council civility – The 905er

Joey Coleman Chats on Hamilton City Hall Culture

Roland Tanner — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Joey Coleman of thepublicrecord.ca joins us to share his take on the first 100 days of Hamilton's new council.

The 905 Round-Up: The Nuclear Option

Roland Tanner — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Another weekly brace of stories affecting the 905. When is disrupting a democratic meeting appropriate? Uncle Doug is building nuclear power plants. Uncle Justin is thowing money at the provinces to spend on healthcare to make up for the fact the premiers won’t throw enough money at it themselves.

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905 Round-Up: Alan Kan talks about what to expect this falls Municipal Elections

Roland Tanner — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 05:07:21 +0000

Alan Kan writes the #munipoli matters newsletter, focusing on the news and politics of municipalities not just here in the 905 but across the country as well. Today we talk with him and ask him to share his take on what he predicts will be the more interesting municipal elections in the region.

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The 905 Round-Up: Mayoral Rumours and Hamilton Social Media Hijinx

Roland Tanner — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 04:40:24 +0000

As one Ontario election ends, it appears that immediately we look at the upcoming municipal election in the fall. Rumours abound about Andrea Horwath's intentions in Hamilton. Larry Di Ianni is being Larry Di Ianni again. In Burlington, what Shawna Stolte asked for - a revised closed session protocol - has been delivered. It wouldn't have happened without her insistence, so why are her council colleagues pretending it had nothing to do with her?

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905 Round-Up: Ontario’s Election is Missing, Presumed Dead

Roland Tanner — Tue, 31 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This is not going to be anybody’s election for the ages, unless something very unexpected happens on Thursday. W, as the the saying goes, TF? And talking of unbelievable, Councillor Terry Whitehead, Hamilton’s regular challenger in the crowded field of challengers for ’worst councillor in Ontario’, really went off on one last week, in a manner that rekindled concerns for his wellbeing. But in the current climate of political self-immolation, does being the living definition of a loose cannon actually harm Whitehead’s chances of re-election?

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The 905 Round-Up: A Mayor’s Response and COVID’s Unfinished Business

Roland Tanner — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:52:25 +0000

Coming off our coverage of the fall of Burlington City Council's decision to reprimand Councillor Shawna Stolte we look at the very public and lengthy response to the situation from Mayor Marianne Meed-Ward. Then we examine the rising cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton as well as the province at large. It seems that people are eager to ignore that a pandemic is still happening. While lockdowns have grown to be unnecessary in the current wave, there have emerged other problems that are not being addressed.

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905 Round-up: The Shawna Stolte Saga

Roland Tanner — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 12:45:18 +0000

There are many bad councillors in the 905 region. Shawna Stolte is not one of them. We dedicate this whole episode to discussing one of the most counter-productive and unpleasant events in recent Burlington history.

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(Updated) Evidence Supports Claim Burlington City Hall More Secretive Than in 2018

Roland Tanner — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 04:36:34 +0000

Can it be demonstrated unambiguously that Burlington is holding more closed session meetings that it did previously, and releasing less information about them? We look at the evidence.

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Stolte to Face Losing 5 Days’ Pay for Stating “Final Cost over $50 million” for Bateman Purchase

Roland Tanner — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:55:45 +0000

We look at the four complaints levelled against Burlington's Shawna Stolte (two upheld by the Integrity Commissioner) and ask why two of Stolte's colleagues would have used such extreme measures to resolve a matter with a colleague, and look at the wider context of the Integrity Commissioner's role in Ontario.

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“Information inappropriately withheld from the public” – Shawna Stolte Hits Back at Colleagues, Integrity Commissioner Report

Roland Tanner — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 14:06:41 +0000

Burlington's Ward Four Councillor Shawna Stolte has today delivered a scathing response to the actions of two of her colleagues, Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith and Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan, who made a secret complaint against her to Burlington's Integrity Commissioner earlier this year. The report was published---or made available to Burlington City Hall---last Friday, but the was not forwarded to media until Councillor Stolte herself forwarded it today.

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