For the first time in more than a decade, Welland voters will pick a mayor without an incumbent on the ballot. Frank Campion isn’t seeking re-election, and the open seat has drawn eight candidates: a mix of sitting and former politicians, community activists, and first-timers.
The stakes are higher than usual. Under the province’s Better Regional Governance Act, Niagara Regional Council is being reduced to 12 local mayors plus a provincially appointed chair. That means whoever wins on Oct. 26 will also be Welland’s only voice at the Region and will hold the strong-mayor powers that now come with the job.
Turnout in 2022 was about 26 percent. Advance voting runs Oct. 5 to 9, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Civic Square, 60 East Main St.
Here’s a look at all eight candidates, in alphabetical order, and what they’re running on.
Natashia Bergen: people first
Bergen grew up in Saskatchewan and moved to Welland in 2021. She ran for the Green Party in 2025, and her campaign points to a background in horticulture and agriculture, senior care and support work with vulnerable residents. She’s pitching herself as a grassroots, people-first candidate who knows what it’s like to be on the wrong end of the system.
Cost of living sits at the top of her platform. While she acknowledges the city can’t control grocery prices, she wants Welland to back community food programs, urban farming and local markets, lower fees for small vendors so residents aren’t relying only on the big grocery chains, and expand community fridges, food hubs and school nutrition programs. On health care, she’d press the province for more investment and to keep the Welland Hospital open, and support mobile clinics and community health hubs. On housing, she’s promising to fast-track affordable and supportive housing, adopt a Housing First approach to homelessness and put more effort into keeping people housed before they hit a crisis.
Campaign website: natashiabergen.com
Pat Chiocchio: experience and accountability
Chiocchio spent more than 14 years on Welland city council before winning a regional council seat in 2018, and he’s leaning on that 22-year record. That regional seat disappears after this election under the new governance model.
His campaign is built around eight priorities under the banner of safe streets and a stronger community. On the accountability side, he wants performance targets for every major city program, regular public reporting, spending tied to measurable results and ongoing efficiency reviews. On public safety, he’s promising closer work with police, an expanded CORE crisis response program, more visible patrols and more money for mental health prevention. Housing, homelessness and affordability round out his core pitch, along with health care, transit access and the environment.
Campaign website: patformayor.ca
David Clow: back on the ballot
Clow is a familiar name to Welland voters. He ran for mayor in 2018, losing to Campion, and was then barred from municipal office after failing to file financial statements from that campaign. This is the first election he’s been eligible for since.
A community activist and founder of The Hub, a youth arts initiative in Welland, Clow has made social media the centre of his campaign, hosting live check-ins where he debates residents and pushes for grassroots civic involvement. A detailed written platform wasn’t available in published coverage at the time of writing.
Campaign website: none listed with the City of Welland; contact davidj.clow@gmail.com
Gary Graziani: a view from the building department
Graziani is a political newcomer who has worked for the City of Welland as a building inspector and property standards officer, giving him a look at city hall from the staff side rather than the council table.
His campaign is built around affordability and taxes, infrastructure, accountability, transparency and community pride. He says his goal is to make sure Welland residents get the highest standard of service from their city. His published platform is lighter on specifics than some of his rivals’, so voters looking for detail may want to reach out to his campaign directly.
Campaign website: garygraziani.ca
April Jeffs: an outsider with a mayor’s résumé
Jeffs is the only candidate who has already been a mayor, serving two terms in Wainfleet from 2010 to 2018. Since then, she’s been appointed chair of the Niagara Parks Commission, worked in government relations at Brock University and served as secretary of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. She also ran provincially for the PCs in 2018 and federally for the Conservatives in 2019, and managed the constituency office for Niagara Falls MP Tony Baldinelli. A Niagara College tourism graduate, she ran her own photography business for more than 20 years and raised two sons as a single mom, which she says taught her how to stretch a tight budget. She sits on the Welland Hospital Task Force, chairs the Niagara Source Water Protection Committee, and says she fought to keep the Welland Hospital open while she was a mayor.
Her campaign, run under the banner of a stronger Welland, rests on four main commitments. On taxes, she says property bills keep climbing and points to her Wainfleet record of keeping them low. On spending, she argues city budgets have gotten out of control and says her experience will help her cut what isn’t needed. On homelessness, she says the problem is getting worse and is holding the downtown back, and she’s pledging to work on bringing it down. And on council itself, she argues Welland’s current council has been distracted and ineffective, and promises to manage it so it’s working for residents.
Jeffs is selling that mix as her biggest strength: she has run a council and a budget before, but has never sat at Welland’s council table, which she says gives her a fresh look at the city’s problems. Her campaign hasn’t yet attached specific targets to those commitments, such as a cap on tax increases or a detailed homelessness plan.
Campaign website: apriljeffs.ca
David McLeod: the budget chair
McLeod is giving up his Ward 2 council seat to run. He’s chaired the city’s budget for seven years and spent two years as deputy mayor, and he’s making that inside knowledge of city finances central to his campaign. His message focuses on economic growth, arguing Welland hasn’t made the most of its natural advantages, from its location to its canal lands, and that doing so would bring more jobs and prosperity to the city.
Campaign website: mcleod4welland.com
Brandon Simon: new ideas, no donations
Simon is a first-time candidate with a background in child and youth care, human rights and work with at-risk youth, including in schools, treatment facilities and youth custody settings. He later ran a technology company as CEO. He’s also been open about his own past: he says he was left homeless at 23 after losing his only caregiver, which shapes his approach to the issue. He’s running with no party ties and says he’s funding his campaign himself rather than taking donations.
His platform is one of the most detailed in the race. He wants to keep property tax increases below inflation, freeze the mayor’s salary for the full term, and give tax breaks to landlords who rent at least 30 per cent below market while working to prevent renovictions. On homelessness, he’d replace the overnight shelter with a 24-hour Work-to-Live community offering housing, meals, job help and mental health support. Other planks include a rental certificate program, a MyWelland app that would let residents vote on major city projects and report problems, regular livestreamed town halls, renovation grants and free permits to turn homes into student housing near downtown, and neighbourhood crews, drawn partly from Ontario Works, to fix potholes, graffiti and park upkeep.
Campaign website: mayorsimon.ca
Graham Speck: the in-house critic
Speck has represented Ward 5 since 2018, owns a Welland screen-printing business with six local employees, and sits on the Welland-Pelham Chamber of Commerce, the downtown BIA board and the Niagara Central airport commission. He has also run federally as a Conservative.
Despite eight years on council, Speck is running against the way city hall currently operates, saying he’s often clashed with the administration and wants a city hall that’s careful with tax money, owns its decisions and is easier for residents to reach. His platform lists seven issues: the mayor’s budget, Welland’s role at the Region, homelessness, protecting farmland, the Welland Hospital, new development and parking, and taxes and corporate culture at city hall.
Campaign website: grahamspeck.ca
Election day is Monday, Oct. 26. Candidate contact information is posted on the City of Welland’s elections page at welland.ca.
