Peter J. Kelly

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Peter J. Kelly
Peter J. Kelly
Incumbent
Assumed office 
2000
Preceded by Walter Ronald Fitzgerald

Peter J. Kelly is the current mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. Kelly is the second mayor of HRM, serving in this capacity since beating the incumbent Walter Fitzgerald in 2000. He was re-elected by a massive majority in 2004.

Peter Kelly was active in the municipal politics of Bedford, Nova Scotia and served as that town's last mayor prior to the amalgamation of Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996. From 1996-2000 he served as a municipal councillor on the Halifax Regional Council.

A proponent of public transportation in the growing metro area, he is an advocate of commuter rail on existing and abandoned railway corridors in the area. He is also in favour of high speed ferry links between various locations on Halifax Harbour with the downtown central business district.

Kelly has been deeply involved in the process that saw the beginning of the Halifax harbour cleanup process, set to see sewage treatment facilities open in 2006 after 250 years of treatment-free sewage in the harbour.

Some critics, such as his challenger in the 2004 election, have charged that he has ignored downtown Halifax, to the detriment of the entire region's economic growth and has taken to micro-managing the city rather than providing a broad strategic view. Kelly responds that he has attempted to balance his attention between all areas of HRM as is his mandate.

Kelly won 100,625 votes in the 2004 election. His closest rival, Victor Syperek, a local businessman vowing to focus on the downtown core, won 12,448. Mike Flemming, a school board trustee, and Ernie Brennan, a city planner, finished with 6,994 and 2,254 votes respectively. Together, the three challengers received just 20 percent of the vote.

In the inaugural season of CTV's Canadian Idol, Halifax's Gary Beals squared off with Kingston's Ryan Malcolm for the Idol crown. Kelly and Kingston's mayor made a bet, where the city of the Idol-runner up would have to sing O'Canada on Canada AM. Beals lost.

Kelly also has a history of making, and winning, bets with CBRM Mayor John W. Morgan regarding the ongoing hockey rivalry between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

Kelly is approachable in personality, and dislikes formalized protocol.[citation needed]