and continuing his fight for increased transportation funding for the GTHA corridor. Bratina was elected on October 19, 2015, with 38.8% of the vote, defeating Marston, who placed second with 32.7%. The Canadian Press touted Bratina as a potential member of the 29th Canadian Ministry led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, because of his experience in Hamilton's municipal government. In February 2017, a private member's bill introduced by Bratina after the Flint water crisis to create a national strategy to manage lead contamination in drinking water reached the committee stage. In February 2019, Bratina, while in a meeting with union representatives for local steelworkers, allegedly lost his temper when challenged by union representatives about his promise to advocate for Hamilton area steel workers. The union stated that Bratina shouted "F--k steelworkers" and "F--k those Stelco pensioners" before telling them to get out of his "(expletive) office" then violently slamming the door behind them. On February 28, 2019 neighbouring MP Scott Duvall claimed Bratina "verbally abused the delegation; attempted to physically intimidate them by striking various pieces of furniture and violently slamming his office door; insulted and disparaged the organization, including the retirees of Stelco Inc., and expelled them from his office". Bratina later said he regrets the "inferences" that came out of a meeting. In May 2021, Bratina announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2021 Canadian federal election, citing his disagreement with the federal decision to contribute 1.7 billion dollars to the Hamilton LRT as a major reason. In an exit interview, Bratina criticized the project's cost and its lack of connections to the GO Transit transit and also left the door open to a future mayoral run. Personal life Bratina's wife of fifty years, Carol, sang with his former group the Balkan StringsTamburitza Orchestra, now disbanded, in which he played the brač, clarinet, saxophone and accordion. Bratina was an avid marathon runner, finishing 18 marathons, including the Boston Marathon, ten Around the Bay Road Races in Hamilton, and numerous other distances. At 70 years of age, he challenged the 40-year-old mayor of Flint, Michigan, to a mile race at the 2013 Canusa games. Electoral record Federal Municipal |- style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |Popular vote |- style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" | style="text-align:center;" | Votes | style="text-align:center;" |% | style="text-align:center;" |±% |- | style="background-color:#3FFF00;" | | style="text-align:left;" | Bob Bratina | style="text-align:right;" |52,684 | style="text-align:right;" |37.32% | style="text-align:right;"