made LRT a wedge issue. Again, if the Forum Research poll is accurate, the community appears to be evenly split on the project, making Monday’s election not only an unofficial referendum but a potentially indecisive standoff.
But if Sgro is confident LRT is the wrong rapid transit system for Hamilton, Eisenberger is no less positive that rejecting it is tantamount to turning our backs on the future. To a large extent, those starkly different opinions are being played out among candidates contesting the city’s 15 council seats.
That means, of course, that a Sgro win no more guarantees the death of LRT than an Eisenberger victory assures its continued life. That final decision will rest in the hands of the new council with its mix of returning incumbents and newbies.
One thing is certain, though. Regardless of who wins the mayor’s race, the results will be singular.
If it’s outsider Sgro, Hamilton will be breaking a century-old pattern. If it’s incumbent Eisenberger, it will be the first time since amalgamation that Hamilton has had a mayor serving two consecutive terms.