Brad Harness, publisher of the Burlington Independent, plans to run for the Ward 2 seat in 2026

By Pepper Parr

November 4^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

There are at least two and a possible third person running for City Council in 2026

Yesterday we reported that a tip from a usually reliable source had Lawson Hunter running for Ward 2.

That was not correct and we have apologized to Lawson Hunter for our error.

Brad Harness, publisher of the Burlington Independent is pulling together information and building a team that includes former members of what was once known as BRAG and is now operating at Focus Burlington.

The information that made its way to the Gazette reads:

In 2018 Brad Harness was working to organize a new provincial party, hoping to field candidates in 36 ridings for the 2018 Ontario general election.  The Consensus Ontario party he said would function differently from the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, the New Democrats and even the Green Party. They would instead identify priorities that voters want their provincial government to tackle. “It’s bottom-up representation.” said Harness

Hi Eric & Steven,

This is a wonderful job you have done here. I like data, and I insist on public consultation – and councillors representing their constituents’ priorities.

I do hope city council reads this, takes it at face value (as helpful input from residents) rather than ignoring it.

This report will be very useful as I build my Ward 2 campaign and team.  It certainly echoes what I have already heard from many people.  Let’s meet in the next fortnight to discuss this report in detail.

Also, I want to give this space somehow (it is long) in the Independent so our readers can listen to their neighbours concerns. Often people are shy to speak out until they see others doing so.

Question: Eric, is there a way to do a similar survey focus on Burlington’s publicly-funded schools (English & French, Public & Catholic) to see what people are thinking?