Media Release: Ian Thompson Announces his Intentions to Run in Ward 11

Ian Thompson Announces His Intentions To Run In October 2018 For The Ward 11 City Council Seat

WINONA - September 12, 2017 – Over the past several months Ian Thompson has been approached by a number of people inquiring if he has ever thought about running for public office. After many conversations with his family, friends and neighbours, and considerable deliberations with community organizations, community leaders and residents, Ian has come to learn that there is a growing appetite for change with the representation at City Hall. Today, Ian Thompson is announcing that on May 1st he will register as a candidate to run in the October 2018 Municipal Election in Ward 11 (Winona, Rural Upper Stoney Creek, Binbrook, Mount Hope).

“Neighbourhoods throughout Ward 11 are and continue to be under-serviced. Increase in vehicle
crime, speeding, a failed promise of a splashpad in Mount Hope since 2011, and, shockingly, even with the residential boom, there is still no gas station in Binbrook. These are just a few of the residents’ concerns”

“Greater fiscal responsibility is needed by our city elected representatives. Wasteful spending of tax payer’s dollars, $260,000 for a consultant’s report on Ward boundaries (which was then rejected by the Council), $30,000 in taxpayers money spent on lunches for the Council, and thousands of dollars in unnecessary travel by both Councillors and their staff. These are just a few examples.”

Biography

Born at McMaster Hospital in 1974, Ian Thompson has been a lifelong resident of Hamilton, Ontario. As a child he grew up as part of the Locke Street community and as a teenage resided in Dundas, Ontario. When he married, he moved to Hamilton East and currently resides in Winona, Ontario with his wife Melissa (née Spadafora) and their three children Fiona (10), Anthony(8), and Nathan (5).

Ian attended Earl Kitchener Elementary School, Ryerson Middle School and Westdale Secondary School. He attended McMaster University where he earned a Combined Honours Degree in Political Science and Labour Studies. After a short career in provincial politics, Ian returned to school where he obtained his Masters in Adolescence Education from Daemen College in Amherst, New York.

After graduating from McMaster University, Ian worked for Dominic Agostino, Member of Parliament for Hamilton East and Judy Marsales, Member of Provincial Parliament for Hamilton West. During this time he was elected as a school trustee for two terms with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School. He has also sat on the Board of Directors for the Hamilton Entertainment Convention Facilities Incorporated. In 2006, Ian left politics and continues to work as a teacher.

Volunteering for the McMaster Children’s Hospital has been a passion for Ian and wife Melissa. At the age of 2, their son Anthony was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy which resulted in over 20 seizures a day for close to a year. Through treatment from the paediatric neurology team at the McMaster Children’s Hospital, Anthony’s seizures were stopped. In gratitude and to give back and to help other children and families fighting this terrible disorder, Ian and his wife have raised over $220,000 for the McMaster Children’s Hospital 2G Clinic Paediatric Neurology, epilepsy research, much needed EEG upgrades for paediatric emergency ward and most recently a Cerebral Brain Function Monitor (reads oxygen levels in the brain for premature babies) for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.