It is hard to imagine that he would have anything good to say about what Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Conservative government are doing to our democracy at the municipal level today.
A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted September 28th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
Jim Bradley in his final months in a decades long stint as an elected public servant, sitting as Niagara Regional Chair.
It still seems hard for me to believe that Jim Bradley – (now here comes a m0uthful) a former St. Catharines city councillor, then a St. Catharines Liberal MPP who went on to become one of the longest serving MPPs, if not the longest serving MPP in the provincial legislature, an Ontario environment ministry for the former Liberal Government of David Peterson, considered by legendary environmental activist David Suzuki as the best person who ever served in that role, and last but not least, Chair of the Niagara Regional Council for most of the past eight years – left us a year ago this past September 25th following a stroke and a diagnosis of liver cancer
Today, as I find myself still coming to terms with the fact that I can’t pick up the phone and hear his voice on the other end saying in his own deferential way as he answered; “Mr. Draper. …,” I can’t help but wonder what he might have to say about Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s plans to gut the number of seats on Niagara’s regional council from more than 30 down to 12 mayors and one Chair, the ladder of which is appointed by Ford with powers to override whatever the mayors may decide to do.
To make matters even less democratic for we, the people of this region, the votes of the mayors would be “weighted” according to the populations of their municipalities, meaning that if the mayors of the largest municipalities join together and vote a certain way on an issue, it doesn’t matter at all how the mayors of less populated municipalities like Fort Erie, Pelham, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Grimsby, Thorold or Wainfleet decide to vote.
Jim Bradley,back around the time in the 1980s when he was Ontario’s oh so progressive Minister of Environment, ushering in a whole host of measures for protecting a preserving our natural world.
The mayors in the less populated municipalites might as well stay home in their own municipalities and work with their local councils to do the best they can for the people living in them.
I think it is a pretty safe guess to say that Jim Bradley, even though he was appointed by Ford to a second term as Niagara’s Regional Chair (a move I know from talking to him that he didn’t like) after being elected to his first term in that position by a majority of the other elected regional councillors, would be 100 per cent opposed to what Ford is doing now to dismantle our democratic system of government at the municipal level.
Sad to say that few other municipal representatives in Niagara are showing any will or courage to openly speak out against what Ford and his autocratic government are doing to the democracy that so many Canadians from past generations fought and died for..
Because of that, and for many other reasons, I miss Jim Bradley.
May he Rest In Peace. Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
To read a tribute Doug Draper wrote for Jim Bradley, following his death in September of 2025, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2025/10/02/jim-bradley-was-remains-the-best-environment-minister-this-province-and-country-have-ever-had/
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