Tag Archives: Dave Meslin

Be Bold

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It’s the only way to counteract the lethargy of ill-governance.

Boldness is a form of action not reaction. It steps into the void created by a lockdown of thought, a failure of nerve, an acceptance of some misbegotten notion of inevitability. Boldness requires courage.

What we are currently experiencing is the exact opposite. Ours is the Age of the Great Flinching. We flinch in the face of economic uncertainty. We flinch in the face of climate upheaval. We flinch in the face of societal reconfiguration.

We flinch, retreat, retract and call it conservatism.

I do not think that word means what self-described conservatives think it means.

It’s all a regression to the meanness of a previous era. Everyone for themselves. Winner takes all, losers work retail.

There are days when I’m unsure how we as a species ever managed to climb out of the primordial goo and start to evolve. It’s just so hard. I’m good here. Think I’ll just stay put where I am.

The path of least resistance.

So I think it hardly surprising that such an outpouring of interest was sparked by the announcement of One City last week. Hey! Look at that, would you? An idea, many ideas. A forward looking plan that poses substantial questions and tough challenges. Something we can actually sink our teeth into.

Now, much has been made of the plan already so I won’t add to the discussion except to say that, if nothing else, the proposal and the negative reaction to it on the part of the province and from some on council simply made them look tired and unwilling. Disinterested spouses at the tail end of a lifeless marriage. Don’t kick up a fuss. Think of the children.

But I do hope that unenthusiastic reaction does not dissuade other councillors who find themselves in similar positions of power at City Hall – not just in terms of committee chairs but with powers of persuasion – from observing what the TTC Chair and Vice-Chair and councillors Josh Colle and Joe Mihevc actually accomplished. They activated an agenda. Rather than stand pat and let the chips fall where they may, a larger discussion was initiated. If you really want to talk transit, let’s really talk about transit.

I’m looking at the most unlikely of sources to take a flyer on an issue and make a big splash. Ward 43-Scarborough East councillor and Government Management Committee chair, Paul Ainslie. [Phee-ew. I was worried you were talking about Councillor Frank Di Giorgio for a minute there—ed.] Your time is now. Carpe diem.

Councillor Ainslie, you say? I’m not even sure I know which one he is. [Almost always but never quite ever holding the mayor’s hand—ed.] Are you sure you got the right councillor?

As chair of the Government Management Committee, Councillor Ainslie has the opportunity to bring about some important voting, ballot and citizen participatory reforms. He’s been a big supporter of Dave Meslin’s 4th Wall Project which is on display in the lobby of City Hall all next week with an opening reception at 6:30 Monday night. (July 9th). Earlier this year, Councillor Ainslie introduced numerous motions – ranging from using ranked ballots to using video for deputations – for further study.

But as anyone who’s followed voting reform initiatives knows, they can die a frustrating, quiet death by neglect. Those who’ve been elected to office in the traditional manner aren’t always prone to change a system that’s worked for them. Entrenched status quo is not the friend of change in any fashion.

In fact two reform motions actually passed city council unanimously recently, one to establish a working group to study the proposals and another calling for a staff report on a ranked ballot initiative. Yet somehow even these two innocuous seeming items never made it out of the meeting intact and were sent back to staff until October. The slow grinding wheel of change.

The thing is, though, civic awareness and participation has spiked here in Toronto during Mayor Ford’s term. People not only want to be engaged, they have realized the absolute necessity of getting engaged. While it may not be in the best interest of some politicians to have an increase in voter activism, those looking beyond their own self-interest know that it would be in the best interest of our local democracy.

So now, Councillor Paul Ainslie, it’s your time to shine. Use this summer interregnum and the mayor’s disinclination to actually lead as an opportunity to make the case for voter reform. Pull a Stintz, as they say, and step outside the mayor’s circle, that ever decreasing sphere of influence. You’ll have a wide and receptive audience. People want what you have to offer.

Be bold.

It’s this season’s colour.

— humidly submitted by Urban Sophisticat

With Friends Like These…

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You know what I love about the NOW magazine–Dave Meslin contretemps that flared up this week? I get to use the word ‘contretemps’. Both germane and pretentious.

One of the interesting aspects to this back-and-forth is that at its core — the role and approach to civic engagement – it reveals what goes on everyday here in the offices of All Fired Up in the Big Smoke [When this writer deigns to show up at the office – ed.] and, very likely, wherever political debate takes place. That is, how to best deliver your message and make it one that those in positions of power want to help further or simply can’t ignore. It’s hard to believe that there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to it.

Yet that’s what it feels like in reading the original NOW piece and, to some extent, Mr. Meslin’s response. The concerted effort NOW has taken to demonize, vilify or, at the very least, demean Dave Meslin for his fraternizing with the enemy seems a little petty. Is he really some sort of traitor for his attempts to open up a dialogue with Mayor Ford and his team, to hope that there is some common ground that can be found on issues like bike lanes and electoral reform? For his part, Meslin initially seems to rise above that sort of pigeon-holing, summoning up the notion of a ‘diversity of tactics’ but 7 paragraphs later suggests that we should move beyond polarization and condemns NOW’s pillorying of the mayor and his supporters. Either he doesn’t really believe in a diversity of tactics or he needs an editor to tighten up his posts. [Who doesn’t? – ed.]

Only under the most extreme circumstances should we expect utter fidelity to a cause. I’m thinking, maybe, the various resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe. [While not explicitly calling anyone a Nazi, interesting to note how quickly writer evoked Godwin’s Law – ed.] Enforced conformity is something rigid ideologues do. It’s what intransigent bodies like police forces utilize to maintain an ominous wall of unaccountability. Us vs. Them marginalizes independent thought and squashes innovation and creativity.

While nominally operating under some sort of nebulous Left Wing banner, NOW and Meslin are simply going about trying to achieve similar ends in different ways. The weekly seeks to de-legitimize the mayor, to reduce his powers of persuasion in both the public sphere and at City Hall in order to put the brakes on what they see as a path of destruction he’s determined to travel down. Meslin seems more interested in wanting to help the mayor broaden his scope of what it means to have a well run city. Ultimately, both are just working to make the place where they live better.

And as much as he may dislike NOW’s disparagement of him and think it counter-productive, Mr. Meslin instead should view it as aiding his cause. With his conciliatory, hands across the aisle attitude, he gets to show Mayor Ford that not everyone who isn’t in complete agreement with him is some sort of left wing, pinko kook. NOW’s attack on him for his openness toward the mayor emphasizes that. Those people over at NOW are crazy! This Meslin guy seems reasonable. Let’s listen to what he has to say.

Firebrands are the heavy artillery that soften up the opposition’s defenses. Rather than look at NOW’s salvos as incoming strafing, maybe Mr. Meslin should see it more as friendly fire or cover. Giving him an opportunity to advance his position behind ‘enemy’ lines.

While I’d love to share his optimism about this administration’s willingness to listen to opposing views, I’ve seen little in the way of evidence to offer up hope of that. [As a matter of fact, Dave, not all answers to issues do lie in the middle. ‘Mutually respectful dialogue’ has to be a two-way street – ed.] But what do I know? Perhaps he’s gleaned a better insider’s view that cooperation is not beyond the realm of possibility. So why condemn him for trying to reach out? Being a hopeful and positive agent for change is Dave’s… if he’ll excuse the familiarity since my busy body editor seems to be on a first name basis… strength. Have at it, I say.

But since the mayor declared yesterday that he’s going to talk about what he wants to talk about, I hope Dave Meslin won’t hold it against anyone who thinks more forceful measures may be necessary in an attempt to redirect Mayor Ford’s energies in a more positive direction. Like many a battle, fighting the good fight may best be fought in multiple manners and on numerous flanks. [Gee willikers, Urban Sophsiticat. Nice of you to let us play along – ed.] [Don’t you have your own post you can vent on? Stop sticking your nose in mine – US] [Appeaser – ed.] [Hothead – US] [Ingratiating toady – ed.] [Mindless ideologue – US] [Unprincipled apostate – ed.] [Shut up – US] [No, you shut up – ed.] [No, you shut up – US] [No, you – ed.] [No, you – US] [Shut up, shut up, shut up – ed.] [You shu—US] [Nope. I get the last word because I’m the ed.]

— submitted by Urban Sophisticat/ed. by Cityslikr

Assessing Our New Mayor’s Movement

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As we breathlessly await firm news of Mayor-elect Rob Ford’s committee appointments, I am trying to convince myself to look upon this not as a horrible, disfiguring moment in the city’s history but as…an opportunity. Yes, an opportunity. It isn’t a matter of perspective. No, it’s what kind of conservative our incoming mayor turns out to be.

Kinds of conservatives, you ask? How many kinds of conservatives are there? You’ve got your run-of-the-mill, always irate, incoherent kind, flailing about in the choppy, churning waters of cognitive dissonance and then there’s…? Help me out here. Other kinds of conservatives?

Well yes, at least in theory. There once were conservatives roaming about in the wild who were of Burkean stock. Wary of excess of any stripe including rabid anti-governmentalism, your daddies’ conservatives did not seek to dismantle the New Deal/Just Society welfare state in its entirety. They simply wanted to reshape it in their own vision. Red Tories, let’s call them. These guys were the elitists of their time. Democracy was all well and good as long as there wasn’t too much of it.

Movement Conservatives, on the other hand, the spawn of William F. Buckley-Ronald Reagan-Margaret Thatcher, are a lot less amiable. Theirs is “a revolutionary doctrine hostile to any public enterprise except the military” and, I will add, national security except for that whole no junk touching stream of unconsciousness that has recently emerged. They have manifested themselves in the likes of George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and, to some extent, our current federal Conservative government. There is no form of government that doesn’t drive them batty with inchoate anger. To their minds, democracy is merely a vehicle to smash up democratic institutions.

Much was made during this past municipal campaign about Rob Ford being our very own Tea Bagger, a bigger, louder, less foxy Sarah Palin. It’s a comparison that goes only so far. Yes, he was angry and adeptly tapped into, exploited and manufactured a wide swath of anger in the electorate. He made claims of reclaiming City Hall for the little guy. A deep streak of xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny runs through his core.

Yet, like the earlier strain of conservatism, Rob Ford seems more driven to eradicate government excesses rather than government itself. In fact, he may be prone to more democratic impulses than is normal in conservatives of any stripe. When he says he wants to take back City Hall, it is largely free of the racist, faux-grassroots chant we heard during the U.S. midterm election campaign. Ford actually sounds like an honest to god populist in wanting to give the reins of power to the people instead of his hated bureaucracy. (The irony of this is that the last thing his most fervent devotees would want or know what to do with is to actually exercise that power.)

Therein lies the opportunity at hand. On Metro Morning last week to promote the book Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto, Dave Meslin told host Matt Galloway how, back in 2006, when Meslin was involved with the City Idol project that sought to shine a spotlight on a diverse set of council candidates, then councillor Rob Ford was very helpful in giving his time and advice to the proceedings. Ford’s face now adorns the endorsement page of Meslin’s latest adventure in advancing democracy, RaBIT, Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto. By all accounts, our next mayor is fully on board for helping further the cause of democratic renewal.

So, fighting our way past the recoil phase of October 25th’s fallout, we can prepare to seize what may be a truly golden moment for positive change on the democratic front. A politician elected to office who truly wants to invest more powers in the populace. It is a gift we should be ready to receive and not allow him to renege on or get horribly wrong (i.e. simply cutting council numbers in half). This may be the only common ground we find with this administration. Let’s not waste the opportunity to take full advantage of it.

— exhortingly submitted by Cityslikr