Raise the Hammer

I'm sure you didn't see it on Terry's Cooke's old flyers or Marvin Caplan's. The fact is, anyone who caves into the sprawl development industry is instantly 'pro-decay' since it is urban tax dollars that subsidize sprawl. Obviously nobody campaigns on such a platform, but I really could care less about platforms (ie - lies). The reality is that we can simply look at the track record of everyone on council (and in past decades) and see quite easily where their priorities lie. Downtown and old Hamilton has seen hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from it's neighbourhoods (which, by most people's account could use investment) to subsidize stuff like Meadowlands and south Mountain sprawl. I can't help but be leary of a candidate running with the support of Terry Cooke, Marvin Caplan and others like them. Not because I think those guys are 'bad guys', but because they have a track record. A very clear, and uniformed track record. Like Ryan, I too have helped on Brian's campaign. Today was my last day going door to door and I was quite pleased with how positive people are responding to Brian. I chatted with 3 residents who were very undecided about who to vote for and simply asked them to name some of their priorities. In all 3 cases the results were similar - urban, streetfront retail districts being favoured over big box sprawl. Better means of getting around the city instead of just single occupancy cars. Poverty. The environment and human health (as one nice young woman told me - the media is crazy to portray an 'environmentalist' as someone who only cares about squirrels. It's about epidemics in cancer, obesity, respiratory disease etc...I was going to make this very point, especially after the knowledge I've gained during the past year while my wife successfully battled cancer, but she beat me to it). By the end of each conversation these folks were committed to voting for Brian and shocked that a councilor in Hamilton was actually fighting the sprawl industry and fighting for neighbourhoods. That's what people want. Not a 'Caplan-lite'.