Seven candidates running for Norfolk mayor

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Norfolk County residents will be spoiled for choice in this fall’s municipal election.

A last-minute entrant brought the total number of candidates running for mayor in the rural county to seven.

Ken Gilpin, a Simcoe resident who ran for the People’s Party of Canada in the 2021 federal election in Haldimand-Norfolk, filed his nomination papers to run for mayor on the last day for potential candidates to register.

Gilpin joins a crowded field featuring several mayoral candidates with political experience.

Doug Brunton and Adam Veri currently sit on council, representing Simcoe and Port Dover, respectively.

Brunton is a two-term councillor who was previously head of public works for the Town of Simcoe. Veri, a community organizer, is in his first term on council.

Norfolk native David Finch, a spiritual-care provider and registered psychotherapist, was a three-term councillor in Grimsby, first elected in 2000.

Noel Haydt represented the Port Rowan area on council from 2014 to 2018. The business owner - who fell short in a bid to return to council in a 2021 byelection - has been publicly endorsed in his mayoral bid by former Norfolk mayor Kristal Chopp.

Former three-term Haldimand County mayor Ken Hewitt is running to lead Norfolk. The former Hagersville resident now lives in Turkey Point.

Hewitt finished third in his quest to continue as Haldimand’s mayor in 2022, a few months after he ran provincially as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Haldimand-Norfolk and lost to independent candidate Bobbi Ann Brady.

In the 2025 federal election, Hewitt ran as a Conservative in the Hamilton Mountain riding but lost to Liberal incumbent Lisa Hepfner. He recently resigned as a member of the Ontario Land Tribunal to run for mayor in Norfolk.

Retired RCMP staff sergeant Keith Milner has not held elected office but touts his experience in law enforcement and as a business owner in Port Dover as qualifying him to lead Norfolk  as mayor.

Realtor Rhyus Reeves registered to run for mayor but withdrew his candidacy.

“I think it’s good that we have a lot of interest,” Norfolk-based political scientist Shanaya Vanhooren said of the seven-person mayoral field.

“It is crowded, but I think it remains to be seen who the more fringe candidates are and who the more serious candidates are,” Vanhooren said.

“We know that anyone who’s an incumbent or has name recognition in the community is likely to benefit.”

The mayor’s chair became vacant when Mayor Amy Martin announced in May she would not seek re-election after she and her husband welcomed their first child.

Norfolk will therefore have another new mayor following single terms in office for Martin, Chopp and Charlie Luke.

FEWER WOMEN ON THE BALLOT

That all seven mayoral candidates are men reflects an overall dip in diversity on the ballot in Norfolk.

During the 2022 municipal election, one-third of the total candidates - 10 of 30 - were women.

This year, just eight of 33 total candidates - roughly a quarter - are women.

Vanhooren, who studies municipal government at the Canadian Municipal Barometer, said a survey of municipal politicians in Ontario conducted by her organization found harassment - especially online - to be “the biggest barrier” to people thinking of entering politics, particularly women and visible minorities.

In Norfolk, seeing the sexist vitriol directed at Chopp and Martin during their terms in office “can make you think twice about running for council,” Vanhooren said.

There are guaranteed to be at least three new faces around Norfolk’s council table after the election on Oct. 26, with Veri and Brunton running for mayor and Delhi-area councillor Mike Columbus retiring after a 40-year career in municipal politics.

After several months passed with only one candidate registered in four of Norfolk’s seven wards, a flurry of late entrants ensured there will be competition in all wards.

Norfolk residents can hear from the seven men who would be mayor during debates at the Delhi German Home on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. and the Port Dover Community Centre on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.

 J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.