HAGERSVILLE—Marie Trainer is a name well-known to long-time residents of Haldimand, serving as mayor of the Town of Haldimand for a decade before it incorporated and again as mayor of Haldimand County from 2003-2010. She is one of five candidates vying for the role of Ward 4 Councillor in the upcoming by-election.
The role would be a return to roots for Trainer, who began her political career locally in 1985 as Hagersville’s councillor.
Trainer’s roots in the community run even deeper, with her family first settling in Ward 4 back in 1861. A widower with three grown sons, Trainer also ran Hagersville Tire Service Ltd. on Main Street South for 25 years and a cow/calf operation “after work.”
Recently, Trainer has been a vocal opponent of Council’s Nanticoke MZO request, speaking against it at an April 27 public consultation meeting with concerns that area industries could be “chased out of Haldimand County”, a possibility she sees as a top issue.
Trainer commented on the public consultation process: “I was appalled at how disrespectful Council members treated the public constituents who made presentations. The messages were clear. Save our industrial employment area. Don’t chase tax paying industry away. Don’t take 10,000 jobs out of Haldimand County. Please listen to Stelco and the union members to keep the 3km buffer zone intact.”
Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley urged Council to defer the MZO vote until after the by-election, so that the new councillor could participate, but Council proceeded as scheduled and the MZO request was maintained with a 4-2 majority.
Trainer notably supported and campaigned for Councillor Natalie Stam in last fall’s municipal election, prior to Stam’s resignation for health reasons. Trainer said her decision to run in the by-election was influenced by several friends who asked her step up and “finish out her term.”
If elected, Trainer wants to ensure Hagersville’s in-development Active Living Centre has “space usable for all”. She praised the community’s involvement in the project so far, noting “several needed improvements have been added because of suggestions and requests of the community” from an atrium to additional storage to an OPP office, for which Trainer would want to approach the Province for funding. She concluded, “The emphasis must be on keeping our youth busy, plus the enjoyment of our seniors.”
She cautioned that with rising inflation, the County would be wise to “finish our current projects as quickly as possible since every delay causes the price of completion to increase due to the inflation.”
On the proposed Sandusk development, Trainer said, “I believe consultation with the residents who will be most affected is needed before the development is even allowed.”
On other issues of note, Trainer listed the need for wider shoulders on Concessions so people can pass farm equipment and a concern that medical sharps drop off bins should remain “attached to municipal buildings, but not to businesses unless they request them.” The latter comment echoed concerns made recently by a Hagersville business owner who had a sharps disposal unit placed next to his establishment on County property.
While Trainer has made many positive impacts over her decades of service in local politics, she was also no stranger to controversy in her time as mayor. In 2005, Council voted unanimously that Trainer had harassed her then-assistant, Janice McLachlan, with McLachlan eventually receiving a $175,000 settlement after she launched a $1.37 million wrongful termination suit against Trainer and the County in 2007.
Trainer also gained national notoriety for divisive comments made during Indigenous protests in Caledonia in 2006, stating in a CBC interview on road blockades delaying the construction of the Douglas Creek Estates development that Caledonia residents “have to get to work to support their families. If they don’t go to work, they don’t get paid and if they don’t get paid then they can’t pay their mortgages and they lose their homes…. They don’t have money coming in automatically every month…. They’ve got to work to survive, and the natives have got to realize that.” Following the comments, Haldimand Council voted to replace Trainer with then-deputy mayor Tom Patterson as spokesperson on the matter.
The Ward 4 by-election will take place on June 19. Visit haldimandcounty.ca for more information on how and where to vote.
See previous profiles on other candidates online at haldimandpress.com and stay tuned next week for a review of the candidate debate, taking place June 8.
