Collins leaving city hall for Parliament Hill
‘Mixed emotions’ as longtime city councillor knocks off rivals to keep riding in Liberal fold
After more than 20 years at city hall, Chad Collins is headed to Parliament Hill.
The longtime city councillor secured Hamilton East-Stoney Creek for the Liberals, knocking off New Democrat and Conservative rivals by a healthy margin.
But he says it was a hardfought battle in a competitive open race with outgoing Liberal MP Bob Bratina opting not to run again.
“I feel relieved and with every election win, it’s a very humbling experience.”
Collins, 50, says he knew the “margins traditionally can be very slim” in the riding and didn’t expect a victory “would come easy.”
His long tenure on council — he was first elected in 1995 — opened him up to attacks from his fellow candidates in the short but intense campaign.
During the televised debate, the NDP’s Nick Milanovic assailed Collins and council for keeping under wraps for several months the full scope of a 24-billion-litre, four-and-ahalf-year sewage leak into Chedoke Creek and Cootes Paradise.
Conservative Nick Kuruc, meanwhile, questioned how effectively he’d serve constituents given that his anti-LRT position — like Bratina’s — was at odds with the party and failed to gain traction with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But late Monday, Collins said he figured his familiarity with Ward 5 constituents helped sway undecided voters.
He’ll leave city hall with “really mixed emotions,” he said. “It’s been a part of my entire adult life. You know, I was in university when I won.”
However, Collins added, he ran for federal office with a desire “to serve in a higher capacity and work on the same issues that I work on at city council at a higher level.”
His years of experience as a councillor gave him the edge of knowing “our city’s needs,” he told debate viewers.
Collins also praised the Liberals’ “record investments” in local transit, housing, infrastructure and post-secondary institutions while steering Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hamilton East-Stoney Creek residents requested 3,118 mailin ballots for Hamilton EastStoney Creek, representing votes election officials would start counting Tuesday.
Larry Pattison carried the Greens’ banner in the riding and Mario Ricci ran for the People’s Party of Canada.
The NDP and Liberals have waged a tug of war in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.
In 2019, Milanovic, a lawyer and Carleton University law professor, came second to Bratina, who won with a margin of just over 5,000 votes. Four years earlier, the former mayor took the riding from New Democrat Wayne Marston, who was first elected in 2006.