because he said the city's ridership levels were too low to support light rail – a position which brought him into opposition with some members of the council. Hamilton City Council approved the city's Rapid Ready LRT plan in February 2013, but Bratina but continued to speak out against it. After an interview with The Hamilton Spectator, the paper said that he had incorrectly claimed Premier Kathleen Wynne had told him Hamilton would have to choose between LRT and a Stoney Creek GO Train extension, but Bratina said that he had been misquoted by the paper. In April 2013, city councillors Jason Farr and Sam Merulla claimed that Bratina had attempted to intimidate Hamilton's City Manager, Chris Murray during a heated debate on light rail. After the city council voted to refer it to the Integrity Commissioner, the subsequent report cleared Bratina, finding that while his actions "not appropriate," they did not violate the Council Code of Conduct because neither Murray nor other city employees present had felt threatened. Bratina did not run for reelection in the city's 2014 municipal elections, opting instead to seek nomination as a Liberal candidate in the 2015 Canadian federal election. According to CBC News, despite conflicts with council, Bratina's term as mayor saw the completion of a new stadium, development in the downtown core, low tax increases, and a move to solve the impasse in the local Randle Reef project. In October 2015, a report by the Manning Centre on the dynamics of Hamilton City Council during Bratina's tenure found that the mayor was the only member of the council to have attended every council meeting, and that despite conflict with council, Bratina had always voted with the majority on the council. Federal politics After opting to not contest Hamilton's mayoralty in 2014, Bratina was rumoured to be seeking the Liberal Party's nomination to run as a candidate in Hamilton Centre. Having previously been approached by the Liberals to challenge Hamilton Centre's New Democrat incumbent David Christopherson in 2009, speculation focused on Bratina's potential candidacy in the inner-city riding. In August, 2014, Bratina announced he was seeking the Liberal nomination in the neighbouring riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, challenging New Democrat incumbent Wayne Marston. Bratina was acclaimed the Liberal candidate for the riding on October 29, 2014. In campaigning for Parliament, Bratina emphasized a platform of serving as a strong voice on Parliament Hill