Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 17, 2016
Hamilton is Hot!
Unsurprisingly, both politicians claimed victory in the Great Sledding Showdown at the Garth Street reservoir this weekend.

Friday November 13, 2015
Regardless, tobogganing fans were the clear winners Saturday as the city officially opened one of three sanctioned sledding hills, ending a much-maligned ban that earned unwanted international publicity for Hamilton last year.
“We’ve put the fun back in winter,” declared Mayor Fred Eisenberger before hitting the slope at the popular — and now legal — sledding hill. “And, ah, hopefully we have no more lawsuits … If anyone is thinking about lawsuits, just get back in the car.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday January 9, 2015
Meanwhile, Hamilton Harbour has a new problem to add to its list of woes — goldfish.
Millions of tiny ones are swimming around after a summer that saw weather and water conditions turn Cootes Paradise into a massive breeding ground for the carp-like creatures.
The non-native fish species — that people buy as pets and sometimes, ill-advisedly, release into local waterways — have suddenly gone viral in the bay and have become the latest complication in its rehabilitation. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday December 11, 2015
Meanwhile, The City of Hamilton is ready to get tough on payday lenders with a triple licensing whammy.
Under proposed new regulations, payday outlets will each have to fork over a $750 licensing fee.
Each outlet will have to display a mandatory poster showing the whopping annualized interest rates of their loans.
And all outlets will be required to display credit counselling information to borrowers.
The staff recommendations are intended to help people understand the financial dangers of using the high interest loan services, which are widely seen as preying upon the desperate and disadvantaged. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)
Meanwhile, until now, it’s been a pie-in-the-sky idea. But the city wants to take the idea of gondolas into the mainstream.
City officials are intrigued by the notion of gondolas that would go up and down the Niagara Escarpment and have just added the concept to the transportation master plan (TMP) to get public input on the idea.
Transportation officials have been talking about gondolas for “two or three months now,” said Al Kirkpatrick, the city’s manager of transportation planning.
The city is reviewing its TMP to determine how transportation will grow in Hamilton over the next 30 years.
The team is hosting public input sessions in June, Kirkpatrick said. And as it does, it’s asking people about gondolas as a way of moving people between the upper and lower city. (Source: CBC News)
Meanwhile, “Hamilton,” the Broadway musical phenomenon, brought its thrillingly diverse hip-hop-infused narrative nationwide — and beyond — on the Grammy Awards on Monday.
As expected the show won for Best Musical Theater album. The award was presented on-air and creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped his acceptance speech.
“We won a Grammy, mothef—ers,” director and star Lin-Manuel Miranda told a live audience — as he raised the award to the air — from inside the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, the show’s home on Broadway. (Source: NY Daily News)