Ward 9 city councillor Brad Clark is the newly minted candidate for the Conservative Party in Hamilton East Stoney Creek.
The news came late Saturday night when the Hamilton East Stoney Creek Conservative riding association changed the name of their campaign to the Brad Clark campaign.
Clark’s personal domain, www.bradclark.ca, was changed from his 2010 municipal reelection campaign website to a redirect to the riding association website.
Rob Silenzi (@RobSilenzi) had been the Conservative candidate since being quietly nominated by the riding association just before Christmas 2009.
He was campaigning during the lead up to the election call and there was no discussion of him stepping aside, making the change of candidates a bigger surprise than it otherwise would be.
News of Clark replacing Silenzi only started to spread very late Saturday night and thus far, not many people are aware of the change. (Being after 2:00am now, I’m unable to get reaction.)
Update* – *27 Mar 11 @ 14:44 – The Spectator reports Silenzi resigned the nomination in January. The Conservative website for the riding continued to list him as the candidate as of Friday. *****
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Just after midnight Sunday morning, Incumbent Hamilton East Stoney Creek NDP MP Wayne Marston posted on Facebook:
“Day one of the Campaign. Visited several timmies then 4 Hours in two food courts of major malls. Great reception all around. Wonderful evening, I attended an India Canada Society Dance presentation. Latest news recently re-elected Hamilton City Counsellor Brad Clark is our Conservative competition.“
If elected, Clark could join David Christopherson in holding the Hat Trick of Hamilton politics – experience at City Hall, Queen’s Park, and on Parliament Hill.
Clark represented Stoney Creek at Queen’s Park during the second term of the Mike Harris government as a Cabinet Minister. He was defeated in 2004 by Jennifer Mossip. He ran for City Council in 2006 winning the Ward 9 seat which he was reelected to during the 2010 Municipal election.
What does this mean for the Hamilton East Stoney Creek race, can Clark make it a competitive race? I’ll ponder this and update in the morning.
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Update – 27 Mar 11 @ 13:30
Both 900CHML and The Spectator have picked up the story. CHML is going with “Hamilton councillor trying for federal seat” while The Spectator is looking into the story with the hopes of getting confirmation from Clark himself “Is Brad Clark jumping into the federal race?”
As for Clark himself, he responded to a congratulatory message posted on his Facebook page by Mark-Alan Whittle stating “Thanks, you’re always ahead of everyone else. remember nothing official. God Bless”
