We, at The Hamiltonian, have certainly heard that many Hamiltonians are discontent with the impacts of amalgamation. Would you support de-amalgamating, or do you think that would be too difficult or otherwise counter-productive at this stage?
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Bob
ReplyDeleteI can not say much ,but I think that you are grasping at straws,I believe buy stepping down now you may save yourself from a humiliating defeat.
Still I hope you all the best
Edward HC Graydon
It is not amalgamation that is the problem. It is the terrible leadership we have gotten from the mayor and the council in this term and last. We need to really think about who we want in office the next four years. I am happy that The Hamiltonian gets that and has been allowing comprehensive coverage oif everyones ideas. There is much more to Hamilkton than silly Pan am. Pan am just proves that we need new leaders and that's what we need to focus on.
ReplyDeleteA good example of not being able to work within the system we have ! De-amalgamation is a pipe dream and a waste of efforts for any Mayor !I always thought Downtown was a priority, what has happened with that idea ? I hope you don't come out with "having an Integrity Commisioner and a Auditor General !" DiIanni has already started to create TWO New Jobs in the City ! Good luck in Your Campaign !
ReplyDeleteTime for a reality check Bob, take the rose-coloured glasses off! Real issues: 20% poverty, area rating taxation, infrastructure maintenance, re-align ward boundaries to ensure representation by population , economic development & jobs .....
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first anon poster. Pan Am is distracting us. Do you want another 4 years of the same council? We need to pay attention to the choices we have and what these people are saying. The mainstream media is still operating under the old mode. Raise The Hammer and The Hamiltonian are giving us what we need to know.
ReplyDelete"DiIanni has already started to create TWO New Jobs in the City ! Good luck in Your Campaign !"
ReplyDeleteGive me a break! Di Ianni is campaigning in make believe land. He'll say anything to get in. I feel sorry that the guy's in denial. Retire Larry. Do us all all a favour.
Clearly amalgamation is not working. Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Flamborough NOT part of Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Mr Bratina is pandering. He says he is going to " confront" the issue of amalgamation but it is my opinion that this is just his way to get publicity. We do not need another four years with this councilor {now wannabe mayor} flip flopper's and short tempered hot heads need not apply.
ReplyDeleteBob we need real leadership and vision for the future of Hamilton. We can not slip in a CHML oldtime radio play to solve the economic challenges of Hamilton in 2010. We don't want to rollback to the 1950's....amalgamation, a product of the Mike Harris years is a reality today in 2010...your lack of leadership on the stadium debate does not make you a qualified candidate for mayor...try to articulate a new positive vision for this city or step asside....we certainly don't need more of the same OLD SAME OLD STYLE AND LACK OF CREATIVE IDEAS STRETCHING BACK TO THE OLD DAYS...IT's 2010 Bob....try to catch up!!!
ReplyDeleteSo Bratina wants to un-scramble the egg, created by Amalgamation guru Marvin Ryder (an academic), over ten years ago, in order to pander to the suburbs for Mayoralty votes?
ReplyDeleteTalk about going out with a bang, leaving suburbanites with another bad taste in their mouths, giving new legs to the moribund de-amalgamation extremists, who never went along with it in the first place.
In a word, they got robbed, IMHO. Leaving the original ward boundaries, configured to be downtown-centric and lop-sided, was a fatal mistake that entrenched the animosity against Hamilton proper.
Fast forward to today, and it's every man for himself, one councillor preening over landing industry in his ward (kingdom) over other wards with less desirable locations. (Brownfield's we got) Greenfield locations near highways always take precedent, Brownfield's end up capped as parks or other benign public uses, since so many of them surround the harbour.
Transitioning our heavy Industrial areas to public or private use involves many, many millions of dollars to bring them up to modern day environmental standards, as we have seen with the cost estimates to clean up the soil at Rheem.
Looks to me like Bob Bratina is having a marathon retirement party and calling it a Mayoralty campaign, that's Hamilton, get used to it or get out and vote.
HERE IT IS: Last night my family and I attended the pig roast dinner at THE WELCOME INN in Hamilton's north end. Very interesting group of people, great food and wonderful music.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that intrigued us most was to find that one of the main people carrying the GIANT trays of food, and he ended up getting his clothes messed up in the process, and volunteering from 4:00pm until about 9:00pm was MAYORAL CANDIDATE Mahesh Butani. He was there doing community service with his beautiful daughter and his exwife, serving food to hundreds of people for hours. Clearly a family plan for the evening. He was chatting with everyone asking them what they like about being in the neighbourhoods they live in, they were not all from the north end, and which hoods they tend to frequent the most and why, changes they would like to see, things like that..
THEN Candidate Bob Bratina shows up in a shiny suit, hands out brochures and a few handshakes taking advantage of a photo-op and leaving within minutes. Very very tacky.
I would rather have a mayor who mixes with and helps the people he will be working for and takes the time to understand them without using them for his gain, and actually feels we are worthy of being served, than a shiny penny who shows up for a few minutes of glory.
Serving the public is just that, serving, whatever the means.
Bratina, if you think you are going to glide through this election by some freakish landslide, think again. Your character is a well-worn button on your shiny grey jacket.
De-amalgamation might solve some of the issues that plagued council last term, however as others mentioned is amalgamation the most serious issues that prevents council from moving forward. Are the issues associated with amalgamation not solvable or plainly said a lack of political will from council to address these? Area rating is one of those that have been deliberately postponed by council to be dealt with after the coming election and for not to appear so obvious council formed a committee of "civilians"to study the issue and provide recommendations to council which will probably be ignored by the same body of elected officials. In terms of electoral platforms Di Ianni tries his best in releasing press releases, just recently the last one was to provide opportunities for students at city hall which is truly honorable until you look at it closely and with cynicism and determine that this is Di Ianni pandering to the youth in getting them on board his campaign just like Obama did in the states.I have yet seen any candidate with a strong will and platform to match ( mayoralty or councilor ) indicating in how will their contribution or "vision" make council productive. There is a strong culture and sense of entitlement from our existing politicians that needs to change and I do not see anything changing soon unless the unexpected happens, which is a complete turnover at council. At this point in time I would vote for a candidate that lists one of their attribute as being able to herd cats! Read an interesting article in the weekend papers regarding election hopeful espousing social network via the internet as an election tool. The political message is vast and rapid however the same for the rebukes. If a political message could be put out there the consequences are often brutal and also serves to influence voters of not voting for a candidate. I wonder if some of the candidates in ward 2 did not respond to the latest round of questions from the Hamiltonian. We already saw the response from bloggers to the candidate who had a press release telling us that he was ahead of the gang because he had
ReplyDelete"checked -in " prior to Bob Bratina announcing his candidacy for mayor. I guess candidates will probably smarten up their press releases in fear of negative feed back from the blogs.
Free Ancaster, Dundas, and Flamborough!! Please Hamilton, just let us go. We are not part of you, we never have been, and we never will be.
ReplyDeleteUndoing Amalgamation will solve nothing. Mike Harris and his cronies screwed us all, including Hamilton with his 'grand plan.' Live with it, because it won't go away. Mr. Bratina is foolish to think it could be 'undone.' The genie is out of the bottle, the milk is spilled. It would cost tens of millions of $ to undo it. Will the various communities shoulder that debt or, expect to Hamilton to bear the burden? Hamilton can't afford it so, suck it up, Buttercup and let's move on to real issues.
ReplyDeleteIn reviewing the episodes with Pot in our schools, advertising marijuana cookies for sale on of media, the Pan Am fiasco.. demalgamation is looking good for the smaller communities..
ReplyDeleteAhhh yes, the type of man who always runs this city.
ReplyDeleteHistorically: "Let's take out the HSR rail lines, get rid of the tram cars and put in busses!!!"
"Oh yeah, busses are not green enough and they are not making us any money, HEY! Let's put in light rail!!"
There is always someone who will balk at the billions spent on an earlier mistake and spend billions more taking it back to an earlier place.
Listen, Bratina, the City is already a cluster, do not spend billions of our increased tax base to unravel a sweater which has already, painstakingly been knit! Let's wear the sweater and go on to knit some accessories to make the sweater work for us.
I want to see a tax-free haven for international companies to come in and set up. We're the fourth largest city in this province from what I know and we're the only one NOT doing that!?
Your de-amalgamation bid will have you lose this election, and you know it. No one wants a Mayor wasting his time and our money undoing the past. It would be as possible as trying to re-attach a severed head.
This de-amalgamation stance of Bratina's is pure pandering. He knows he can't win the mayor's race on his downtown base and B-celebrity status so he throws out a statement that he has no intention of following through on in order to win some support from suburban voters who would otherwise have nothing to do with him.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy it and neither should anyone else.
I like the fact that Bratina had the balls to say what everyone in the outlying communities have been saying, and in fact prolly why Margaret has stopped going to council meetings.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that it would be unfair of him to ignore this flying under the radar feelings in our Flamborough, Dundas , Stoney Creek etc areas. My feeling is that it is demalgamation will give us back our identities and services we have lost, ..but I beleive we can still have this without demalgamation..but at least visiting this is not a bad thing.
Editor of the Hamiltonion, at the least if you are screening these releases you could help us blind ol folk out and correct our spelling, seeins' we don t have a spell check lol
ReplyDeletethink we should consider deamalgamation. by taking responsibilities from the hands of the small towns that have been goobled up by the city,and put all the decision making in the hands of a few people in city hall we have begun to take the unique qualties,values,and needs of small towns away. making a town conform to city rules does not work.
ReplyDelete