The Garden City Refugee

The First Contender

May 2, 2026

Friday, May 1 marked the first official day candidates could register for the upcoming municipal election. With the recently announced changes in governance at the regional level, this could be one of the more interesting municipal elections in recent memory as the current crop of regional councilors will all be out of work. Many of them will be seeking other positions, creating a lot of competition within each respective lower-tier municipality.

There is perhaps no office in Niagara more in need of competition than the mayor of St. Catharines. Mat Sendzcoe Siscoe, who currently occupies the position, badly needs to be replaced. In the understatement of the decade, his tenure has been nothing short of a disaster. He campaigned on affordability, accessibility and accountability and has failed miserably on all three points. He has been so far over his head that he couldn’t see daylight with a periscope.

So I found it interesting that on Day One, a candidate emerged in the person of Ann-Marie Zammit. That’s good, I thought. At least Sendzcoe Siscoe will have to go through the charade of campaigning and won’t get reappointed by acclamation, as what nearly happened last time until Mike Britton stepped up to put his name on the ballot.

AMZ, as she calls herself, has a nice website. A good start, I thought. Full marks to whoever designed it for her.

But further research is leaving this voter seriously disappointed.

For starters, she uses pronouns in her Facebook profile. And it all goes downhill from there. Her “vision,” as articulated on her website, contains an oversimplistic, Pollyannish list of “solutions” that all involve more government intervention. Completely ignoring the fact the government is the root cause of many, if not all, of those problems.

As part of her vision of downtown, she asks rhetorically, “What if the City repurposes empty buildings, hires staff, and operates transitional housing? What if the City invests in the CTS site to not only keep it operational, but expand operations?”

Did she really suggest that the City needs to hire more staff? And does she really think the City can magically cure all of what ails downtown and its residents?

She has a similar vision for the former GM site. “Wouldn’t you want the City to assume the risks to keep you safe?” she asks. Words of a cradle-to-grave socialist. Not surprisingly, she also thinks more government intervention is the key to the housing crisis. Instead of stopping making everything so unaffordable, her solutions involve exacerbating the problem with more taxes.

Her vague vision on the new model of governance for Niagara mentions nothing of removing the near-dictatorial powers our current council gives City staff. And instead of getting runaway spending under control, she trots out the tired old line about how the province is downloading responsibilities to municipalities, thus increasing the pressure on taxpayers. Yawn.

“Access to elected officials is often challenging, convoluted, and restricted. Rules at council meetings do not allow for substantive discussions, leaving citizens feeling limited in having a meaningful connection and the ability to fully speak to whatever is on their mind,” she said. I couldn’t agree more. And while I’m pleased she committed to returning phone calls and emails and not blowing off taxpayers the way Sendzcoe Siscoe does, she failed to mention how or if she would address the issue of wildly overpaid City staff, who have long since forgotten that they are supposed to serve us and not the other way around, actively censoring and shadow-banning taxpayers on the City’s social media channels.

Finally, she states, “Being an elected official requires setting aside personal agendas, and making a full commitment to serving everyone in the community in the best way possible.”

Clearly, in her view, “everyone” doesn’t involve taxpayers, the most underserved and underrepresented group in the city. She is yet another politician who will put tax recipients first. Taxpayers can go take a hike. Just like it is with Sendzcoe Siscoe. That’s not challenging the status quo. That’s cementing it.

As I’ve said before, I’d sooner gargle with motor oil than vote for Sendzcoe Siscoe. But AMZ actually makes him look good. All I can hope for is that she’ll be able to suck off some votes from Sendzcoe Siscoe’s far-left base, leaving the door open for someone good. Or at least half-decent.