Walter Sendzik (born February 28, 1972) is a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of St. Catharines from 2014 to 2022. As mayor, he sat on

Niagara Regional Council The Niagara Regional Council is the governing body of the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but i ...

. Sendzik did not run for a third term in the

2022 Niagara Region municipal elections Elections were held in the Niagara Region of Ontario on October 24, 2022, in conjunction with municipal elections across the province. Niagara Regional Council Fort Erie Mayor The results for mayor of Fort Erie were as follows: Regional co ...

, and was succeeded as mayor by Mat Siscoe.

Career

Prior to being elected, Sendzik was the general manager of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. He had been with the Chamber of Commerce for seven years. Prior to this, he founded Vines Publishing, a publishing company specializing in wine and travel, including ''Vines'' magazine. He sold the company in 2005. He also served as president of the Niagara Wine Festival. He holds a B.A. from

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

and a master's degree from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. Sendzik was first elected as mayor in 2014 on a platform of youth retention, employment diversification, and attracting well paying jobs. The position was an open one with the previous mayor, Brian McMullan retiring. Sendzik defeated future NDP MPP

Jeff Burch Jeff Burch is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election.bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

and the "urban centre" of the

Niagara Region The Regional Municipality of Niagara, also colloquially known as the Niagara Region or Region of Niagara, is a regional municipality comprising twelve municipalities of Southern Ontario, Canada. The regional seat is in Thorold. It is the southern ...

. He was re-elected in 2018 running on a record of economic development and investing in infrastructure. He was re-elected, winning 72% of the vote. After being re-elected, one issue Sendzik had to deal with were the layoffs at

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

, one of the largest private sector employers in the city. Also during his second term, St. Catharines experienced a housing boom after increased

GO Train GO Transit rail services are provided throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The GO Transit rail fleet consists of 90 MPI MP40 locomotives and 979 Bombardier BiLevel Coaches. In , the system had ...

connections to the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sendzik, Walter Mayors of St. Catharines Living people 1972 births Canadian book publishers (people) Canadian magazine publishers (people) Writers from Ontario Wilfrid Laurier University alumni McGill University alumni