Raise the Hammer

That aside, I think there's an important distinction between "hero" and "champion". A hero is someone endowed with great qualities (such as courage). A champion, in the way I have used the term, is someone who advocates actively and passionately. The first may be rare, the second simply requires hard work, determination and vision - which can be developed, as you pointed out.

We misuse the term 'hero'. It's become a watered-down notion, one even applied to athletes, fer crissakes. To me a hero is someone who does something beyond what's expected of them, sometimes at great personal risk. For example, a citizen rushing into a burning building and rescuing someone has performed an heroic deed. (For a firefighter to do this is not, in my eyes, heroic.) But people have 'heroes', those they admire, who have risen up from great inequities to accomplish greatness. (To me, these people aren't 'heroes', though they most certainly might reasonably be admired.)

A champion...in the way you've used it...is all about putting a cause first, and devoting themselves unfailingly to this cause.

The last great 'champion Mayor' we had was Vic Copps. (Which why I'm writing an article about him.) Before him? Lloyd D Jackson.

That we have to go back that far to see a demonstrable 'champion' persona in the Mayor's chair is sad. (And to some youngsters, considering some of the clued-out 'opinions' I've read right here on this site about what happened in the 50s, 60s and 70s...before most of these naysayers were born...it's undoubtedly galling to think of two urbanites as being lauded so plainly.) But those were different times, when forward thinking meant something other than what's it's come to have meant over the past two+ decades. So...

...should our mayor be our champion?

Absolutely! There's no more important role for this person to play! If the mayor isn't 'leading' us somewhere, somewhere he has a vision to take us, then what's the point of having one? Why not just have a Council with an alternating 'chair' position?

It's almost hilarious that this question is being asked. (No offense intended, Adrian.) And typical of Hamilton.

The real issue isn't what this city as a whole 'gets'. It's more trying to figure out what it does 'get'.

All this must change. Seriously.