2026-09-19 19:17:38 -0400
To: The Hamilton Club, The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce
Don't Gatekeep Local Democracy: Provide Fair Mayoral Debates!
Updated Sept 18, 2026
The Hamilton Club and The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce will be hosting mayoral debates for the 2026 City of Hamilton Municipal election. It has come to the public's attention that these debates will only feature the so called 'Top Three' candidates and exclude all other certified mayoral candidates.
Our Demands Are As Follows:
The Hamilton Club and The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce will be hosting mayoral debates for the 2026 City of Hamilton Municipal election. It has come to the public's attention that these debates will only feature the so called 'Top Three' candidates and exclude all other certified mayoral candidates.
Our Demands Are As Follows:
- We demand that The Hamilton Club and Hamilton Chamber of Commerce invite all certified mayoral candidates to participate in the mayoral debates.
- Scarlett Gillespsie must be included in person.
- All other candidates must be asked to provide a written statement with responses to the same questions that in person candidates are asked.
- The only exclusion from the debate should be Paul Fromm, a prominent neo-nazi and holocaust denier.
- We also demand that The Hamilton Club and The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce release their original criteria for determining the so called 'Top Three' mayoral candidates. Transparency from these organizations around the debates must be the bare minimum they provide. This is especially important after the unfortunate 'Reply All' email incident, where Shendal Yalchin, GM of The Hamilton Club, accidentally sent an email stating that they will be pitching their debate as hosting the 'Top Three' candidates, to mayoral candidate Scarlett Gillespie.
- Lastly, we demand that these debates be made available to the public via ticket purchases for non-members and a publicly accessible recorded live stream so that all voters can watch.
Why is this important?
Updated Sept 18, 2026
Local democracy must be protected. This means that mayoral debates should not be limited to an arbitrarily determined 'Top Three' mayoral candidates. It is vital to have a variety of perspectives in a debate. This is especially true as Keanin Loomis has a conflict of interest as he was the President & CEO of The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce from 2013 to 2022. Rob Cooper also has extensive connections within the Hamilton business community.
Having only the so called 'Top Three' candidates at mayoral debates bars certified candidates from sharing their voices. It is important as a city to wrestle with differing opinions and visions for how best to meet the needs of Hamiltonians.
Local democracy must be protected. This means that mayoral debates should not be limited to an arbitrarily determined 'Top Three' mayoral candidates. It is vital to have a variety of perspectives in a debate. This is especially true as Keanin Loomis has a conflict of interest as he was the President & CEO of The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce from 2013 to 2022. Rob Cooper also has extensive connections within the Hamilton business community.
Having only the so called 'Top Three' candidates at mayoral debates bars certified candidates from sharing their voices. It is important as a city to wrestle with differing opinions and visions for how best to meet the needs of Hamiltonians.
Scarlett Gillespie in particular should be invited for the in-person debate.
- A poll conducted in July 2026 by Keanin Loomis’ own campaign placed Scarlett at 9%, with 35% of the voters polled being marked as ‘Undecided’.
- In the 2022 Hamilton Municipal Election, Bob Bratina received 12% of votes on election day. Despite this lower amount, he was invited to the debate by the same associations hosting this year’s Hamilton Chamber of Commerce debate.
- Scarlett has also received endorsements from several notable figures including former NDP MPP Rev. Dr. Cheri Dinovi, and Sid Ryan, former OFL President. These further signal that Gillespie is by no means a fringe candidate.
As well in an email to The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, former mayoral candidate Steve Bunn noted that in 1994, The Chamber invited Bunn and Alan Skedden, despite both of them polling in the 0-1% range at the time. Bunn writes:
“Skedden and I may have failed on our merits, but importantly, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce was not culpable in that failure. With a history like this, I can only assume that in 2026 the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce would not want to stand in the way of one of the most important mayoral candidates that our city has ever produced.
Scarlett Gillespie has already far surpassed even the loftiest campaign goals of myself and Allen Skedden. I ultimately received 1,518 votes in the 1994 election, but for months now Gillespie has been engaging with that many Hamiltonians (at least) on a weekly basis. Gillespie’s social media presence attracts hundreds of thousands of views and, most significantly, it is reaching that sixty to seventy per cent of eligible voters in Hamilton who have given up on municipal politics because they see it as cynical and corrupt.
Restoring the engagement of this demographic is the key to restoring legitimacy to municipal politics itself, and Scarlett Gillespie is the only candidate poised to make this happen. If the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce does not therefore extend an invitation to Gillespie for the upcoming mayoral debate, it will be giving the appearance of putting its thumb on the scale of our democracy instead of helping to heal it.”
Lastly, the lack of response from Rob Cooper, Andrea Horwath, and Keanin Loomis around these issues also raises concerns. By not pushing for other certified mayoral candidates to be involved in the debate, this signals prioritizing the interests of business leaders over the interests of the city and municipal democracy as a whole. This is especially true as these are ticketed exclusive members-only debates, with no live stream for the public.
How it will be delivered
Email The Hamilton Club and The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce below to push for these demands to be met!
Lyndsay Boyd - [email protected]
Shendal Yalchin - [email protected]
Jason Munro - [email protected]
[email protected]
Daniel Burcher - [email protected]
General - [email protected]