Thirteen candidates are certified for mayor of Hamilton, and 76 for the 15 council seats

The field

Nominations for Hamilton's 2026 municipal election closed at 2 pm on August 21, 2026, and the City certified candidates on August 24. According to the City's certified-candidate list, 13 people are running for mayor and 76 are running for councillor across the city's 15 wards. Those counts leave out candidates the City marks as withdrawn; withdrawn names stay on the published list with that label.

The certified mayoral candidates, as the City lists them, are Sasha Austin, Ejaz Butt, David Mark Cherkewski, Rob Cooper, Paul Fromm, Scarlett Gillespie, David Harrison, Andrea Horwath, Erin Janus, Keanin Loomis, Pamela Mitchell, Kevin Walker and Nathalie Xian Yi Yan. Andrea Horwath is the current mayor.

Council races by ward

Ward 10 has the largest field, with 11 certified candidates. The City's page of current councillors lists the Ward 10 seat as vacant, so no incumbent is shown for that ward. Wards 12 and 14 have the smallest council races, with two candidates each.

School board trustees

Voters also elect school board trustees. The City lists English public and English separate trustee races by trustee area, and each area covers between one and three wards. Excluding withdrawn candidates, the list names 27 English public trustee candidates and 19 English separate trustee candidates. One candidate is listed for Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and one for Conseil scolaire Viamonde.

What happens next

Election Day is Monday, October 26, 2026, and the term of the new council begins on November 15, 2026. The certified list is a live page; when HamiltonIQ last checked it, on October 8, 2026, it had last been modified on September 11, 2026. The City's own page is the authority on who is on the ballot.