If Wishing Made It So...

Under different circumstances, I'd love to have rolled out Town Halls Hamilton events by now. Here then, is my Top Six Topics list for issue-specific town halls we'd have presented over the past few months...'if wishing made it so':

• 6 The PanAm Games Velodrome Débacle

       How lovely it would have been to have had genuine public discussion when all of this went south so quickly.

• 5 CETA

       With the potential impacts of this free-trade agreement understood by so few, a town hall effort would a natural to bring the issue to the forefront. 

• 4 Aerotropolis

      Few local issues are as loaded as this one is...and considering the ramifications of its implementation, the need for public debate is paramount. 

• 3 LRT

       With so much of the energy expended since 'The Murray Email' having been either ill-advised or downright counter-productive, how marvellous it would have been to have had a non-Council, non-media forum for both dissemination and discussion. 

• 2 The 'Occupy' Initiative

      Now is the time that we should be seeing town halls acting as complementary vehicles for the discourse that is required concerning this world-wide effort. 

• 1 What Makes for Good Local Governance?

    While initiatives in Council towards better cohesion and consistent decision-making are to be lauded (yes, I'm being kind here, referencing the recent attempt at 'mayoral behaviour modification'), this core truth needs to be understood by all: Nobody exists in isolation.

M Adrian Brassington