Raise the Hammer

Eisenberger got 54,110 votes and DiIanni got 53,658. Man that's close (452 votes!). Does anyone know if that's too close to stand, or if there will have to be a manual recount?

That's not a great percentage; especially considering there are a LOT more than 340,000 of us here. That said, it's been good to see that the coverage from lots of different sources and biases has seemed to be encouraging turn-out and providing info on how to register/where to vote. Hopefully we'll spend the next four years getting those numbers picked up some..

This has to go down as one of the most interesting municipal races in memory. Thanks to Cable 14 for providing us with the only ongoing updates that I could find (Shame on CH and the spec.com) and congrats to RTH for great coverage and for beating thespec.com at posting results.

Congrats to the winners, thanks to all who put forward their names and ideas in this election and thanks to the citizens who participated in the debate.

Now... This should be an interesting four years...

"Thanks to Cable 14 for providing us with the only ongoing updates that I could find (Shame on CH and the spec.com"

I listened to the whole thing on a live web-stream from CHML. I was pretty impressed with their coverage.

What a shocker of an election. Clearly a protest vote: Hamiltonians are angry and demand change.

Hamiltonians have taken back their city from control of rich special interest groups. This is an historic day for democracy in Hamilton. You'll recall on the weekend, I told everyone that this would be tight....stay tuned for more on this - RTH is more in tune with the people of this city than the landslide predictions from the Spec and Cable 14 hosts.

Their predictions were based on the stacked spec web polls and the numbers in campaign budgets

earlier today a member of DiIanni's campaign team told CH News that their numbers showed Larry winning with about 60% of the vote. Don't ever underestimate the citizenry...and for all the big medai - don't tell us who to vote for.

i wonder if that was ch's choice or global's. who pulls the strings there anyway? who cares. ch smells.

I'm just glad Hamilton didn't re-elect a crook as mayor... even if it was by a wisker.

This is a great city and we can make it much better.

Though I am glad Di Ianni is gone, I am still a bit nervous about Eisenberger. He has potential but time will tell. At least now with a bit of a shake up at council, there is a prime opportunity for change. The battle against apathy however is far from won. Perhaps we need more events such as referendums or other measures to encourage input by the people. If they are habitually asked, perhaps they will get into the habit of making decisions and becoming a greater part of their city.

I agree cautiously optimistic,

I think it's up to 'the people' now to show the 'new' council (we have 5-6 new faces right?) that we want to be included in our local democracy. We can't assume that the new mayor will suddenly do all the right things. I hope the people of Hamilton do what they can to force their way onto the agenda - write to the paper, write to the mayor, go to meetings, join local groups - this is a real opportunity for change but the last thing we need to do is sit back and wait for it to happen.

Interesting times ahead :)

Ben

PS It's it's Business as Usual in Toronto (if anybody cares...? :) )