Bob Bratina

His Worship Bob Bratina
Former Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina
56th Mayor of Hamilton
In office December 1, 2010 – December 3, 2014
Preceded by	Fred Eisenberger
Succeeded by	Fred Eisenberger
Personal details
Born	1943/1944 (age 70–71)[1] Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal Party of Canada[2]
Other political affiliations	Ontario Liberal Party[3]
Profession	Radio Broadcaster

Bob Bratina is a Canadian politician who served as the 56th Mayor of Hamilton, Ontario. Prior to becoming mayor he represented Ward 2, which encompasses the city's downtown core. Mr. Bratina is the acclaimed Federal Liberal candidate for the riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.^[4]

Biography

Bratina was born and raised in Hamilton. He is of Serbian and Croatian ancestry.^[5][6][7][8] After graduating from Delta High School, he worked with Dofasco for two years as a lab technician. Always wanting to work in radio, he found his first broadcasting job at CJCS Stratford in 1965 and went on to become one of Canada's most successful and versatile on-air personalities. Bratina was the morning show co-host with Shiona Thompson on CHML Radio in Hamilton, until September 2010, when he decided to resign his co-host job to run for Mayor of Hamilton. At times he has achieved record high ratings (BBM 22 Share) of all morning shows in Hamilton. He also re-introduced phone-in talk radio to CFRB, and achieved highest listenership (120 thousand per quarter hour average) in Toronto in his time period.

Bratina was also the play-by-play voice of Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Toronto Argonauts for a total of 20 seasons, and never missed a broadcast for more than 500 games. He also broadcast McMaster Football and Basketball games, and was commentator on junior hockey broadcasts in Kitchener (CKKW) and Senior A hockey in Guelph (Regals).

The Balkan Strings featuring Bob Bratina, Hamilton Wingfest 2008

He is a member of the Football Reporters of Canada Hall of Fame, Queen's Jubilee Medal Winner for lifetime community achievement, nominee for Hamilton Citizen of the Year, Hamilton Mountain Citizen of the Year, member of GO Transit Board of Directors, Art Gallery of Hamilton Board of Directors, Theatre Aquarius Board of Directors, and HECFI Board of Directors.^[9][10]

Mayor and musician Bob Bratina playing hydraulophone at the Hamilton Children's Water Festival, 2012 May 30th

Bratina is also an avid marathon runner (18 marathons, including Boston Marathon), Hamilton's Around the Bay Road Race (10 times, PB 2:07:07 age 45) 1/2 marathon 1:26; 10K 37:45; 5K 17:30 all after the age of 44. As a musician, Bob performs with the Balkan Strings Tamburitza Orchestra, playing brac, clarinet, saxophone and accordion.

Bob is married to Carol, a teacher, artist, and singer with the Balkan Strings. They have one son, Sam, a university student who has completed degrees at McMaster University and the University of Waterloo.

Municipal politics

Bratina entered the 2004 by-election created when the previous councillor for Ward 2, Andrea Horwath, entered provincial politics. Since being elected, he has fought for more citizen participation at City Hall, downtown revitalization and more integrity.^[11]

Bratina has had some notable successes as ward councillor. His push to return rail passenger service to its historic location at James Street North has been approved and funded by the province. His concerns over high lead readings in city drinking water has resulted in a lead water service replacement loan program, which allows residents to replace their lead service line and pay for it through their taxes over a ten-year period. He also instigated a lead blood screening program for young children to determine if lead is entering their bodies at levels that may affect their health. He developed a plan to move idling buses from the downtown Gore Park area to provide better connections for riders to GO transit and other city bus routes. A new state-of-the-art community centre to service one of the city's neediest neighbourhoods will be constructed as part of the new Dr. Davey School in Beasley, in Hamilton's inner city. A $7 million infrastructure project at the GO Centre on Hunter Street will provide more train service for Hamilton commuters and better on-time performance. He was instrumental in moving forward the redevelopment of the Education Centre property into a project that may see a downtown McMaster Faculty of Family Medicine, a new public health facility, and potentially a new headquarters facility for the Board of Education. He has consistently been rated as one of Hamilton's most trustworthy politicians by readers of View Magazine. Conversely, he has been criticized for unprofessional conduct during his term on council, although the only support for this criticism was he once tossed a pen during a council meeting.^[12]

Bratina did not run for reelection in October 2014, but says that he probably would have won if he did.^[13]

Federal politics

Bratina is currently running to be the Member of Parliament for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek. Bratina would like to return a strong government voice to Parliament Hill and continue the fight for increased transportation funding for the GTHA corridor. ^[14]

Bratina was acclaimed the Liberal candidate for the riding on October, 29th 2014. He has been touted as "game changer" for the Liberals in the riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.

See also

• Hamilton, Ontario City Council

Notes

Mayors of Hamilton, Ontario Ferrie Tiffany Distin Fisher Holden Ford Kerr Cummings Magill Cummings Moore Mills McKinstry McElroy Magill Charlton Clark O'Reilly Murison Chisholm Charlton Roach Kilvert O'Reilly Magill Mason McKay Doran McLellan Blaicher A. Stewart Tuckett Colquhoun Teetzel Hendrie Morden Biggar T. Stewart McLaren Lees Allan Walters Booker Coppley Jutten Treleaven Burton Peebles Wilton Morrison Lawrence Jackson Copps Agro MacDonald Powell Morrow Wade Di Ianni Eisenberger Bratina Eisenberger