Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, June 3, 2016
Inspired by a letter to the editor of the Hamilton Spectator which stirred a bit of feedback
If you are such big believers in one amalgamated city, why do you let people sign letters with their old suburban town names? There is no Stoney Creek or Dundas. We are all Hamilton. You should stop allowing people to live in the past. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 31, 2014
The Liberals believe outgoing Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina is the man who will finally wrestle Hamilton East-Stoney Creek away from the New Democrats.
“We’ve got a game changer here,” Tyler Banham, president of the Ontario Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) said Wednesday night at Bratina’s nomination meeting.
“Bob Bratina has never lost an election and I like to say (Liberal Leader) Justin Trudeau has never lost an election.”
About 70 people attended Bratina’s meeting at the Renaissance Centre on Barton Street East, including Hamilton’s provincial cabinet minister Ted McMeekin, Hamilton Centre Liberal candidate Anne Tennier, former mayor Larry Di Ianni and former Hamilton alderman Mary Kiss.
Bratina was acclaimed to the post two days after the municipal election saw Fred Eisenberger elected as his successor. The one-term mayor opted not to run again to become a Liberal candidate. He was Ward 2 councillor from 2004 to 2010.
New Democrat MP Wayne Marston has held the riding since 2006 when he defeated Liberal cabinet minister Tony Valeri. He defeated Di Ianni in 2008. In 2011, he received 45.2 per cent of the vote. The Liberal candidate garnered 13.2 per cent.
Bratina told reporters after his acceptance speech — in which he said his life had “a sense of destiny” — that Marston was a “fine person,” but said Hamilton has lost from not having a government MP and that the government after the election will be lead by Trudeau.
“It’s really not a matter of personalities,” he said. “It’s about getting back into power of Canada, which is the federal government. We have had a great tradition in this area of Liberals being in power and influencing the government.”
He said that hasn’t happened under Marston, Hamilton Centre NDP MP Dave Christopherson and Hamilton Mountain NDP MP Chris Charlton “and it’s time for a change.”
He said he was so impressed by Trudeau he decided not to run for mayor again and seize the opportunity to run for the Liberals.
“I’m the ideal candidate for this riding at this time,” Bratina said.
Marston welcomed Bratina into the race, explaining “I don’t go to war with people.” He added he was not worried about Bratina. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 27, 2000
The naivete expressed in this letter seems to be common among many Canadians. But, contrary to the writer’s definition of democracy, once elected, a government does become omniscient and omnipotent.
It does mean that it no longer has to consult the people. Remember the amalgamation of Hamilton-Wentworth in general and freedom of self-determination for Flamborough in particular?
It does mean that a government does not have to listen to the elected representatives of the people. Remember Toni Skarica and Brad Clark?
It does mean that a government can tell the people’s representatives what to think. Remember how Premier Mike Harris cowed his caucus by telling them that a vote against the amalgamation of Hamilton-Wentworth was a vote against him?
It may not have been democratic to take power away from our local school boards, but it is quite evident that this action was a response to the inability of individual boards to withstand the steamroller of the teachers’ unions. It is widely perceived that teachers are grossly underworked and obscenely overpaid with benefits, vacations and pensions that the average worker would kill for.
The gravy train had to stop somewhere.
Until such time as the rest of us average Joes come even close to the level of the self-created elite laughingly called the civil service (teachers, firefighters, police, bureaucrats and politicians of all stripes), we will tolerate demigods like Harris. True to our nature, we will vote him out when it suits us.
Personally, I would like to see a form of participatory democracy instead of the alleged representative democracy that we are presently saddled with.
As for expecting fairness from government, don’t hold your breath. (Hamilton Spectator, A10, 7/27/2000)