The Spec Letter #2

CHML's Scott Thompson has an op-ed piece in today's Spec. Entitled 'Does Canada need to be Occupied?', it raises some interesting questions. 

Here's what I sent off to Mr. Thompson:

Scott;

Great editorial. 

Putting aside the entire discussion of 'At what point does the Occupy movement reach critical mass and become inarguably effective?', I'll instead address the notion of getting more people to the polls. 

This is one of the main thrusts of one of our community engagement partners, the Hamilton Civic League. As well, Town Halls Hamilton is actively involved in efforts to generate more awareness, more involvement, more participation on the parts of neighbourhood associations...which to my mind, is the Great Untapped Resource Towards the Betterment of Hamilton. 

So in a nutshell, the endeavours we're talking about here are the non-protest cousins of what the Occupy movement has been broadcasting to citizens everywhere. 

Through our events, which will be of both ward-specific and issue-centric natures, THH is hoping to raise the general level of engagement. (If we're successful, I can guarantee you that the 2014 municipal election will be an entirely different beast than what we've previously seen.) The end result should be greater voter turnout. But more importantly, the ballots cast should be less a result of 'name recognition' than cogent consideration. Because more voters voting isn't a worthy goal. More voters voting with informed, qualified opinions is. 

Looking forward to further discussion, I remain

Yours truly, 

Adrian/

Once again, it's heartening to see that more substantive issues are being tabled on all fronts.