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Wednesday May 10, 2017

May 10, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 10, 2017

The Spectator’s view: A mayoral veto is just musing, but …

March 24, 2017

You had to know that when Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger used the word veto, hackles would be raised. Not all hackles equally, mind you. Reaction on social media was more mixed, with some actually seeing merit in the mayor’s observation. But in the minds of many — see today’s letters — Eisenberger may as well have suggested doing away with council entirely and running the show himself.

http://www.mackaycartoons.net/yahoo_files/2012/huh2012-01-12.html

January 12, 2012

Let’s be clear: the mayor was musing, no more. The province would have to change the municipal act to enable something like a veto, and there is no appetite for that. Eisenberger knows that and said as much.

He was trying to make a point, and it’s one worth discussing. Hamilton city council, like many others, is a dichotomy in many ways. You have 15 councillors who are elected by citizens of the ward they represent. Then you have the mayor, who is elected by the community at large. In that respect, the mayor has a mandate from the entire city, while councillors have a mandate from their ward constituents only.

March 10, 2011

Ward councillors justifiably feel great responsibility to respect the will of the people who elected them. They zealously guard the interests of their ward. That’s parochial politics, and it’s not always a bad thing. But what happens when what’s best for the city overall butts up against the interests of ward councillors?

LRT is an example. Councillors for the wards most heavily impacted by LRT construction and disruption are solidly behind the project because they see its overall benefit to their wards and eventually the city overall. Citizens in other wards don’t agree. They don’t see any direct benefit so don’t support the project. (Though it’s hard to fathom how some don’t see assessment growth and new commercial tax revenue as overall benefits.)

May 11, 2009

Another example: ward boundaries. Looking at the big picture, it’s hard to argue against redrawing boundaries so all citizens have roughly equitable representation. But such changes are trouble for ward-heeling councillors whose wards might have to change for the greater good. And so, we spent thousands on consultants, ignored their work and ended up kicking the can down the road.

Eisenberger’s point was that there must be a better way. Councillors elected at large instead of by ward? A mix of both? A board of control, or “executive committee” as its called in Toronto? A mayoral veto with appropriate checks and balances to prevent abuse?

October 14, 2003

As noted earlier, the discussion is academic. But maybe it shouldn’t be. The current system certainly has its share of drawbacks, although it generally works. But would it be so bad to study, perhaps even pilot, an experiment in doing local government differently? And why not in Hamilton, a city where challenges are overshadowed by ever-growing potential? (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Thursday April 28, 2016

April 27, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 28, 2016

Matt Green says police carded him in ‘confrontational’ incident

Hamilton’s first black city councillor and vocal critic of controversial carding practices, says he was carded by Hamilton police in an increasingly “confrontational” interaction Tuesday afternoon.

“For those of you who think police carding is over. I was just arbitrarily stopped/questioned by @HamiltonPolice as a City Clr in my own city,” Matthew Green tweeted from his official Twitter account at 3:24 p.m.

The Ward 3 councillor told The Spectator the incident occurred while he was waiting for a bus at Stinson Street and Victoria Avenue South.

He says he was arbitrarily “stopped and questioned,” with no apparent connection to a crime.

“I was not detained. I had no intention of leaving the area, as I was waiting for a bus,” said Green.

In a media release Wednesday morning, Green issued the text of a complaint to police. See the Scribd document below.

His tweet unleashed a hailstorm of social media activity, both sympathetic and critical of his experience. By 7 p.m., his tweet had been retweeted 240 times. Green posted the same message again on both his personal and public Facebook page.

The councillor, whose family traces its routes back to the first African slaves to come to Canada, has been a vocal critic of carding in Hamilton. He hosted a town-hall meeting in September to discuss the issue.

In an article published before the event, Green said, “any time citizens are stopped and questioned without wrongdoing, it makes them question their belonging.”

When the province made the announcement that changes to prohibit random carding were on the horizon in October, Green said he was encouraged “Minister Naqvi had the courage to open up this conversation and do the right thing.”

Green declined to reveal further details of the incident to The Spectator Tuesday afternoon in an effort not “to jeopardize the formal complaint process.”

But Wednesday morning, in an interview with CBC Toronto’s ‘Metro Morning’, Green detailed his interaction with police. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday February 6, 2016

February 5, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 6, 2016

Ferguson unrepentant and ‘offended’ by accusations

(By Andrew Dreschel) An official with the Colombian consulate says it’s not up to him to say whether Coun. Lloyd Ferguson should apologize for controversial comments about his country being backwards.

“I leave that to the City of Hamilton,” Toronto-based trade commissioner Alvaro Concha said Thursday.

But far from entertaining apologies, an unrepentant Ferguson is on the attack.

He’s “offended” that his reference to Colombia as a “backwards” place where the only wealthy are “drug lords” and chickens ride buses has been branded as stereotyping by politicians and members of the public.

“I wasn’t making that crap up; it’s what I visibly saw,” said Ferguson, who visited Colombia 12 years ago for a weeklong business conference.

“I don’t like being accused of stereotyping because I wasn’t stereotyping. I witnessed it first hand.”

Ferguson made his controversial comments during a budget meeting this week. He was responding to the city’s transit director using a quote from the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia’s capital city, stating a developed country is not where the poor have cars, but where the rich use public transit.

Calling the ensuing kerfuffle a “tempest in a teapot,” the Ancaster councillor and police board chair says he was objecting to benchmarking Hamilton against Bogota, a city of eight million.

Coun. Mathew Green immediately took Ferguson to task for stereotyping. When the story went mainstream, it lit up social media and online commentary. Many demanded Ferguson apologize. The pitchfork-and-torch mob called him a racist and xenophobe.

One twit on Twitter accused Mayor Fred Eisenberger of agreeing with Ferguson because he was silent on the issue. Eisenberger pushed back, calling that and other comments as “outrageous” as Ferguson’s own. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)