Mike Bradley (politician)

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Mike Bradley
66th Mayor of Sarnia
Assumed office
1988
Preceded byRon Gordon, interim
Sarnia City Alderman
In office
1985–1988
Personal details
Born (1955-07-20) 20 July 1955 (age 68)
Adelaide, Australia
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPolitician
Website[1]

Michael Bradley (born 20 July 1955) is a Canadian politician, who has served as the mayor of Sarnia, Ontario since 1988, and the 66th person to hold the office. He is the longest-serving mayor in Sarnia City Council history and currently the second longest-serving mayor in the province of Ontario behind Milton's Gord Krantz.

Politics[edit]

Prior to his entering elected office, he served as executive assistant to Sarnia—Lambton MP Bud Cullen. With this experience, Bradley made the decision to first run for public office in 1984, trying to take Cullen's soon to be vacated seat. He was nominated by Cullen's Liberal party as candidate for Sarnia—Lambton but finished second to Progressive Conservative Ken James.

Bradley then turned his eyes to municipal politics. He was elected alderman in 1985 and decided to run for mayor three years later upon the death of Mayor Marceil Saddy. The 1988 municipal election featured four council members running for the mayor's position; the other three were Doug Bain, veteran alderman Wills Rawana, and alderman Elizabeth Wood. Bradley won re-election in 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2010, in particular defeating the 1988 interim Mayor Ron Gordon a second time in the 1994 election. On 27 October 2014, Bradley was elected as mayor for his ninth consecutive term.

In 2010, the Ontario Disability Employment Network approached Bradley about issuing a challenge to other mayors to employee individuals with disabilities.[1]

Active politician[edit]

Bradley is quite visible in his role as mayor, in both his formal roles and in other casual circumstances. He has appeared on many parliamentary committees on behalf of the municipal sector, and has made numerous media appearances, including a regular stint as a discussion panelist on Ontario Morning, CBC Radio One's local morning show in Southern Ontario. A lengthy interview with him in his office at Sarnia City Hall also appeared in Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Columbine.[2]

As commentator[edit]

Bradley is a frequent media commentator on local, provincial, national and international issues. He has appeared on Prime Time News Town Hall Series with Jean Chrétien; NBC News with Tom Brokaw; CNN; CBC Radio Noon; Focus Ontario; As It Happens; and the current CBC Radio shows. He appears on CBC's Ontario Morning Mayors' Panel and was a regular on the national CBC radio show The Point. Bradley appeared in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and was called by Moore "The Voice of Reason". He writes a column for Sarnia Lambton This Week—a mixture of humour, politics and about life—called "Open Mike", which was described by the London Free Press as "having more laughs than a Dave Barry column." Bradley, a long-time Bruce Springsteen fan, contributed to two books about Springsteen in 2007 and 2009—For You and The Light in the Darkness—by Lawrence Kirsch. Mike Bradley also appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin in his series "Growing Sarnia."

Bradley was also interviewed by Kevin McShan, a graduate of the St. Clair College Journalism program who now has his own YouTube channel. McShan did an interview on 14 May 2015 on the YouTube channel "What does Windsor Need to do to hire more individuals with Disabilities?" Bradley mentioned, "Well simply, they can look at student hiring, we have had over 60 students in a population of 75,000 in the last four years who were challenged. It continues to grow and now the County and other agencies along with the private sector. So the city has to show leadership and I will be sending out at the end of the month to all Mayors and Council the new Mayor's challenge which will give them an opportunity to show how good it is and how simple it is to do so."

He also mentioned, "In order to continue this positive momentum forward, it's all about maintaining environments where everyone has the opportunity to watch their fingerprints in the sand of independence and equality." This interview was done on 30 May 2015 in the YouTube video, "Sarnia Leads by Example: Hiring individuals with disabilities." This was also done by Kevin McShan as well.

Bradley was also interviewed on The Alim Show (done by Alim Nathoo who was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario) on 100.3 Sound FM CKMS Radio Waterloo CKMS-FM on 23 February 2016 where he talked about his advocacy for hiring People with Disabilities and how people need to do the right thing by allowing them to participate fully in society. He also mentioned the importance of all cities to have all public transit buses to have "Stop Announcements" and how it is the law to have that in the Province of Ontario. He also mentioned that he has hired People with Disabilities at Sarnia City Hall and ensured all citizens have equal access for jobs and services in the City of Sarnia and the Province of Ontario.[2]

Controversy[edit]

In the summer of 2016 Sarnia City Council approved of a 90-day suspension of Bradley's pay following an integrity commissioner's recommendation. The report concluded that Bradley verbally abused, harassed and bullied city employees creating a "toxic environment at city hall" which lead to abrupt resignations of Sarnia's city clerk and planning director.[3]

Council decided on 24 October 2016 to relocate Mayor Mike Bradley's office to the Sarnia Transit building until a new office can be built for him at City Hall away from staff. During the emotionally charged meeting, some members of the public in attendance heckled Council for continuing to penalize Bradley.[4]

The restrictions were lifted by council on March 4, 2019.[5]

Electoral record[edit]

Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2022 Unofficial[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 12,561 59.34
Nathan Colquhoun 8,608 40.66
Total Valid Votes (Turnout) 21,169 40.4
Reference:[6]


Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2018 Unofficial[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 16,238 64.42
Anne Marie Gillis 7,569 30.03
Kip Cuthbert 592 2.35
Fred Ingham 397 1.57
Total Valid Votes (Turnout) 25,207 48.9
Reference:[7]

Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2014[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 13,174 66.39
James J. Carpeneto 4,811 24.24
Jake Cherski 1386 6.98
Fred Ingham 473 2.38
Total Valid Votes 20,207 37.10
Reference:[8]

Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2010[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 12,453 69.83
John Vollmar 4,424 24.81
Zak Nicholls 566 3.17
Carlos Murray 390 2.19
Total Valid Votes 18,106 33.07

Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2006[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 12,623 57.06
Joe Murray 6,421 29.02
Dick Carpani 2,747 12.42
Carlos Murray 332 1.50
Total Valid Votes 22,336 42.00
Reference:[9]

Source: Sarnia Lambton Votes

Sarnia municipal election results (Mayor), 2003[edit]

Candidate Vote %
Michael Bradley (X) 13,707 66.62
Rose-Ann Nathan 5,716 27.78
Tom Hurst 623 3.03
Carlos Murray 330 1.60
Hermann Martens 198 0.96
Total Valid Votes 20,924 37.02
Reference:[10]

Federal[edit]

1984 Canadian federal election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Ken James 24,066 54.6% +19.8%
Liberal Michael Bradley 11,313 25.7% -14.9%
New Democratic Julie Foley 8,538 19.4% -5.1%
Independent Douglas O'Dell 90 0.2%
Independent Fred Kahanek 51 0.1%
Total valid votes 44,058 100.0%

Source: Elections Canada

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hamilton, Natalie. 2010. "Sarnia issues challenge to Ontario mayors to employ people who have a disability" Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine axiomnews.ca (alt link)
  2. ^ a b "Jolt for declining towns". National Post, 5 March 2010.
  3. ^ "City council approves 90-day suspension of Bradley's pay following integrity commissioner's recommendation".
  4. ^ "880 Edmonton". Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Sanctions (mostly) scrapped | London Free Press".
  6. ^ "City of Sarnia - 2022 Election Results - Official". 24 October 2022.
  7. ^ "City of Sarnia - 2018 Election Results - Unofficial". sarnia.ca. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018.
  8. ^ Sarnia municipal election results 2014
  9. ^ Sarnia municipal election results 2006
  10. ^ Sarnia municipal election results 2003

External links[edit]