Hamilton’s municipal election will be held on Oct. 26, 2026, and six candidates are registered to run for Ward 15 City Councillor (East Flamborough-Waterdown): Chase Alford, Mary Kovacs, Ted McMeekin, Colleen Stewart, Zac Wrobel, and Jeff Yaeger.
TED MCMEEKIN (INCUMBENT)
Campaign Email: ted@tedmcmeekin4ward15.ca
Campaign Website: www.tedmcmeekin4ward15.ca
Ted McMeekin’s website says that he was born and raised in Hamilton.
He graduated from Mohawk College, McMaster University, and Wilfrid Laurier University.
He was elected to Hamilton City Council in 1977, representing the Central Mountain, serving two terms.
In the early 1980s, Ted and his wife moved to raise their family in Flamborough, Waterdown, and Carlisle.
He has served as the Executive Director of the Burlington Social Planning Council, Chair of Part-Time Studies at Mohawk College, and was a local business owner who ran Waterdown’s Chapters bookstore.
He also served as Vice President of the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce and Chaired the Waterdown BIA.
In 1994, he was elected Mayor of the Town of Flamborough. He was elected again in 1997.
He was then elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in a by-election and served from 2000 to 2018.
He represented the ridings of Ancaster–Dundas–Flamborough–Westdale and Ancaster–Dundas–Flamborough–Aldershot and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.
In the 2018 Ontario election, he placed third and NDP candidate Sandy Shaw was elected.
In 2022, he was elected as City Councillor after incumbent Judi Partridge announced she would not seek re-election.
During this term of Council, McMeekin voted in favour of increasing City of Hamilton property taxes by 5.85 per cent in 2023 and by 5.79 per cent in 2024, the 2023 and 2024 Hamilton Police Service budget, the stormwater fee rain tax program, the Encampment Protocol, which allowed encampments on public property including parks, the Vacant Unit Tax, and the plan for 40 tiny homes on the city’s Barton-Tiffany lands.
He voted against ending the city’s poet program in 2025 amid a 5.6 per cent property tax increase and pausing AI data centre applications for one year.
More details on his voting record can be viewed on a new website called www.hamiltoncouncilwatch.ca.
CHASE ALFORD
Campaign Email: chase4ward15@gmail.com
Campaign Website: www.chase4ward15.ca
Chase Alford’s website says that he moved to Waterdown in 2001 with his mother and sister after the sudden passing of his father.
He attended Waterdown District High School and then the University of Guelph, earning a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences with a minor in Ecology.
He went on to manage large-scale agricultural production across New Brunswick and Chatham Kent before moving back to the ward.
His website says that the ward is paying “Cadillac property taxes for horse-and-buggy services.”
His “Four Pillars” are infrastructure and roads, fair taxation, community safety, and environmental conservation.
MARY KOVACS
Campaign Email: mary_kovacs@hotmail.com
Campaign Website: Not Available at Publish Date
Mary Kovacs’ Facebook page states that she is a long-time Ward 15 resident, community advocate, and professional Ontario saxophonist.
Her posts also say she is committed to “protecting vulnerable fixed-income seniors from unfair housing costs,” “securing fair tax-dollar funding for our rural roads and infrastructure,” and “keeping libraries, recreation, and community halls fully funded.”
COLLEEN STEWART
Campaign Email: ward15.colleenstewart@gmail.com
Campaign Website: www.colleenstewart.ca
Colleen Stewart’s website says she is a wife, mother, and business owner.
She says that she has been active through volunteering, through her church, acting as a parent officer and chair of her son’s school council, and engaging in “neighbourhood activism.”
She is the founder of Perfect Pitch Consulting, a storytelling consultant for businesses.
She was born in British Columbia and raised close to Trenton Air Force Base in Belleville, Ontario, but then moved to Burlington.
She recently moved from Burlington to Waterdown.
She graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Journalism.
Her website states that she will “fight the property tax insanity,” with other platform points including increasing police presence, fixing roads, and building a recreation centre.
ZAC WROBEL
Campaign Email: zacwrobelward15@gmail.com
Campaign Website: www.zacwrobel.com
Zac Wrobel says he grew up just two kilometres from Waterdown, moved to Hamilton in 2012, and to Ward 15 in 2020 just north of Carlisle.
He attended Mohawk College’s Police Foundations program.
He worked as a private investigator and security guard before his current job in the landscape and irrigation industry.
His website says he is a husband, father, and “working guy who’s tired of seeing residents ignored while taxes keep going up and traffic keeps getting worse.”
JEFF YAEGER
Campaign Email: jeffyaegerward15@gmail.com
Campaign Website: www.sites.google.com/view/jeffyaegerward15
Jeff Yaeger’s website says that his hometown is Elmira, Ontario and that he and his wife have lived in Waterdown since 2013. He has five adult kids.
He primarily worked blue-collar and factory jobs from 1979 to 1990 before earning his Business Administration Diploma from Wilfrid Laurier University.
He then spent about 15 years with life insurance companies, four years with insurance software companies, four years with EQHS software, two years in electronic health records, five years with compliance software, and two years with social media management software as a senior product manager.
He lists his top priorities as value for taxes, roads and infrastructure, and community safety.
ELECTORAL HISTORY
2010 Election: Judi Partridge was elected with 52.72 per cent of the vote (3,396 votes), with Neil Bos second.
2014 Election: Incumbent Judi Partridge was elected with 69.23 per cent of the vote (3,879 votes), with Neil Bos second.
2018 Election: Incumbent Judi Partridge ran for re-election after unsuccessfully running for the Ontario Liberal Party in the 2018 election, where she came third with 15.44 per cent of the vote. Partridge was elected with 51.61 per cent of the vote (3,471 votes), with Susan McKechnie second with 48.39 per cent (3,255 votes).
2022 Election: After Partridge announced she would not seek re-election, Ted McMeekin ran and won with 43.83 per cent of the vote (3,091 votes), with Zobia Jawed second with 34.76 per cent (2,451 votes).
WARD DESCRIPTION
As of the 2021 census, the ward had 31,855 residents.
Ward 15 East Flamborough–Waterdown and includes Mountsberg, Carlisle, Progreston, Millgrove, Blacks Corners, and Waterdown.
The ward’s northern border is Hamilton-Halton town limits, while the southern border is Highway 6, Millgrove, and Millgrove Sideroad.
The western border is Puslinch Townline Road and the eastern border is the Hamilton-Burlington town limits.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
