Comment 1616

By jason (registered) | Posted October 20, 2006 at 18:15:21

Great article Paul. I think that this faultline is here to stay and to be honest, I think it was forseen years ago by folks like Terry Cooke and others who were stir-crazy over the idea of amalgamation. I never really had much to offer in the debate on amalgamation while it was going on, but the day after the 2003 election it all hit me like a ton of bricks - urban Hamilton has lost it's voice. The old city now has less of a say regarding what goes on in the old city, than Stoney Creek, Ancaster and other far flung places where residents don't understand urbanism and don't care to. I fear that Hamilton is destined to fail unless we can somehow undo this forced amalgamation we know struggle with. The suburban communities don't like it and any Hamiltonian who cares about the future of our city should oppose it too. Who would have ever thought that the 'old' city of Hamilton would vote for a mayor, yet not have that mayor elected due to surrounding suburbs?
I don't think we'll see this faultline quite as prominent in this election since there doesn't seem to be any diversity of candidates to choose from like there was in 2003. However, fundamentally the faultline remains...just check out the election platform of Brian McHattie and the others who are running against him in Ward 1 - all of the challengers are basically copying Brian's playbook. None of them are coming out as 'anti-environment' or 'pro-sprawl'. They would be destroyed in Ward 1 if they did. I suspect the mayors vote may set an all-time record in the 'old city' for lowest vote for the city's top job. Ahh, 4 more years.

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