In a city synonymous with steel, Hamilton voted out incumbent Mayor Andrea Horwath in favor of Keanin Loomis, president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction.
Loomis received 61,040 votes, establishing a substantial lead over Horwath, who received 21,223 votes and finished third. Loomis also outpaced runner-up Rob Cooper by 14,467 votes.
Born in Oswego, New York, Loomis moved to London, Ontario, at age 12 before relocating to Hamilton in 2009. His win provided an opportunity to reflect on how far he has come.
"My childhood in Central New York, bouncing around the Fulton, New York, area, I started off at Fairgrieve Elementary in Fulton, then Volney Elementary School, then back to Fairgrieve," he said.
Loomis shared some of favorite memories from his time spent in the state.
"The place that I think of the most in terms of my happy place is Vernon Beach in Pulaski, New York," he said. "Because even when we moved to Canada, we would always come back to Vernon Beach during the summer."
Loomis grew emotional remembering those trips and the time he spent with his grandparents, who have since passed away. He shared that, even after losing most of his family, he still holds on to the roots that tie him to the state.
"I still have cousins in the Fulton area, and I came back for Thanksgiving last year to be with my aunt for the final time because she was dying of cancer," he said.
Despite the circumstances, Loomis still considers those times joyous memories.
While holding on to his American roots, Loomis acknowledged that moving to Canada with his mother and stepfather helped shape the binational identity he credits with influencing his life.
"I went to the University of Waterloo here in Southern Ontario, and that's where I met my wife, who's from Hamilton," Loomis said. "But after that, I went to law school in the States at William & Mary and then ended up in Washington, D.C., for five years. That's when I got disillusioned with the practice of law."
It was at this point that Loomis said he pivoted careers.
"I went into organizational management and realized that my vocation is leadership," Loomis said. "And I've been leading organizations in this community and then leading provincial and federal or national associations from this community."
Leadership, or the lack thereof, was a primary reason for Loomis' mayoral campaign.
"I looked at the lack of leadership in my community and decided that I needed to step up and be the change that we needed to see," Loomis said. "I'm raising three kids in this community, and I'm concerned about the future of Hamilton."
Loomis believes another key to unlocking Hamilton's full potential is protecting the city from tariff disputes between the United States and Canada.
"As the mayor of Hamilton, my focus is on protecting my community," he said. "When it comes to protecting workers, protecting the livelihoods of the families that are in the affected industries, that's where my focus is going to be."
The mayor-elect, who formerly served as head of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, is no stranger to cross-border relations and cites his connections to the city of Buffalo.
"I feel like Buffalo and Hamilton share a lot. Dottie Gallagher, the former head of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, was a good friend of mine, and I did do a lot of work across the border when I was the head of the commerce," Loomis said.
For Loomis, who will be sworn in Nov. 15, strengthening the relationship between Hamilton and Buffalo is part of his goal of building stronger partnerships while in office.
