#HamOnt Votes 2010: Is Chad Collins facing a serious challenge?

[![Chad Collins, Confederation Park Warden](http://www.joeycoleman.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-09-08-300x228.jpg "Chad Collins, Confederation Park Warden")](http://www.joeycoleman.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-09-08.jpg)Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton’s second longest service member of City Council may be defeated tonight.

Chad Collins is facing his strongest competitor since 1995 when he was first elected to Hamilton City Council.

Jaswinder Bedi has been running a strong organized campaign in Ward 5 against the man whose power rivals that of the mayor on Hamilton’s City Council.

Bedi enjoys the endorsement of the Hamilton and District Labour Council and a united Riverdale community.

Collins on the other hand is wearing the millstone of both incumbency and being one of the Councillors responsible for turning the Pan Am stadium debate into a fiasco.

In January, Collins used his control of Council to remove Confederation Park from the list of potential stadium sites to be considered.

Collins told The Spectator he’d rather lose the Pan Am games than allow for the stadium in his Ward. Collins nearly got his wish when the Tiger-Cats and the City of Hamilton clashed over the stadium location.

The tainting of the process by Collins, in what was described in the opinion pages of The Spectator as “as one of the stupidest council decisions of this term.”

Advance voter turnout in the Ward is update 69% – the highest increase in the City.

While the additional 400 votes are barely a dent in the 7355 vote margin of victory Collins enjoyed in 2006, they are an indicator that Bedi’s campaign is able to push voters into the polling booth.

This is a race that I’ll be watching closely tonight.