Raise the Hammer

Look for Chris Cutler at the corner of James and Cannon.

I will try, but I don't know who Chris Cutler is.

He'll be at the North East corner of James and Cannon with a clipboard. :)

I like the idea of printing and mailing signed petitions. Online ones obviously miss so many people. I can discuss this with some people who might not otherwise read this or bother to take a few moments to sign an online petition, and turn my othwerwise one signature, into say 15 or at least more than just mine.

I like the notion that we could possibly create more change no matter who was elected, if we could win many other battles in this matter with an office like the OMB, able to force councils hand with large numbers of signatures.

There will possibly always be so many that don't vote but would they listen to a friend or family member for 5 minutes and sign petitions?

What if voting was less important? What if we did this for things like the Board of Ed? A video like Matts and a 2 page printout that strongly pointed out both sides so possible petitioners knew all the facts and could chose to use a simple signature to make a difference?

Is there a way to make the people in office less significant? For them to truly represent our voice and not their own?

Constant vigilance, ceaseless civic engagement, tireless advocacy. It's not rocket science. It just requires a less passive citizenry.

Something from the sidelines: I've been in touch with councillors today. And after reading what I'd sent them, that the element front-and-center is the disparity in ward populations, this is what was offered from one:

"Thanx for this however in the criteria established by the Province (and in recent OMB decisions), rep by pop is amongst the least of the deciding factors."

So.
Be prepared to be sandbagged. The expected tactic will be to deflate the impetus by pointing out that 'the powers that be' won't go along with ward boundary reform if it's solely predicated on numbers.

I responded accordingly. : )

Wait, I'm confused. If Wards 11 and 12 saw the biggest increase in population since 2006 (per the CATCH article), won't the suburbs be getting more councillors out of this process? How is that going to improve the urban/suburban split on council?

That would be the case if all of the wards currently represented equal numbers of people, which is not so. In fact, there is almost a fourfold difference in population between our smallest and largest wards.

Hi Brennan,

I believe that when a ward's population is substantially above or below the average, it's boundary should be changed to ensure proper representation. I don't want to frame this as urban versus suburban versus rural, and would rather think of it as fair representation for all residents of Hamilton.

However, if you look at the census data provided in the RTH link in the article, you will see that ward 7 is currently the most under-represented ward.

Cheers!

Ken.

This is great; thanks Ken. I've printed out a copy and will get my neighbours to sign it and send it off. Ideally, when do you want the completed forms in by?

Hi,

There is no set date for this. We'll need around 750 signatures before we can proceed. When I checked at the art crawl at around 8pm, we had a little over a hundred. If we could get the signed petitions before the end of next week or sooner, that would be best. I don't want anyone's work to go to waste.

Thanks for supporting this!

Ken.

It's worth the time to take a look at this: https://hamiltonreporter.crowdmap.com/reports/view/80

Especially the source document: http://www.tay.ca/ws_par/groups/public/@pub/@tay/documents/web_content/wspar_033806.pdf

Was able to get 60 signatures at Hamilton HIStory + HERitage last night. When people understood that the petition was being use to trigger the discussion with and by Council, they had no problem signing. I told them we were not proposing a specific solution, other than trying to make things fairer than they are now. The solution will come through the dialogue, although the goal is pretty clear.

The petition got around 40 signatures in a day from the Hamiltonian students and staff at Mac. People are definitely looking for a conversation about representation.

is there a place downtown to sign?

Here are some observations from a fellow Ontarian, including some wise caveats:

I led a petition drive in Windsor that was successful in convincing our Council to change their mind and change our wards rather than letting the OMB do it. One thing to remind all signatories is that in order for their signature to be valid, they must have been an eligible voter in the last Hamilton Municipal election. This is why you need to get more than 500 signatures. The City Clerk will compare your petition against the last election list and strike anyone off it that does not qualify. In Windsor we collected just over 800 signatures and the end result was close to 600 valid signatories once it was checked. Here's a link to the entire process followed by Windsor, including the consultant's reports. While the situation is obviously different in Hamilton, the reports are worth reading to get an understanding of the Carter case you refer to and to grasp all of the factors considered when looking at new boundaries. One final note, including calling back the consultant for further studies after they first tried to shelve everything, I believe the entire cost for the consultant was in the neighbourhood of $60,000.

http://www.citywindsor.ca/cityhall/Municipal-Election/Ward-Boundaries-and-Maps/Pages/Timetable.aspx

Last year, the city of Washington DC had a similar issue. The Greater Greater Washington blog created an online game that allowed people to adjust the ward boundaries themselves to come up with possible scenarios. Anyone want to create a similar game for Hamilton?

http://redistricting.greatergreaterwashi...

Thanks for finding this.

I believe I can do the work on it.

• Joey