Raise the Hammer

At the risk of mystoneycreeking this thread...

As I said to one of Hamilton's other 'aware-and-energized' residents recently, 'Leadership doesn't start and end with Council.' In fact, if that's what you're hoping for, in this changing world you're pleading for disappointment.

What you say is true about the fiscal realities. And I'll admit that this mindset...turf-protection in its simplest form...really makes me more sympathetic to the notion of term limits. However...

One of the things that is consistent here on RTH is the view that 'the world is changing, whether or not you agree'. Ryan and I may have our differences, but I applaud him for investing as much as he has and does in trying to get people to see that we need to do better than our current car-centric culture. (As Clive Owen says in the trailer for 'Inside Man', please pay attention to what I say, I choose my words *very* carefully.) Some deride him for his message. Some say he's too dogmatic about it, too dismissive of how deeply entrenched- Oh, you get the point.

I feel the same way about our governance. In fact, there's a real parallel there. We are entrenched in non-involvement, in non-investment in our own governence. "It's too HARD to change!" "Give it up, what you keep going on about is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!" And yet my belief in the need for change...parallel to Ryan's (and yours and Adrian's and others')...is unwavering.

Don't count on any 'saviour candidates'. Don't count on a shift in tack because this councillor gets voted in, or that one is voted out. In the end, this enormous beast that we keep feeding will be with us...

...until we take our proper role at the governance table.

So; no, it'll never happen while 'suburban councillors' maintain their status quo...but more than this, it'll never happen if we don't change the way we see things and how we act on that vision.

'We, the people', my friend.

"Be the change you want to see in the world."