TRANSCRIPT: Mayor-Elect Keanin Loomis’ Remarks at Incoming City Council Orientation

Joey Coleman

Hamilton Mayor-Elect Keanin Loomis provided the following informal remarks at the beginning of today’s (November 9, 2026) orientation session for the 2026 to 2030 City Council term.

Keanin Loomis began by thanking City of Hamilton staff for coordinating the orientation session, and then provided the following remarks.

Note: the remarks are lightly edited for clarity and written form conventions.

Transcript

“It’s a really exciting moment for me, and I hope for all of you as well for the fellow freshman [councillors]. Congratulations on earning the right to be here. And for those of you who are returning, congratulations as well.

I’m really fascinated by the outcome of this election following the outcome of the last election as well. A lot of new faces on council and, you know, we’re going to have a good time getting to know each other.

Councillors Know Their Communities Best

I’ve already had the opportunity actually to meet all of the councillors. And I might be able to be the only person in Hamilton who can say that at this moment. But having seen you on the campaign trail and the relationships I’ve had with the previous councillors as well, the one thing I can say is that I believe that each one of you is the most effective representative of where you come from across the city.

We’re going to have a lot of differences in terms of perspective and all of that—priorities, ideas. But that’s to be expected because this is a very diverse city as well. What works in the north end, or what people in the north end feel is an imperative, is different than what people in Orkney [a rural hamlet in Flamborough] think. But in the end, we’re all here for the same reason. And that is because we believe so, so much in this city.

I had the opportunity to share my story a lot on the campaign trail, so I’m not going to go over that. But the most important thing for you to understand here is that I’m an ex-lawyer, so I care about governance and all of that stuff. I know that that’s the foundation of a well-run organization, but what has become my vocation now is leadership.

Being Mayor is “The Opportunity of A Lifetime”

And this is the opportunity of a lifetime, really for me. And so I’m hoping to be able to use that skill set to help us effectively manage and get through the business of council over the next four years.

But I think more importantly is that why I’m doing this is because first of all, as I said, I love this city. This is to me the only place in the world that I want to be. The only place in the world that I want to raise a family. And so I am also a father of three. And that’s why I’m doing this. It’s my entire motivation to be doing this.

Today represents a really important opportunity for all of us, which is a fresh start and a new beginning and an opportunity to write a new chapter in Hamilton’s history. And that doesn’t just go for those of us who are serving on Council or really as directors of the corporation of the City of Hamilton, but all the staff here as well. So I thank you for all that you have done already.

I’ve had a lot of interactions with the City staff. You have bent over backwards to accommodate me, and I’m assuming the rest of the Council as well. And we have come off a very, very busy campaign period. I haven’t really got much in the way of rest, but I know that this is not a restful time for city staff as well, so I appreciate that.

A New Chapter of City Hall

But what we are going to do, and hopefully we will be able to point to this day as being the beginning of this new chapter in City Hall, and it’s about getting the City working again, regardless of where we come from and the perspectives that we have depending on where we come from in the city.

I think we were all elected for the same reason. And it was to bring accountability to this community. We talk about value for taxes. That’s really just another word for accountability. We talk about getting City Hall working again. That’s really just another phrase for accountability. And so this is the moment where things will change. The culture of the City will change.

I have a really good understanding of what I’m coming in after and the work ahead to ameliorate that and the rawness in some ways left over from the previous Council and administration. And there’s a lot of work to do there. But really, we got to get to being a city of yes as opposed to a city of no, a city where we can again get things working again, because those are the expectations of every single one of our constituents here in this community.

This is undoubtedly going to be a very steep learning curve. So we have the benefit of having a tremendous amount of City staff here to help us in this transition, and as well, to draw upon the experience of those returning councillors as well. So thank you. And thank you, all of you that are returning.

Thank you in advance for helping us guide us through this really steep learning curve that we have in front of us. Municipal government is complex, highly complex, as we all know. And there’s lots of learning and the institution and the important work that happens behind the scenes. So all of you, again, you’ve already been very accommodating, but you’re going to have to be even more so going forward as we look to effectively carry out the business of Council.

Early Priorities

My priorities, again, I ran on them, so they’re pretty well known. And I think you can still go to VoteLoomis.ca to see the platform and the SMART plan and all of that. But the big thing for me is, first of all, getting to hire the next City Manager. So that process has already started. You see that as well. I have appointed Chris Murray as Interim City Manager to help bridge us through that process and to make sure that Mike Zegarac is focused on the budgets, which is the other big priority that I have coming in.

The other thing that we must address is the homelessness crisis that is playing out on our streets. I’ve already had the opportunity to convene the Hamilton is Home Coalition and to begin to start that conversation about hopefully putting in front of the federal government within the next couple of months, running up to 2,500 new units in front of the building homes team. So I had a conversation with Canada Homes to be able to start that process as well. So those are my main priorities.

And of course, there’s going to be all kinds of other things that come at us over the course of the next few months and the next few years as well. My promises to you are to be collaborative. And that is exactly how I have operated my entire life.

Council is a Team, Mayor’s Office Open to Support Them

I cannot do this alone. I need the help of, first of all, a good team that I’m building out in the Mayor’s Office, a great group of peers and colleagues across the Council table. And then of course, the leadership within the City of Hamilton as well.

My promise to Council is nothing about Council without Council. And so we will work on how we go forward and conduct the business of Council together in collaboration. I believe in honest dialogue and I will have an open door policy.

Next week you will see the blinds in City Hall and the Mayor’s Office come up so that you feel that you can approach the Mayor’s Office at all times. And I think you’ve seen that hopefully, as we’ve had the opportunity to connect over the last week and a half or so. What you will also find is I will put in the hard work necessary and be very diligently focused on the right things.

You will not get drama from me. That is to me a wasted emotion and wasted energy. We need to focus on the task at hand and that is again getting City Hall working again. Very values-based as well. I believe in integrity.

Honesty and Integrity

I think you saw that during the campaign as well. When my competitors went dirty, we decided that it was more important to—well, in fact, to lose with integrity than win without it. And so you will see that as well.

You will get the straight story from me because I’m not somebody who can keep different stories straight in my head. So I just focus on the truth and the relationship that I have with each and every one of you.

I’m very relationship-based, and I look forward to continuing to build and strengthen those relationships. I believe in the importance of trust. A wise person once gave a speech that really resonated with me, that talks about trust being the currency in every single relationship.

And so I think about that as we get going. We each have a bank account with each other that you can either continue to build up the equity in that bank account, or you can do one thing that eliminates all of that equity in that bank account by breaching that trust. So you will see me focused on all of that.

“Disagreement will Happen, Dysfunction is a Choice”

We will not all agree on everything. I’m turning to my fellow councillors on that. And there’s no expectation we will. Again, we come from a very, very diverse community, each representing our constituents in different ways. And I would be concerned if we agreed on everything.

But while disagreement will happen, dysfunction is a choice. And I choose right now to make it clear to you that we will not be mired in dysfunction.

And that, again, is through the relationships that we all have. I want this to be a council where people feel comfortable speaking up, where debate is welcomed and where respect is not negotiable. And that’s not just around the table.

That also works entirely within City Hall, and is the expectation of every single staff member within this community. So we have an opportunity to show Hamilton that this Council and the City can be different.

This is the beginning of the next chapter of the incredible story of the history of Hamilton.

So I look forward to working together with you to write that next chapter.

Thank you so much. I look forward to accomplishing what the citizens of Hamilton sent us here to accomplish when they elected us to be here.

Thank you.”

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Published: November 9, 2026
Last updated: November 9, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman

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