Andy Fillmore didn’t learn bad habits at city hall. He brought them with him.

Before Andy Fillmore was Halifax’s mayor, he was Halifax’s MP. For nine years, he sat in the House of Commons, learned how public institutions work, and, in my opinion, understood better than almost anyone what the rules are and why they exist. He wasn’t a newcomer to public life when he took the mayor’s chair in November 2024. He was a seasoned professional who had been collecting a public paycheque for nearly a decade.

Which is exactly why what has unfolded since then is so hard to excuse.

A few days ago, Halifax’s Auditor General referred financial irregularities in the mayor’s office to the RCMP. Four transactions were found to violate city procurement policy: two consulting contracts, one worth roughly $90,000 to reorganize his own office, another nearly $14,000 for a speechwriter awarded without competitive bidding. Two external legal bills totalling close to $7,700, paid without proper approval, recorded under the wrong budget line even after staff were told the correct process. Fillmore reimbursed the legal fees out of his own pocket. The RCMP’s Commercial Crime Section is now actively investigating. He says it was a learning experience. But here’s the problem with that explanation, I think: Andy Fillmore’s learning experience should have happened twenty years ago.

In the summer of 2024, Fillmore announced he was leaving federal politics and immediately launched a mayoral campaign while still serving as an MP, drawing his federal salary and operating out of his riding office. He didn’t formally resign his federal seat until September, more than two months into his municipal campaign. His staff, including the woman who would later become his mayoral chief of staff, were seen at campaign events. He used his MP letterhead to intervene in a local bike lane dispute a purely municipal matter in a way that boosted his campaign profile. He told the public no federal resources were used. He never produced a shred of documentation to back that up. His opponents called it unethical. Political scientists said the optics were a serious problem. Fillmore shrugged it off and won the election and carried that same posture into the mayor’s chair.

The pattern once he arrived. Within months of taking office, he recorded an Instagram video from his car publicly urging residents to pressure councillors to reverse a council vote, a potential breach of the municipal code of conduct. Then, in July 2025, he went on CBC and told the public that the mayor “reports to the CAO,” that Halifax’s unelected chief administrative officer holds the power. The CAO herself had to formally write to all of council to correct him. Two residents filed code-of-conduct complaints. An independent consultant found they had merit. A second code of conduct investigation was underway. All of this while preaching austerity to everyone else. Fillmore spent months demanding departments cut spending and “do more with less” while the budget for his own office quietly climbed by roughly 16 percent. Halifax was staring down a potential 9.3 percent property tax increase. Residents are being asked to absorb service cuts. The man asking them to sacrifice followed none of his own advice.

Nine years. No cabinet. No consequences. Fillmore served three terms as a federal Liberal MP and never reached cabinet. He left Ottawa as the Liberals were imploding in the polls, jumped to municipal politics, and won on name recognition and a $298,000 campaign, much of it funded by real estate developers with active interests before the very municipality he now leads. In my opinion, he is not a man who stumbled into power unprepared. He is a man who has spent his entire adult life in public office, knowing the rules are, and who has a documented history of concluding that those rules are mostly for other people. To me, that speaks volumes because that is not a learning curve. That is a character.

Halifax, like any municipality, deserves a mayor who treats public trust as something to be protected, not managed. The RCMP investigation is ongoing. The code of conduct complaints are on the record. The spending contradictions are documented. The questions about his federal conduct were never properly answered.

Agree or not, Andy Fillmore owes this city real answers, not reassurances, not spin, not another shrug. Real answers.

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These findings, ongoing investigations, and other matters are on the public record. No charges have been laid. Mayor Fillmore has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.

Sources & Further Reading

RCMP Investigation & Auditor General Report

Code of Conduct Investigations

Austerity Hypocrisy & Mayor’s Office Budget

Federal MP Record & Campaign Conduct

Strong Mayor Powers Controversy