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After nearly 30 years representing the city, Andrea Horwath will no longer be an elected official in Hamilton.
“It’s been absolutely the privilege of a lifetime to represent the people of this city, first as a city councillor, then as an MPP and, of course, as the first woman mayor of the city,” Horwath said Tuesday during a tearful address to reporters.
“I want to thank everybody for that honour. I’m really proud of the work that we did.
“This is a city that I love and that’s been an honour to serve,” Horwath said, her voice breaking.
WATCH | Horwath speaks publicly for 1st time since election loss:
Outgoing Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath says it’s been an ‘honour’ to serve the city
On Tuesday afternoon, Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath gave some remarks at Hamilton city hall after losing to Keanin Loomis and coming in third after Rob Cooper in the 2026 mayoral race.
The one-term mayor finished third Monday, securing 14.53 per cent of the vote, according to the unofficial results. Rob Cooper, a city councillor this last term, received 31.87 per cent of the vote and 41.77 per cent went to mayor-elect Keanin Loomis.
Horwath said she spoke with Loomis and offered to help in any way she can down the line. She congratulated him, the seven councillors who were re-elected and the eight new ones.
“Being a mayor is a big job. It’s a big responsibility, but it’s also a big privilege. I can say, from experience, that when you have lots of new people coming onto a council, it’s also a bit chaotic, and so I’m wishing them all the very best,” she said.
“The winds of change have blown across Ontario,” Horwath said, referring to a number of new people in elected positions. Cities including Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Port Colborne chose new mayors.
Since amalgamation in 2000, Hamiltonians have only re-elected one mayor in consecutive terms: Fred Eisenberger, who won in 2014 and 2018.
“People just wanted a change,” Horwath said when reporters asked if she was disappointed with the results or what went wrong in the campaign.
She said there were “tough times” in her term, including the pandemic, a cyberattack on the City of Hamilton and working with several new councillors.
Horwath said she was proud of being Hamilton’s first woman mayor, and of her work to bring investment to the city and to work with other levels of government. She hopes those efforts will continue.
Horwath hopeful for city, bad for her staff
Looking ahead, Horwath said a lot more conservatives were just elected to city council, which “will be an interesting change.”
She said she feels Hamilton is in “a lot better shape than I found it,” and that she’s hopeful.
Horwath hedged when asked if politics are still in her future, saying she’s unsure, but “never say never.”
For now, she said, “I’m gonna take a break for sure, have some fun maybe,” and get “some sleep.”
She noted that for her staff, this is an uncertain time as political staffers often lose their jobs when mayors change.
“I feel bad for them. They served well. Thank you.”
‘People were in the mood for a change’
Marvin Ryder, a McMaster University professor of marketing, said he thinks “people were in the mood for a change” this election.
“We’ve seen that in many mayoralty races in Ontario where people said, ‘I’m not happy with status quo, let’s look for an alternative.’
“I think [Loomis] was in the right place at the right time,” he told CBC News on Tuesday, noting the challenger had name recognition from the 2022 mayoral election, when Horwath beat him by about 1,600 votes.
Peter Graefe, a McMaster politics professor, said last week he thinks Horwath will be remembered as the city’s first mayor on the political left in a long time, but also someone “who was unable to really communicate how she was bringing things forward for the left in the city,” and lost support.
“There were real shortcomings in her mayoralty in terms of ensuring her re-election,” he said. “That too will probably be part of her legacy.”