Candidates and Twitter

Social media is playing a larger role for candidates to get their message out. Twitter in particular has allowed candidates to engage in conversation with the community about why they are running and what policies they support.

As keeping a dialog going on Twitter can be time consuming some candidates during an election will have their staff tweet for them. For things such as press releases, event notifications etc, this is fine. However to keep transparency, candidates should put on their twitter profile is they alone and/or staff will post to twitter using the candidates account.  It is also recommend that if it is staff tweeting that should be clear in the tweet by posting their initials at the end of the of the message.

I will be requesting this information from the candidates running in London and area ridings who I know have a twitter account.  As I get the information back I’ll update the results on this spreadsheet.

Thanks all.

Moving on

One thing that has come out with the death of Jack Layton that is there are many Canadian’s of all political stripes that do want a better society and a better Canada.

It’s good to see all the outpouring of support in particular at Toronto City Hall where Jack got his political start. Seeing the message written in chalk at Nathan Phillips square is particularly inspiring. While watching this video, one message in particular stuck a chord with me. “Jack Layton was the reason I started voting”  This also shows that people are not alone in their grief or their beliefs for a better country.

If you haven’t already it’s worth reading Stephen Lewis’s eulogy of Jack Layton. Beside the fact the Stephen Lewis is one of the finest orators I know this eulogy really shows what Jack Layton was like.

Many speakers spoke of trying to have a better Canada. To have a manifesto for a more social democracy. Many people both in and out of politics forget the purpose of government is to serve and help the people. Not the people who donate to the parties; not the people who come out and work for the campaigns; but all the people. The young; the old; single; married; sick, First Nations and others; all the people.

Like others have said, I can’t agree with everything he stood for but I find his passion and approach to be something we should all aspire towards.

Jack Layton

Most people now know of the news of Jack Layton’s passing.

I’m pleased to see that even those who did not agree with his political views still admired him for standing behind his beliefs. In his final letter that he wrote, we see even in his final days he was still concerned about the future of his party and the country.

One of the best quotes was the final paragraph of his letter, in it there is a message that Canadians of all political sides should read and think about.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

I’ll let more clever minds debate on what this means for Canadian politics, myself I see the loss of someone that cared.

It’s Not About The Chickens

Other people have blogged about how council got to the point of not wanting to have a community meeting about the backyard chicken issues.

My main concern was the opinion of some members of council in this issue. Many of those on council realized that this issue was not about chickens but it was more about citizen engagement.

Mayor Fontana and Councilor’s Swan and Van Meerbergen spoke against the meeting.  I have no problem with them being honest as it is one of the things I’ve said a politician should do.  My concerns are some of the things being said.  All three spoke about priorities but the question is who defines the priorities. The mayor has pointed out that citizen engagement is important but tonight’s meeting seems to show that it only matters when it fits in with “priorities”. Several people have already left the Community Engagement Task Force because of this issue and frankly I’m wondering If I should continue as council seems to play lip service to community engagement.

During his speech Councilor Swan also lifted tonight’s council agenda and attachments, it was in the 100’s of pages if one counts the minutes and agendas of the three subcommittee’s.  Perhaps if the workload is that heavy and priorities must be made, the issue of full time councilors should be looked at again.

Councilor Van Meerbergen comments seemed very out of line and to him the whole matter seemed almost a joke. Based on his comments last week it appears he knows very little about the matter and would not take the time to learn.

I hope those council members who attend the meeting at least do so with an open mind, unlike some who’s minds are already made up. Hopefully the voters mind won’t be as made up next election time.