Hamilton Mayoral Candidate: Ejaz Butt

Ejaz Butt’s platform focuses on supporting the unhoused community, building the LRT and fostering accountability at City Hall 

The Silhouette sat down with Ejaz Butt to discuss his campaign for mayor in the 2022 Hamilton municipal election.  

Butt first ran for mayor in the 2014 Hamilton municipal election. After years of being a proactive citizen in Hamilton politics, Butt discussed how he felt it was time to become involved and build his platform. He was particularly motivated to run for mayor and give back to the city after observing deficits in tax policies and a lack of transparency and accountability in Hamilton City Hall.  

Many may recognize Butt from his unique car, which he has decked out in merchandise as advertisement for his campaign. Butt has been involved in the taxi industry for over 20 years and currently works as an Uber driver, providing him with many unique advertisement opportunities. 

Butt has a 20 point campaign agenda which he explained was formulated based on feedback from citizens. A few significant focuses of this agenda include affordable housing and rent capping, investing in more shelter homes for the unhoused population and turning attention towards youth facing affordability challenges. 

“Young professionals and entrepreneurs are facing an economic crisis due to volatile and high interest rates and affordability of housing. [The youth] need more attention at this time,” said Butt.  

Additional focuses of Butt’s campaign include updating police stations with more modern technology, revitalizing downtown areas, keeping urban boundaries firm, cleaning contaminated water and finishing the LRT project.  

When discussing the LRT, Butt explained despite over a billion dollars put towards the project, very few results have been seen. It is important to Butt to ensure tax dollars are being put towards their appropriate use. 

“The main problem is in City Hall, [specifically] in the planning and development department where most of the corruption is done. I may not root out the corruption, but at least I can reduce it. If elected, I will freeze the property taxes for four months, because we have already gone through a lot,” said Butt.  

Butt highlighted the ongoing housing crisis in Hamilton and the lack of resources available to combat the issue. He detailed how issues within shelters, such as unsafe environments or lack of security, also make these resources inaccessible for many citizens.  

Lastly, Butt explained his campaign strives to centre Hamilton youth and their economic future. He expressed the urgency of addressing the housing and affordability crises as soon as possible, as remaining complicit will only harm young people entering the workforce, such as McMaster University students.  

“The youth are leading us into the future. My generation has already done our time. If our young entrepreneurs are not looked after, we will see more homeless people on the streets,” said Butt.  

Ejaz Butt is running for mayor in the Oct. 2022 municipal election. His candidate profile has be posted as part of a series the Silhouette is running to build student awareness about the municipal election. Candidate profiles will continue to be posted in alphabetical order over the next few weeks. Election Day is Oct. 24 and more details on how to vote can be found here.