Raise the Hammer

In my opinion, this could have been avoided had the mayors office contacted Joey to say that the mayor no longer needed the live video feed in Regina, and that he would now be attending the Monday emergency GIC meeting. Not that Joey wouldn't have been there anyway doing the feeds as he has done for some time now, but either way, the article likely wouldn't have been published.

The real question here in my mind is, was Mr. Bratina calling out Joey called for?

You know, as someone who truly does care about this Pan Am Stadium outcome, when I heard the mayor was not going to be able to attend I was dissapointed. In understanding that he has other issues at stake with regards to our city, but I felt that seeing as though this was a very important issue, that his attendance was invaluable in these final days leading up to our February 1st deadline. I didn't hold it against him though. I knew we had a couple of more meetings beofre the Feb. 1st deadline.

When the mayor walked into council chambers Monday afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised. 'He decided to change his plans. Good on him', I thought to myself.

I like that Mayor Bob is standing up for the Cats and pointing out things like the correct pronounciation of Brian Timmis and his little historical interlude of Brian Timmis himself. There is nothing wrong with civic pride, but he could certainly use to choose his words a little differently as well, rather than pointing out the 'follies' of another. As another poster pointed out above, many of us hold Joey in high regards and appreciate his keen eye on the goings on in our city, and the work, pride, and dedication he puts into 'bringing us the news'.

To say that one of 'our' goals through this process is to not lose the Cats (I know the exact wording is readily available but it's not important), is not entirely true. It's something we would 'like' to not see happen, but that want cannot come before what's best. I certainly don't want to lose the Cats either, but there has to be a point where wanting to save them or not, you have to step up and say 'Whoah. You guys(Cats brass) are going too far.'

I't nice to have a couple of voices for the Cats at the council table who understand their importance to thousands of residents of this city and to fans across the nation but on the other hand, I strongly feel the Mayor should be standing up for his team members with a statement of understanding directed at them, acknowledging their frustation with some of the Cats tactics.

I was out of town checking in on yesterday's council proceedings from a meeting in Montreal and subsequently in airports along my path home, so I missed the meat of the talks, but Scott Mitchell's statement about moving to Ottawa was way out of line. It's one thing to say the team would 'likely' move and Ottawa perhaps could be an option which if that scenerio was to play out, would be as early as 2013, but his statement came as more of a threat. 'Yes. We would very likely leave.' That's all that had to be said.

If the mayor did challenge that statement during the open GIC or in camera discussions then my appoligies, but I would think that if he did I would have read about that by now.

It's okay for our Mayor to be 'for' the Cats and the Ivor Wynne plan, but his colleagues do not deserve to be treated like they have been through all of this. 'I am on your side (Cats) and will fight to make this work, but if the threats and unethical hard-ball continue, I will be forced to choose the side of the men and woman who sit around this council table with me who have had enough, to change my position of support for preserving the 141-year history of the franchise that you are currently the leaders of, and I will discontinue any further support for a 15,000 seat stadium in Hamilton.'

Or something to that affect.

The Cats have value for me as a citizen of this city as does Ivor Wynne and this plan to refurbish it. I strongly believe in this proposal to allocate some serious cash into this area of our city, but we SERIOUSLY need to end this debate on a high note. If everything comes together over the course of the weekend, the people of this city need to walk into this next phase of planning and construciton with a good taste in their mouths.

We cannot afford to just move forward on Monday. We have to move forward together. It's up to Bob Young and our Mayor to make that happen - as leaders. No one else. Scott Mitchell needs to step aside for obvious reasons these next two days and Bob Young needs to step up and speak.

Council has taken enough heat. If Mayor Bob and the Caretaker want this passed on Monday, they both need to be leaders these next few days and show all of us (especially the council members who hold the fate of ALL of this in whether they sit or stand when the final motion is requested), why this is something we should embrace and move forward with - together.

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I will quickly add that my meeting in Montreal was on St. Catharines St in downtown Montreal when council commenced, and the final vote must have happened shortly before our plane decended into Toronto around 6pm or so. Just to give you an idea of how long that meeting was. I had a 4.5 hour meeting, drove to Montreal airport, and flew over 500km's back to Toronto in the time it took to hold that special GIC. Phew! Any longer and I would have made it back to Hamilton for that final vote.

I thank folks like EmmaattheSpec, Joey Coleman and Mark Masters and so many others who were there providing live feeds and twitter updates. Not to mention you all sitting around (for some 3 hours was it?), while council went in camera. Your services are very valuable to me. Being able to follow important city issues such as this from afar, I strongly believe makes it easier for more people to be civicly involved. That is the most important thing that has come out of this whole process from my viewpoint.

So thank-you.