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MPP Jim Bradley is the new Niagara Regional Chair

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Long-time politician and former Liberal MPP Jim Bradley has been elected as Niagara Regionalal Chair.

There were three candidates running but Bradley crushed his competition taking 19 of 31 votes.

A shadow has loomed over council the last four years and Bradley knows it’s going to take hard work to restore faith and credibility.

“I think it’s going to be very important to return that trust to show integrity, to show civility, transparency, openness,” said Bradley.

Now the repair work begins and it starts with sorting through tumultuous times and the ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman involving Carmen D’Angelo.

Under fire is the 2016 selection process in which D’Angelo is said to have been fed answers to questions he was going to be asked during the hiring process and his subsequent contract extension which included a termination clause worth a million dollars.

Another cloud that hung over the previous council was the often controversial remarks made by Andy Petrowski and his mass emailing of a pornographic photo from his government issued iPad. Petrowski chose not to run again in October’s election.

Bradley is no stranger to political conflict. He’s served as Liberal MPP since 1977. The past four years he has represented St. Catharines at Queen’s Park.

He says this next venture is about transparency and regaining trust across the region.