Something interesting is happening in municipal politics across Niagara this fall. A solid group of retired police officers is on the ballot, with some running for the first time and others looking to keep their seats.
Policing and municipal government are very different jobs. Still, a good cop spends a career making decisions, dealing with people from every walk of life, settling disputes, and learning that complicated problems rarely have simple fixes. Six Niagara candidates are bringing that experience to the ballot this October.
For the Mayor’s chair
Kevin Gibson, Wainfleet
Kevin Gibson has the broadest policing résumé of the group. He spent 34 years with the RCMP, working in general policing, emergency response, serious-crime supervision and human-trafficking investigations, and eventually commanding a detachment. The job took him from British Columbia and the Yukon to Toronto and Bangkok, and he worked on security planning for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
He knows municipal government too. Gibson was Wainfleet’s mayor from 2018 to 2022. His first two budgets raised local taxes 9.7% in 2019 and 9.2% in 2020, which may be why he lost a close race in 2022 to current Mayor Brian Grant.
If he wins the job back, Gibson will sit on the revamped Niagara Regional Council as one of 12 mayors. That means dealing with the Niagara Regional Police Service Board, which he already serves on as a provincial appointee.
Erwin Wiens, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Erwin Wiens’ story is tied closely to the community he wants to lead.
He was born and raised in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL), the son of immigrant farmers. After earning a criminology degree, he spent 31 years policing with Peel Regional Police and Hamilton Police. Then he went back to his agricultural roots. He and his wife Dorothy bought a farm; he got involved with the Grape Growers of Ontario, and in 2023 he was named Niagara’s Grape King. He’s also volunteered as a firefighter in Virgil.
Wiens has been on NOTL council for eight years now, four of them as Deputy Lord Mayor. He brings a unique mix to the job as a former cop, a farmer, and an experienced councillor.
His platform focuses on keeping municipal spending and keeping taxes in check, protecting agriculture, building a stronger year-round economy, and development that respects both local character and what the infrastructure can handle. He’s also firmly against amalgamation.
What stands out most about Wiens is how much ground he’s covered. He’s enforced the law, grown grapes, fought fires, sat on council and represented NOTL on a long list of regional organizations. His campaign pitches all of that as preparation for the Lord Mayor’s chair.
Tom Insinna, Fort Erie
Fort Erie mayoral candidate Tom Insinna pairs 30 years with the RCMP with experience in regional government. He’s a Crystal Beach native, and his policing career included criminal intelligence and recruiting work.
For the last two terms, Insinna has been Fort Erie’s regional councillor. In that role, he used his knowledge of how police forces actually run to suggest cuts to the Niagara Regional Police budget that wouldn’t touch frontline services.
He’s running on five priorities: healthcare, affordability for taxpayers, jobs and investment, safer streets and sensible housing growth. On public safety, he wants to use social-service partnerships to cut down on repeat non-emergency calls so frontline officers can focus on policing.
Jim Diodati, Mayor of Niagara Falls
Jim Diodati was never a cop himself, but policing runs in the family. His brother Ryan was appointed deputy chief of the Hamilton Police Service on November 3, 2019, and his brother Rich has been a Toronto police officer for more than 30 years.
Paul Manning, Mayor of Niagara Falls
While Manning has served as a police officer, his website provides no details of his career.
From policing to the council chamber
Three more retired officers are running for council.
Brian Eckhardt, Pelham’s current Deputy Mayor and Ward 2 councillor, put in 36 years with Niagara Regional Police, including time as an inspector and divisional commander. Since being elected in 2022, he’s emphasized being accessible to residents, attending meetings and promoting safer streets, and he sits on Pelham’s Finance and Audit Committee.
Terry Thomson, running for Niagara Falls council, retired from NRPS as a Detective Sergeant after 27 years. He set up the force’s Prescription Drug Unit and helped start a prescription-drug drop-off program that later spread beyond Niagara. He’s also coached kids for decades and spent ten years with Brock University Campus Safety. He’s running on fiscal responsibility, public safety, infrastructure, responsible development and year-round tourism. He believes we need to get drug addicts into withdrawal management programs rather than just leaving them on the streets.
Dan Moody, also running for a Niagara Falls council seat, spent 32 years in policing. After that, he served as a municipal Sergeant-at-Arms and as an elected Catholic school board trustee and vice-chair. His campaign is built around public safety, integrity at City Hall, fiscal responsibility and being an independent voice.
Add it all up, and these former cops have well over a century of policing between them, most of it spent dealing face to face with people, problems, accountability and tough calls.
However the vote goes, it’s not often you see this many people take what they learned on the street, in the detachment and in the community into the council chamber.
