BREAKING: Councillor Lori Lococo challenges Jim Diodati for mayor’s chair in Niagara Falls

In a move that promises to shake up the 2026 Niagara Falls mayoral race, Lori Lococo, an incumbent who initially registered to run for a third term as a city councillor, has pivoted at the eleventh hour to challenge Jim Diodati for mayor. 

“People want a City Hall that listens. They want transparency, accountability, and a council culture where different perspectives are welcomed rather than dismissed,” Lococo said. “I am ready to bring my experience, independence, and commitment to residents to the role of mayor.”

Despite local rumours swirling in May that she would be seeking the mayor’s job in October’s municipal election, Lococo dispelled the notion by filing for council on May 1, the day nominations opened. 

In an exclusive interview with The Pointer, she indicates that her original thought was running for mayor in 2030, with no intentions this term. 

“I like being very organized and usually have a plan right from the beginning. I would not normally make such a change but since May 1, there's been a lot of changes in our community and what residents are looking for,” she explained. “People are turning their minds towards the election and are wanting something different. Many members of the community, since I filed (for Council) have approached me and asked if I would bring my skills and experience to the role. I think it is the right time.”

Lococo says she also sought out the opinions of “trusted friends, confidants, and mentors” before making her decision to switch. 

She is facing the most formidable of opponents in Jim Diodati. An aggressive campaigner who advertises extensively, he topped the polls as a councillor in the 2003 and 2006 elections, before defeating incumbent mayor Ted Salci in 2010.

Since that time, he has faced limited opposition, other than the 2018 election when he brushed aside long-time Niagara politician Kim Craitor by more than 5,600 votes, achieving 58 percent of the votes cast. 

Leading up to Lococo’s filing, Diodati’s opponents in October’s election were three candidates without elected experience: Kevin Martineau, a barber; Gary Baker, a retired mechanic, who twice ran unsuccessfully for Council; and Paul Manning, a former undercover officer, who wrote of his experiences in the book Ten Seventy Eight: A Tale of Mafia Power and Police Corruption.

Despite his election success, Diodati has been criticized for his support of municipal amalgamation; cozying up to Premier Doug Ford in the last provincial election; his council’s heavy-handed approach to Integrity Commissioner complaints; calling police on peaceful protestors inside council chambers; and his “politainment” style. 

Seeking his fifth straight mayoral term, Diodati has made it clear that he wants to preside over the ribbon-cutting when the South Niagara Hospital opens in Niagara Falls, slated for 2028. 

When asked by The Pointer what events since May made her change her mind, Lococo mentions the “air wheel proposal”, referring to the Province’s Destination Niagara initiative that called for a new Ferris wheel to be located in the natural setting of Queen Victoria Park, despite the existence of the SkyWheel on Clifton Hill. Approximately 1,200 residents attended a town hall hosted by Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates in early July, many voicing their opposition to the proposal.

“A lot of our residents were very disappointed in how it was handled. They believe that we do not need another Ferris wheel, especially in Queen Victoria Park. Queen Victoria Park should be preserved, in my opinion, and in a lot of residents’ opinions,” Lococo said.

Despite growing calls to oppose the new observation wheel, Mayor Diodati did not explicitly come out against the proposal until a social media post a couple of hours before the town hall meeting. “Exciting news for @niagarafallsontario! Harry Oakes has proposed to modernize and replace our current Niagara SkyWheel, stepping up to answer the call from Destination Niagara while simultaneously preserving the iconic natural views & green space within @niagaraparks. There won’t be a second Ferris wheel in Queen Victoria Park,” announced Diodati.

When asked if there was a failure of municipal leadership on the issue, Lococo responded: “I don't know if he led on the issues, but I think there was certainly an opportunity to ask more questions, to bring up the residents’ concerns.” 

The lack of information and the lack of public input on the Destination Niagara initiative have left Lococo concerned. 

“The Province is looking at more casinos. When the first casinos came, it was because we had a referendum to ask our residents if they wanted them. The residents today are just feeling like they're not being heard, that they don't have a voice, that the council does whatever they want, whether the residents want it or not. I want to listen to the residents and come up with different ideas,” Lococo says. 

"I will bring a new style of leadership and a new way of doing things at City Hall with positive collaboration, diverse opinions from councillors and the community," Lori Lococo tells The Pointer. 

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer files)

A former court reporter and law office administrator, Lococo says she was often nervous around the lawyers. She joined Toastmasters International, the organization that builds confidence and teaches public speaking skills and learned that the organization also had a leadership track that eventually led to her being on Toastmasters’ Board. 

After her Board experience, Lococo wanted to apply the skills she developed in her own City, and set her sights on running for City Council in the 2014 municipal election. 

She attended council meetings, took notes, educated herself on the role of a councillor and conferred with community organizations. 

Despite it being her first election, much of the evening when the votes were being tallied, it looked like Lococo might squeak into the eighth and final position on council. She finished with 6,392 votes, in ninth (9th) place, a little more than 600 votes out of position on council. An impressive showing for a first-time candidate in a crowded field of 33 candidates.

Though she was disappointed coming so close, Lococo had no doubt that she would try again in the next election. She continued to attend Council meetings to learn the intricacies of municipal politics and meeting procedures and continued to familiarize herself with local organizations.

The theme of educating herself has been a constant for Lococo. She has enrolled in various courses offered by the Association of Municipal Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO), usually the purview of municipal bureaucrats. Lococo also has a certificate in Alternate Dispute Resolution from Niagara College.

Lococo finished fourth in the council race in 2018 with 7,666 votes. 

In 2022, she increased her vote total by more than two thousand, garnering 9,667, an impressive feat considering voter turnout plummeted in the 2022 election. Lococo finished second; she and Mike Strange were the only candidates who received more than 50 percent of votes cast in the election.

Despite her success at the polls, Lococo has often been a lone voice on the Council, even when she is merely proposing that Council receive more information on an issue before them. 

“When I was first elected and Council didn't approve my motion, or I couldn't even get a seconder, I was upset, and I thought, ‘why am I here?’ After a while, I thought about it in a different way. I thought the most important thing is I'm bringing it up, and the residents are feeling heard. I have a voice and I’m bringing awareness,” she says. 

One of the main sources of frustration for Lococo is the lower-tier municipality being forced to deal with provincial or regional issues.

“We need the hospital, but it's a regional hospital. I am concerned about the amount of money that the City of Niagara Falls has contributed to the hospital. We started off at $22 million. We went to $30 million. The infrastructure around the hospital to sustain it is another $27 million. We paid $11 million for the land. When you look at the amount of other contributions from the other municipalities, we are contributing a lot for something that is a provincial responsibility.”

When asked what her priorities would be as mayor, Lococo mentions affordability first, related to both taxes and the need for more housing. She mentions her advocacy for participatory budgeting, which has been incorporated into the municipality, offering residents an opportunity to prioritize some Parks & Recreation projects. She would like to see even greater opportunities for resident input. Lococo has also proposed zero-based budgeting, in which all expenses must be justified. When she raised it in the past, Mayor Diodati responded with a shrug, “either we raise taxes, or we cut services”.

On housing, Lococo notes that the municipality has been forced into an issue that is in the purview of the upper-tier Niagara Region. She notes her so far unsuccessful efforts to get the municipality to consider “tiny homes” with social supports on-site and how Chatham-Kent received an award at AMO for a similar proposal. 

On the City’s proposed development at 4500 Park Street that is to have affordable and attainable bachelor units, she notes, “(Park Street) is still an empty parking lot, so perhaps we should be doing something different (to achieve the promised affordable housing at the site).” 

The recent flooding in the region has Lococo pondering whether the municipality has the infrastructure to support future development. 

“We’ve signed a pledge to build 8,000 homes in ten years, not to mention 12 million more visitors that are projected with Destination Niagara. Can our infrastructure support it?” She asks. “I don't have all of the answers right now, but I think digging in and finding out the answers and being transparent and up front with our residents about what the possibilities are, at the outset, and most importantly, how can we address the residents’ concerns?”

In the interview, Lococo regularly returned to the need for the municipality to be more open and transparent, saying residents “do not want us backtracking and trying to explain things later”. 

She also wants reports on whether the municipality is getting value for some of the expenditures it is making, something she says has been currently lacking, pointing specifically to the Niagara Falls Innovation Hub. 

“Twelve million has gone into the Innovation Hub and $700,000 annually from the municipality’s OLG funds, but what return are we getting?”

She stresses she is not anti-development but wants to ensure development in the community is sustainable. 

“We do need to focus on business and residents. Fiscal responsibility is very important, and I think we can be spending our money in a very different way that would improve the lives of our residents,” Lococo says.

When asked how a municipal administration under her would be different and why people should vote for her, she replies, “I will bring a new style of leadership and a new way of doing things at City Hall with positive collaboration, diverse opinions from councillors and the community. I want people to feel that their voice matters, that we're here to serve them…Residents are telling me that they want to change. I can provide the skills and experience to lead over the next four years. My focus will be the residents.”  

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