Hamilton City Politics
Whitehead entered the Ward 8 Council race in 2003, running against seven other candidates to fill the void that retiring Frank D'Amico created. On election night, Whitehead beat out his closest challenger Jamie West by 319 votes to secure 27.13% and a seat on council. During his first term he made few waves and garnered little media attention, but did sit on over 30 agencies, boards and committees.
His re-election bid in the Hamilton Municipal Election 2006 was much smoother, taking on two familiar challengers Peter Martin and Wayne Boychuk as well as the man he replaced on council, Frank D'Amico. He received 7829 votes or 55.72% of the votes cast.
Whitehead has recently fallen under scrutiny for the large number of corporate and union donations he received in the 2006 election, including donations from numerous local developers.
In response to Whitehead's support of keeping some downtown streets one-way, Raise the Hammer launched a 'campaign' to have all the major streets in Ward 8 converted to one-way streets, poking fun at Whitehead's position. Raise the Hammer subsequently published an essay by Whitehead defending his opposition to two-way conversion, which spurred robust commentary and follow-up reports citing new information in support of two-way streets.
Whitehead ultimately changed his mind and endorsed the Downtown Transportation Master Plan Five Year Review, which he had previously opposed over its planned two-way street conversions.
Whitehead currently sits on several committees at City Hall such as the Hamilton Police Services Board, Economic Development & Planning Committee, HECFI, Tourism Hamilton and the City/School Board Relations Committee.
Read more about this topic: Terry Whitehead
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