Oshawa Speaks Is Everywhere!

Oshawa Speaks had a hit today (Feb. 1, 2008) from the Swedish Tax Administration in Stockholm, Sweden. I noted it to be a google search for "taxpayer + communication + strategy" and was intrigued to do a little investigation about the hit.

While our target is Oshawa taxpayers, we do get hits from all over the world spreading Oshawa’s fame that the politicians are so keen to promote…so we are being very helpful to them in spreading the word.

A google search on most anything to do with Oshawa will turn up a preponderance of Oshawa Speaks stories and videos that are cropping up everywhere on the web.

This particular hit was obviously from someone in the Swedish Tax Administration office doing detailed research on behalf of the Swedish Tax Department on outward communication strategies. His/her research had to be extensive because we were not listed until the 64th page (640th story) of google links until the search words turned up our site as:

VOTES--Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians
New "outreach" communication strategy---NEW LINKS! ..... As reported in an earlier post, Oshawa spent a reported $30000 of taxpayer money to enter the 2007 ...
oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/ - Liknande sidor

This link led to the story about our facebook “Oshawa Community Outreach Forums” which now number approximately 50 with some (not all) appearing as links under the pull down menu under the title of FORUMS on our site. While these sites have not taken off as yet because we have done no promotion on them, we have "reserved them" and they will be promoted and utilized as time goes on.

The interesting point about this Swedish researcher's search was that he/she came across 640 entries of how governments attempt to enhance communications with their citizens before they came across the first example, Oshawa’s, that took deliberate and strategic action to avoid communicating or informing its citizens about an extremely important issue.

Why is Oshawa's local government so radically different from all other governments in the free world? All others want to communicate to citizens--Oshawa's wants to hide important information from the people!

As stated by Mayor Gray, City Council had no responsibility to communicate the plebiscite info and thus did not do so. He said this was the responsibility of community groups even though the Ontario Municipal Elections Act clearly prohibits such 3rd party campaigning. The law gives full and unencumbered spending freedom to municipalities to inform its citizens.

You’d think that when Oshawa politicians were asking a question of its citizens, that they’d be anxious to communicate as much information as possible even promoting citizen debate and discussion…but not in Oshawa, where the politicians worded a question in a confusing and backwards manner, used technical terms not understood by the people, and attempted as much as they could to catch voters “cold” in the voting booth to be confronted by a difficult and confusing question designed to produce a result the politicians wanted.

In some third world totalitarian countries run by despots, fascists and dictators, this kind of "secrecy" typifies the run-of-the mill vote if there is one. In Canada we call these tactics vote fixing—and it’s unquestionably contrary to the spirit of democracy.

Our Supreme Court says that voter information is a basic right of Canadians. What would they say about Oshawa’s City Council that denied the people information, manipulated the question to fool unwary voters, and designed a strategy to give the politicians a pre-conceived answer?

Was this democracy? Absolutely Not!

OSHAWA...YOU MUST STAND UP AND PROTEST! IF CITY COUNCIL IS ALLOWED TO PROCEED WITH THE GENERAL VOTE, YOU WILL HAVE NO POLITICIAN ELECTED BY YOU TO REPRESENT YOUR COMMUNITY INTERESTS AT CITY HALL.

So the Mayor Wants Me to Eat His Words

OPEN LETTER TO THE MAYOR

Mayor John Gray
City of Oshawa
emailed to: jgray@oshawa.ca
January 17, 2007


Hello John:

Because of your protestations at the Accountability and Transparency Committee Meeting this morning about the accuracy of the film clip on www.oshawaspeaks, I reviewed the clip and can find no inaccuracies about my comments that you publicly insisted that the City had no responsibility to inform and educate the public about the plebiscite question to insure that they understood the question and its ramifications.

If council was unwilling to inform the public about the plebiscite question, I can't understand why it was asked. Not insuring the public understood the question, I have difficulty comprehending why you and six other members of council insist on upholding its results as "democratic" saying, "The people have spoken!"

I find council's action in this whole issue extremely undemocratic as the basic requirement in a democracy is an informed voter. How can it be democratic when council took concrete and deliberate action to deny information to the voter.

While I fully understand, in retrospect, that you may not like your ill-founded comments being publicized on the video that is at present approaching 1500 viewers, no one put these words into your mouth and so you have to take full responsibility for them.

Your words certainly help explain why the citizens were not adequately informed and why public discussion and debate were not promoted. Your words also help to explain why council repeatedly voted to deny public information. Like you, the majority felt it was not Council's responsibility to insure that the public was aware of and understood the question council itself was asking. Obviously, like you, they didn't think it was important to inform the public to insure that the vote reflected a valid measure of public sentiment on the issue.

I do not believe, however, that council failed to adequately inform the public because they believed it was not their responsibility...but that they contrived to deliberately keep the public in the dark to catch them "cold" for the first time in the voting booth to confront a difficult and convoluted question worded in a way to solicit a specific response by unaware voters.

Council's lack of interest in insuring the public understood the question, along with the convoluted way it was worded, and the fact that the question did not arise from any concern expressed by the public, all work to prove beyond a doubt that council manipulated the public to get a result they favoured...democracy be damned!

Surely as a long-time politician who should be very familiar with the Ontario Municipal Elections Act, you, Mayor Gray, knew that your public statements about the interested public itself being responsible to organize and run information campaigns regarding YOUR question was against the law and that the Act gives cities themselves unfettered spending ability to inform the public about questions they are being asked on the ballot.

Because Municipal Elections Law gives cities that unfettered and uncontrolled spending ability to inform the public about ballot questions, but does not give the same right to the public, surely implies to any reasonable person that the city itself had a responsibility to adequately inform the public.

Mayor Gray---I should also express my personal displeasure at your public comment to me at committee this morning that, "I knew of the plebiscite but didn't get off my ass to do anything about it until it was too late".

While I don't appreciate your choice of words as Chairman of the committee, as it isn't the way that I communicate, I also want to correct your perceptions of the action (or as you say---inaction) that I took.

Just weeks before the election, I found out "by accident" that the plebiscite question was to be asked. Not believing this from my source, records in the clerk's office will show that I communicated with that office to confirm the accuracy of my information. Upon confirmation from the clerk, I wrote to the Mayor and Council asking that an information brochure be sent to all homes in Oshawa. This letter was never acknowledged nor did city hall ever take any action on my request.

I am extremely careful about the accuracy of everything I write on www.oshawaspeaks.ca and would appreciate you identifying specific factual inaccuracies that you find in the video documenting your comments on this issue at the April 30, 2007 council meeting. As far as I can see, the video itself reflects with 100% accuracy what you said. I do not have the ability to edit the video to put words in your mouth!

I can assure you that I will correct any inaccuracies in the explanatory notes inserted in the video clip but will not change content just because you do not agree with it or like it but at this moment stand behind everything that is said and implied in the video.

A Dangerous Precedent for Ontario Voters

To the Mayor and Council,
c/o Oshawa City Clerk

You may be interested to know that the following Letter to the Editor has today been forwarded to 250 Ontario Newspapers and hopefully will receive wide circulation and exposure. As you can see, we are wanting to focus province-wide attention to the actions of Oshawa City Council to either bring legislative reform to enable a workable general vote for Oshawa or for the government to prohibit Oshawa's move if this is not the direction it intends for Ontario Municipal Elections.

As you know, a similar but expanded letter has already gone to the Premier and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.




Letter to the Editor
250 Ontario Newspapers (personally named and addressed)

A Dangerous Precedent for Ontario Voters

Ontario Bill 130 allows city councils across the Province to introduce city wide elections whereby the vote for every council seat would take place over the entire city as is the case for mayors at present.

Ontario Municipal Councils can make this change unilaterally and it cannot be appealed to the OMB or any other independent or senior body.

Oshawa City Council has voted for this change. At the next election, all candidates for Oshawa City Council will campaign for election across the entire city of 160,000 people.

This has a number of negative repercussions for Oshawa ratepayers and potentially for voters throughout Ontario where local politicians choose to implement the general vote.

In Oshawa, the huge election ballot will contain the names of up to 70 or 80 candidates for the various offices making informed voter choices virtually impossible. The city-wide constituencies of local politicians will be twice the size of our Federal and Provincial Constituencies making local politicians less accessible and accountable than our senior government members, and the high cost of campaigning will make city politicians less representative of the demographics of the city.

To overcome these and the many additional deficiencies of the general vote, the growth of civic political parties must be encouraged by changes to the Ontario Municipal Act and The Ontario Municipal Elections Act if the general vote is to be allowed in large municipalities in Ontario.

The formation of civic political parties would simplify the process of informing voters as candidates associated with the party would all adhere to a common platform and party affiliation and its platform would be the predominant factor attracting votes rather than the individual. The party would be accountable to the public in implementing its platform and its candidates would face electoral defeat for not doing so.

Barriers to municipal political parties presently exist in regards to fundraising limitations, election expenses reporting, registering of candidates, etc., and no provision is given for civic parties to formally and officially approve their associated candidates or the identification of candidate party affiliation on the election ballot which the Supreme Court has held as an essential aspect of voter’s rights to make informed and rational ballot choices under the Charter of Rights.

Such permissive legislation to allow for the formation of civic political parties exists in British Columbia's Local Governments Act to permit the use of the general vote in Vancouver, the only large city in the country, now along with Oshawa, to use the general vote.

While these changes would “Americanize” Ontario’s Municipal Elections System, there is no alternative if the Province is going to allow for use of the general vote in large Ontario Municipalities.

You can read more about this important issue at www.oshawaspeaks.ca.

Bill Longworth,
Founder & Chair of VOTES (Vote to Eliminate Self Serving Politicians)
www.oshawaspeaks.ca

Legislative Changes Required to Make General Vote Workable

Hon. J. Gerretsen,
Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
jgerretsen.mpp@liberal.ola.org


cc:

Hon. D. McGuinty,
Premier of Ontario
dmcguinty.mpp@liberal.ola.org

Jerry Oullette,
MPP Oshawa
jerry.ouellette@pc.ola.org

Christine Elliot
MPP Whitby/Oshawa
christine.elliott@pc.ola.org

To the Mayor and Council
c/o Oshawa City Clerk
clerks@oshawa.ca

Local Press

Dear Hon. Minister:

Re:

Request changes to The Ontario Municipal Act and The Ontario Municipal Elections Act to allow for Municipal Political Parties to contest Municipal Elections

As you know, Bill 130 changes to the Municipal Act allowed Oshawa City Council to implement the general vote for the election of city council for the next municipal elections. While a plebiscite was held, the people were ill-informed as the Mayor stated that the city had no responsibility to inform them of the meaning of the question, its ramifications, or why the question was asked.

This has a number of negative repercussions for Oshawa ratepayers and potentially for voters throughout Ontario where local politicians choose to implement the general vote for municipal elections.

The huge number of candidates on the Oshawa Municipal Ballot will produce an enormous ballot listing up to 100 names for the various offices making it virtually impossible for voters to make informed choices.

Since informed voters are a basic requirement in a democracy, I am asking for legislative changes to The Ontario Municipal Act and The Ontario Municipal Elections Act to make the general vote “workable” and “democratic” for voters in Oshawa.

The only way to make the municipal general vote workable in a city the size of Oshawa is to allow for the organization of municipal political parties. While this would “Americanize” our municipal election systems mirroring their city elections which are largely organized around slates representing the Republican and Democratic Parties, there is no alternative for the Provincial Government if democracy is valued and the general vote is to be allowed or encouraged in Ontario Municipalities.

Such permissive legislation to allow for the formation of civic political parties exists in Sections 6, 7, & 8 of British Columbia's Local Governments Act to permit the use of the general vote in Vancouver, the only large city in the country, now along with Oshawa, to use the general vote.

The formation of civic political parties would simplify the process of informing voters as candidates associated with the party would all adhere to a common platform and party affiliation itself would be the predominant factor attracting votes rather than the individual or his/her name alphabetically positioned on the ballot.

As you know, barriers to the formation of civic political parties presently exist under The Ontario Municipal Act and Sections 29-39 and 66-82 of The Ontario Municipal Elections Act in regards to fundraising limitations, election expenses reporting, registering of candidates, etc., and no provision is given for civic parties to formally and officially approve their associated candidates or the identification of candidate party affiliation on the election ballot which the Supreme Court has held as an essential aspect of voter’s rights to make informed and rational ballot choices under the Charter of Rights.

Changes are necessary to allow for centralized party fundraising and spending at any time and not confined to election periods in order to allow for the development of public awareness of party objectives and platforms as well as for common election period expenses for party signage, brochures, advertising, etc. during election periods.

Should the Province be unwilling to introduce these legislative changes permitting and encouraging the development of Municipal Political Parties, I am asking that they declare Oshawa’s move to the general vote invalid as it severely jeopardizes the ideal of an “informed” vote necessary in a democracy.

You will understand, sir, that the basic premise of democratic politics is to serve the people…not the politicians. We cannot allow our city politicians to "Shanghai" the system for their own selfish purposes and benefits. We cannot allow our political system to become “self-serving” for the politicians.