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Downtown Sparrow

Dedicated to making information available to Hamiltonians

Municipal Candidate Financial Statements (2000-2022)

Municipal Candidate Financial Statements (2000-2022)

There’s always talk before, during, and after municipal elections about who donated how much and to whom. It’s not a mystery, especially given the transparent filing requirements outlined in the Municipal Elections Act, but finding the information can be a daunting task.

We’ve tried to make that a little easier. The Downtown Sparrow has been working, for more than a year, with a team of very dedicated volunteers, to produce a nearly complete searchable collection of financial statements submitted by municipal candidates between 2000 and 2022 (below).

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Don McLean who preserved these records and shared them with us. Without his care, attention, and resolve this database would simply not exist.

Below the searchable database is useful information about our methodology, categories used in the spreadsheets, limitations to our analysis, abbreviations, and data sources.

*This database, like some parts of of our site, is optimized for wide table viewing and searching so will not be very compatible with a mobile device. For best results, view this on a laptop or desktop. You can download this database in a variety of formats by using the tools located directly above it.

Methodology

All of the records were collected by Don McLean directly from the office of the City Clerk of the City of Hamilton either in person by requesting and obtaining official paper copies or by downloading them from the City’s website.

Only the records of elected officials are represented in this database (though other records do exist).

The data, after it was transcribed or copied from scans (using Optical Character Recognition, such as it is), was checked against the original copies for accuracy. Despite our team’s best efforts, a few errors may remain. If you spot an error, let us know and we’ll correct it.

Corrections were made to the data where there were obvious errors (with postal codes or the spelling of names) and a standard format was adhered to.

Where more accurate information was provided on one candidate’s form, it was reflected this way throughout the database. If someone’s name was abbreviated or a nickname was used, a full name or a proper name was used in its place if it was found on another candidate’s form.

When the information presented was confusing, or seemed inaccurate, additional research was undertaken to ensure that what was ultimately included in the database was as accurate as possible.

The data was categorized. This categorization was done to make it clear where, as specifically as possible, money was donated from by industry, affiliation, or profession (where it was available).

We ensured every entry has either an individual or company name associated with it so that it’s searchable (if it had neither, as was the case with some records, it was not included).

All of this was done to make the data both more accurate and more searchable, to the very best of our abilities.

All of the original scans that were relied on (with personal information redacted) are available through the Related Resources links below.

Categories

One of the most important parts of this searchable database is the ability to understand, at least where this information is available, what types of sources donations came from, including specific industries, affiliations, or groups. We have sorted donors into 8 categories –

Real Estate or Development Industry – Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Developers, Planning Consultants, Architects, Builders, Landlords, Property Managers

Professional or Financial Service – Lawyers, Accountants, Dentists, Doctors, Financial Planners

Small Business – Retail, Small Commercial

Large Business – Manufacturing, Service Industry, Transportation

Labour Union

Private Individual – Not primarily affiliated with an organization

Other – Not included in other categories and may include Politicians, Consultants, Not-for-Profits, Arts Organizations, Lobbyists, Insurers or Insurance Brokers, Educators

No category – We were unable to determine a specific affiliation or to determine whether or not someone was likely donating in their capacity as a private individual

*Where it was not initially possible to associate an individual with a specific category, but they had the same last name and address as a donor we were able to categorize, we assigned them both to the same category.

Limitations

There were changes to the Municipal Elections Act before the 2018 municipal election which will make the data somewhat difficult to compare. In general, union and corporate donations were allowed before the 2018 election. In 2018, only donations from individuals were permitted. This means that it can be tricky to compare data from prior to 2018 to data collected from the 2018 election. That being said, individual “owner” and “authorized agent” information was often made available prior to 2018 (along with the name of the union or corporation).

The information for “owner” was preferred and used as the comparator data to “individual” for the 2018 election. Though this limitation cannot be resolved through the searchable data, it can be resolved by accessing the original scans through the Related Resources section below.

Though the categories we’ve outlined are helpful in identifying trends, they’re not complete. Where it was not possible to identify individuals by category, they were given a status of unknown. This categorization was only used for the 2018 election year. That being said, where there were donations from the same individuals (or through their affiliated unions or corporations) in previous elections, this information was mapped backwards to provide a more complete picture of donations by category over time.

When it came to postal code data, there were other challenges. For privacy reasons, we decided to remove all address and postal code data from the publicly available information we posted online. We recognize the valid concerns that some individuals have with their personal address information being available in a searchable online format. It would have been our preference to redact only the address information for individuals, and not unions or corporations, but that was beyond the scope of our project. As a result, we removed all address information.

There was not a complete record of all statements between 2000 and 2018. Some information was simply missing from what was available to the Downtown Sparrow.

Missing information includes –

  • Mark Tadeson – 2022, Ward 11 – candidate funded all campaign expenses
  • Doug Conley – 2014, Ward 9 – no details were provided by the candidate
  • Brad Clark – 2010, Ward 9 – only the candidate’s supplemental filing was preserved
  • Russ Powers – 2010, Ward 13 – no records were preserved
  • Robert Pasuta – 2010, Ward 14 – candidate was acclaimed
  • Judi Partridge – 2010, Ward 15 – candidate funded all campaign expenses
  • David Mitchell – 2003, Ward 11 – candidate was acclaimed
  • Murray Ferguson – 2003, Ward 12 – no records were preserved
  • Dave Braden – 2003, Ward 14 – no records were preserved
  • Margaret McCarthy – 2003, Ward 15 – no records were preserved
  • Murray Ferguson – 2000, Ward 12 – candidate funded all campaign expenses

This resource is not meant to be exhaustive, from an analytical perspective. We hope that interested members of the public will use the data that’s available to apply their own analyses. We would be happy to hear from those who undertake this work and to consider future articles in From the Nest or to add analyses to the Related Resources section at the bottom of this page.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations were used to save space –

  • ATU – Amalgamated Transit Union
  • CAW – Canadian Auto Workers
  • CEP – Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union
  • CORCC – Central Ontario Regional Council of Carpenters, Drywall, & Allied Workers
  • Corp – Corporation
  • CUPE – Canadian Union of Public Employees
  • GORCC – Greater Ontario Regional Council of Carpenters, Drywall & Allied Workers
  • HAND – Hamilton and District Heavy Construction
  • HBBT – Hamilton-Brantford Ontario Building & Construction Trades Council
  • HPFFA – Hamilton Professional Firefighters Association
  • HWETL – Hamilton Wentworth Elementary Teachers’ Local
  • IAMAW – International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
  • IATSE – International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
  • IBEW – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
  • Inc – Incorporated
  • Ironworkers – International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers
  • IUEC – International Union of Elevator Constructors
  • IUOE – International Union of Operating Engineers
  • IUPAT – International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
  • IWA – Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada
  • LIUNA – Laborers’ International Union of North America
  • Ltd – Limited
  • OPEIU – Office and Professional Employees International Union
  • OPSEU – Ontario Public Service Employees Union
  • OSMWRC – Ontario Sheet Metal Workers’ & Roofers’ Conference Employer Bargaining Agency
  • OSSTF – Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation
  • UBC – United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America
  • UFCW – United Food and Commercial Workers
  • United Association – United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry
  • USW – United Steelworkers
  • SEIU – Service Employees’ International Union
  • SMWIA – Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association
  • STEU – Specialty and Temporary Employees Union

Sources

City of Hamilton, City of Hamilton website*
*Records were taken directly from the City of Hamilton’s website in 2019, 2020, and 2021; some of the records have since been destroyed by the City of Hamilton

Related Resources

Candidate Financial Statements
2018 Municipal Election Filing Requirements report
Election Compliance Audit Committee Decisions
Articles about the results of the 1994 Municipal Election

Last updated – April 9, 2023