Just after the epic twist in Toronto Bag Ban Saga, Mayor Rob Ford bemoaned a lack of civic engagement in Toronto.
“Sometimes I get so frustrated because the people are just sitting back listening but they don’t pick up the phone, don’t go down to city hall, they don’t ask questions.”
“I want people to get engaged in municipal politics and find out who their councillor is and know how they vote.”
On this, the mayor and I agree whole-heartedly.
We need to be more engaged, involved, aware of what’s going on politically in our city.
Where the mayor and I part company on this is about the outcome of a more informed citizenry. He’s sees a re-energized Ford Nation, lifting his mandate high upon their shoulders and finally putting an end to all the dumb things city council does. I see a growing awareness that, in fact, City Hall is not and has never really been the inefficient gravy spewing train it was made out to be. That, in fact, residents of Toronto get a very good bang for their buck at the municipal political level.
But rather than just opine about it, agree to disagree, I’ve decided to get more hands-on involved. To participate rather than pontificate. I want to connect with those politically inclined people I don’t normally connect with, owing to both reasons of distance and ideology.
That’s why I want to be a part of Toronto Citizens. That’s what Toronto Citizens is all about.
Providing a space for those who don’t have the luxury of time or inclination that some of us do to obsessively watch City Hall, where they will have easy access to the most basic of information they need to be informed of the goings-on that most concern them. Their councillors, the wards they live in, meetings, council structure. Basically, who does what, when and where. The City of Toronto has a very good, exhaustive website but it takes time to master. Toronto Citizens want to offer a shortcut.
Toronto Citizens will also endeavour to be an open forum, to facilitate discussion between individuals and groups that don’t always discuss things in the most constructive of fashions. For example, earlier this week Corey Caplan wrote a post about taxation. Wouldn’t it be great to hear from someone with a different take on the topic, to debate Mr. Caplan. Hello, Toronto Taxpayer’s Coaltion! Hello, Matthew McGuire!
Many of us involved in Toronto Citizens know how intimidating or overwhelming it can be to just take that first step to have your voice or opinion heard. There’s a lot of noise out there right now, on all sorts of platforms. By banding together, hopefully we can offer up a place for those with no other outlet to speak out and be heard. Think of it as a group supported megaphone for anyone who wants to participate.
For even the most involved of us, there’s only so much an individual can stay on top of, be totally conversant about. We know what the mayor’s been up to, our own councillors and some of their more high profile colleagues. But outside of city council and committee meetings, it’s very difficult to judge the overall quality of our local representation.
Toronto Citizens would be an unqualified success if all it wound up being was an outlet for news, opinion and voices from all 44 wards of this city. If councillors in every ward knew that they were being watched, judged and reported on accordingly (fairly and in a nonpartisan manner), and that it was no longer possible to simply duck behind a veil of obscurity and rely on nothing more than name recognition as their main re-election platform. The power of incumbency can cut both ways and well informed constituents may not be happy constituents.
Hopefully, Toronto Citizens can be much more than that. A meeting place where other groups and specific interests can overlap, assist each other in contributing to the local dialogue. Move beyond simply this thing on the internet to an on-the-ground group whose main overriding purpose is to assist the residents of this city in better, more fully informing themselves of the issues that matter to them on a daily basis.
A political mind whose name escapes me at the moment once said, Trees grow tall at election time. Plant the seeds now. Let’s consider Toronto Citizens one of those seeds. Newly planted, it will grow and change in the hope that by, I don’t know, 2014, we have an electorate that’s fully engaged, blooming with pedals of information and vibrant awareness.
I think we’ll be surprised by the results that follow.
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