…but first, a word from The Incline.

Happy Pride Month! It’s that wonderful time of year when there’s no more prejudice and everyone unites in the spirit of acceptance and love! Right?

reads the news 

oh no.

Anyway, for Pride Month, I thought I would let everyone know that I’ll be participating in the 2025 Pride and Remembrance Run in downtown Toronto next Saturday. It’s a lovely little 5K that always makes me feel like I’ve earned the rest of the Pride weekend festivities.

But the Pride Run is an important fundraising opportunity, especially now that corporations have begun pulling back from supporting our community and our governments act more like moralizing adversaries than enthusiastic partners. The three beneficiaries of the run this year are the Sherbourne Health Centre, which is training Black, African, Caribbean, and multi-racial 2SLGBTQ+ youth with lived experience to become peer support mentors, Sunshine Centres for Seniors, which is working to increase 2SLGBTQ+ seniors' social inclusion, support their wellness and independence, and connect them to the community, and Women’s College Hospital Foundation, which is doing important work on gender-affirming care for members of our community.

So, instead of giving to my kofi page, if you wanted to make a contribution this month, you can donate to my run through Race Roster. Anyone who donates over $20 will get a tax receipt (the Pride and Remembrance Run is a registered charity in Canada) and you’ll be supporting queer community organizations doing important work.

If you wanted to contribute, click on the button below. And, if you’re in Toronto next Saturday morning, say hello as I zip on by!

Okay, on with the newsletter!

'Round Hamilton

The publishing habits of newsletter writers

Last week was another “week off” for me, as I was once again at a conference. This time, I travelled to the tiny and picturesque town of Almonte, Ontario to talk about ways to strengthen municipal democracy. During this conference, I had the opportunity to present some of my work to mayors and council members from small rural municipalities across the province. It was an interesting experience and many of the people gathered shared deeply personal stories about the challenges they face trying to be municipal politicians in small communities and in this political climate. Council members being followed home by angry constituents, or trying to start local papers on their own to counter the misinformation coming from shady Facebook groups in town, or genuinely weighing whether public service is worth the abuse and hate they get, especially when people think it’s okay to go after not just political figures themselves, but also their families, friends, and communities.

All of that inspired me to finally put together a piece I had been meaning to write for some time. You can read that piece - “We all have to stand up and reject the politics of division” - on The Spec’s website for free at the link there, as the paper is now allowing subscribers to offer “gift” articles. But I thought I needed to write this piece given the political climate in the city right now.

And because, frankly, I’m tired of seeing bullies go unchecked in this city.

Bullies are having their moment right now. Much of the civic conversation in Hamilton is being driven by a small band of well-funded and extremely loud people who have fixated on the women, people of colour, and queer folks who are engaged and active in the community. There’s a reason I keep referring to The Ladies and The Gays (Plus Craig)™ on council; pick a problem in Hamilton - the infrastructure deficit, housing and homelessness, HSR delays, renovictions, the toxic drug epidemic - and you won’t have to look too far to find someone blaming those problems on Nrinder Nann, Tammy Hwang, Alex Wilson, Maureen Wilson, or the arch confabulator himself (thunder clap, witch’s cackle, panicked horse whinnying) Cameron Kroetsch.

It doesn’t matter if the current council was sworn in 947 days ago. The homelessness crisis, which began during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 (two years before Kroetsch was elected) and is the result of decades of underfunding social housing, mental health supports, and the general social safety net in Canada is the direct fault of Kroetsch and Nann. Every bike lane in Dundas (of which almost every single one was installed during the last term of council) is the fault of Alex Wilson. The reason the police have been defunded (by “defunded”, I mean “saw their budget increase 5.7% to remain the single largest budget line item in Hamilton”) is the fault of Maureen Wilson and Nann because, in the wake of excessive police violence directed toward people of colour in 2019 and 2020, they had the audacity to start a conversation about effective crime management strategies in the city.

The bullies will deny they’re being bullies. They might not even realize they’re doing it consciously. But the city’s bullies have been treating anyone who isn’t a straight, white, conservative man as an easy target. The mere fact that anyone who looks different, sounds different, and expresses a different point of view is an affront to their sensibilities, particularly now that we aren’t paying them what they believe is their requisite amount of respect. Former politicians, now relegated to the sidelines, are announcing their triumphant returns, promising us a return to the days of their utter financial mismanagement and dysfunction, all because we haven’t been nice enough to them in their retirement.

No one is reading my tweets or inviting me to luncheons so I’m going to run in 2026 because I need people to WITNESS ME!

In this atmosphere, people from different backgrounds and with different ideas are being told, in no uncertain terms, that their voices don’t belong in the conversation. It’s no wonder that the bulk of the folks who have announced their council campaigns for 2026 (and the Ward 8 by-election) are straight, white, conservative men. The online chatter, the city’s right-wing establishment, and the general ethos of the entire conversation is working to keep people out, not expand and strengthen our democracy. That’s why I ended that piece with these lines:

Now, an important note here. I call some of the people in this conversation “bullies” for a few key reasons. They punch down, they mock relentlessly, they are exaggerated and hyperbolic in their attacks, they offer nothing in the way of solutions, and they wield their privilege like weapons, all while playing the victim. Engaging in satire does not make one a bully. Nor does engaging in legitimate, honest critiques of the system, which is flawed and deserves to be critiqued.

But the city’s exiled political class and their protégés are laser-focused on Kroetsch and Nann and every other person on council who hasn’t done the expected right-wing populist dance. They try to feign ignorance, but by posting about Kroetsch and Nann on X/Twitter or writing about them in the right-wing online tabloid The Bay Observer, they’re throwing chum into the water for the small group of loud, permanently aggrieved internet sharks that have been circling since October 24, 2022, hungry eyes fixed on October 26, 2026.

Speaking of 2026…

The candidate strikes out

One of the declared candidates for the 2026 election is Ward 3’s Andrew Selman, who described himself to The Spec as a “quantitative data analyst”. City hall watchers will know him as the person who repetitively delegates on a scattershot array of issues, often seeking opportunities to debate councillors so that the videos can be clipped and shared on social media. Selman uses public delegations like the opposition uses Question Period, trying to get as many good clips in as possible so they can be turned around and used alongside fundraising pitches or to serve as a substitute for anything substantive and constructive.

The big Roman Reigns “ACKNOWLEDGE ME!” energy (for all you WWE fans out there) is part of the reason why I’ve muted the aspiring candidate across social media. He’s a relentless poster, mainly using social media to goad people into engaging which, in turn, boosts his profile.

It’s the same kind of “hack” that people like Donald Trump use, posting with the veracity of a firehose so that people have no choice but to pay attention. On Bluesky, he posts to “trigger the libs”. On X/Twitter, it’s to virtue signal to the dozen or so hard right bots and sock puppets that still use the site to make less-than-veiled discriminatory remarks toward sitting councillors. It’s an echo chamber that, once again, makes for great content to be clipped, shared, and used as proof that there’s some kind of “silent majority” out there keen to overthrow council.

Selman’s strategy is focused with overwhelming concentration on Kroetsch, who responds to many of his posts, ultimately to the councillor’s own disadvantage, given the right-wing extremist makeup of X/Twitter now. Indeed, if Selman hadn’t begun including “WARD 3” in his biographical information, one would be excused for thinking he was running against Kroetsch in Ward 2. Guess it’s easier to poke at the “tell-it-like-it-is” councillor for Ward 2 than to relentlessly attack his own presumed opponent in the Ward 3 race.

Earlier this week, I was informed by a friend that Selman had taken to the far-right social media site X/Twitter to, once again, goad Kroetsch into an online fight. But, it being Pride Month and all, Selman decided that it would be fun and cool and not at all cringey to lump the Steel City Inclusive Softball Association (SCISA) - the softball league that Kroetsch, myself, and over 500 other Hamiltonians are a part of this season - into the attack.

SCISA applied for a Ward 2 grant to help with some of our costs, including ensuring players with limited resources could still play alongside everyone else. The goal of an inclusive league is to ensure that everyone, regardless of financial status, can participate and feel like part of the community.

Selman took this public information and clunkily spun it into another Kroetsch conspiracy over on Elon Musk’s repository for anti-Semitic memes and misinformation.

“How would you feel if your Councillor used your tax dollars to sponsor a softball league they personally participate in?” Selman asks no one in particular.

“I support the league and believe in equality - but I have real concerns about self-dealing by Cameron Kroetsch,” he continues, making sure to cover his tracks by reminding people he “supports the league and believes in equality”, despite dragging the league into another one of his internet conspiracy theories and his history of relentlessly targetting queer people online for the crime of exercising their democratic rights and openly supporting candidates like Sarah Jama, Matthew Green, and Kroetsch.

Kroetsch, of course, responds to Selman, saying that the Integrity Commissioner cleared it, the grant was part of a public process, and that all the information about the grant is public as well. Selman fires back with a smarmy little quip: “Ultimately, it's more of a question for the public, as opposed to yourself. I appreciate your feedback here, and good luck on the season!”

That’s only half true. It was for “the public”, but it wasn’t a question. It was a starters pistol for the online trolls. The replies are littered with bigots (and accounts that advocate for Canada to be annexed by America) who call for Kroetsch’s resignation, make veiled homophobic comments, and issue threats to brigade the league. Selman has painted a target on the back of the city’s queer community, all in an effort to advance his political career.

But that doesn’t matter to the singularly-minded Selman, who has made it his mission to dog Kroetsch with passionate intensity. His strategy is right out of the MAGA Republican playbook. It doesn’t matter who you’re running against, you spend all your time attacking the most-easily identifiable and opinionated voices. For MAGA, it’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad”. For Selman and his fellow right-wing populists, it’s Kroetsch.

The goal is power and it doesn’t matter who gets taken down in the process. But dragging SCISA into an ugly little X/Twitter fight - a fight designed to trigger Kroetsch and to rile up the far-right trolls who are already clamouring for a chance to shove us back into the closet so that they can feel better about their own miserable lives - is petty and sad.

Selman burst onto the public scene a few months ago by attacking people experiencing homelessness, so he may not be super aware of the issues Hamilton’s queer community has faced in the past or the historical struggles of marginalized communities in Hamilton. The long, violent, ugly history of discrimination, harassment, and abuse at the hands of community members, city hall, and the Hamilton Police Service has haunted the city’s queer community for decades. Organizations like SCISA make us feel like we can be ourselves in Hamilton and give us a way to meet other queer folks, organize around a defined activity, and give back to our community. The league has hosted countless fundraisers and worked to provide consultation on improvements to Eastwood Park that the whole city can enjoy. We’re working on building community in a city that desperately needs it.

If I were Selman’s handlers, I’d Best be suggesting a new strategy. Because starting the election facing down 500 angry queers and allies might not be the best approach. Those anonymous X/Twitter trolls won’t be showing up at campaign rallies, but you can be sure the scores of SCISA members who live in Ward 3 will show up to the polls.

Swing and a miss.

Speaking of elections…

The race begins, not with a bang, but with a whimper

The Ward 8 by-election kicked off today with the opening of candidate registration at 8:30 AM. During the general election, candidates will often line up, eager to be the first to register and get some free press out of the event. But, today, things were comparatively quieter, as reported by Joey Coleman who posted a photo of an empty Citizen Service Centre this morning.

Nominations are open until 2:00 PM on Friday, August 8, 2025, so don’t worry that nobody will show up for this election. Indeed, one retired politician seeking a comeback will almost certainly be in the race (and may already be, but the city hasn’t updated their website).

Former Hamilton Mountain NDP MP Scott Duvall and Ward 7 councillor from 2006 to 2015 teased a run for Ward 8 councillor with a post on X/Twitter that was almost certainly made in error.

At 6:49 PM on May 28, in the third person, Duvall tweeted “Scott Duvall is onsidering [sic] to run for” and then it trails off, dancing into the ether like a spectre, haunting us all.

That was the tweet.

Then, five minutes later (without deleting the original), Duvall posted again, clarifying: “Scott Duvall is considering to run for Ward 8 Councillor in Hamilton Municipal by -election. Your responses and thoughts are appreciated.”

Then he immediately retweeted his own tweet.

The responses were…mixed. While there were more opponents than supporters, a wide cross section of people were jazzed about the idea, including the usual right-wing trolls on the site as well as some more mainstream labour leaders.

One particularly enthusiastic supporter of Duvall’s was Jason Farr, the Ward 3 resident and 2022 Ontario Liberal Party candidate in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek who has teased a rematch with Kroetsch in Ward 2 for 2026 (geography!). In a rather difficult-to-follow tweet, Farr wrote: “The Water strike might be over by the time a by-election is held, but if you were there today, it’d be over tomorrow. This moderate knows SD the traditional Dipper is just what this council needs. A very fair, genuine, hardworking and common-sense Councillor. #SD4Ward8”

That’s a hashtag that will definitely catch on.

Unsure what the water worker’s strike has to do with anything (again, negotiations are led by staff, not council), but Farr is all on board for Scott Duvall, the “traditional Dipper.”

What Farr means is that Duvall is a good ol’ fashioned labour traditionalist. A little more socially conservative, a little less into the whole “diversity” and “progressive” side of politics, and a little more focused on a 1970’s and 1980’s style of trade unionism. The subtext is that Duvall won’t go in for anything “woke” like poetry and bike lanes and grants to music venues and climate resilience and social services.

I’m trying to be constructive, but it’s Pride month, so let me say what I’m thinking.

Like, just call me a slur already and get it over with. Quit it with the obfuscating language and just use that hard F. Y’all are so close.

Farr and Duvall were on council at the same time, when the body was more of an Old Boys Club and where residents struggled, day in and day out, to eke out even a millimetre of progress. During their tenure, city hall was an impenetrable fortress, characterized by a patronizing attitude toward all but the deepest of pocketed residents. While they sat on council, it was everyday residents making the most change in the community, working in spite of city hall, rather than with it.

Now, council is tasked with cleaning up the mess left to them by Farr and Duvall. While they do that, the former councillors are gearing up for a return to office as “champions of the taxpayer”. Duvall has spent his retirement tweeting at Mayor Horwath to “stop tax increases” (kind of…his tweets are hard to follow) or agreeing with Esther Pauls on cancelling the Poet-in-Place program or adding to a Selman-led Kroetsch pile-on about the stalled Jamesville project. Decades of financial mismanagement are pinned on the current council while a host of political exiles crows on about being here for taxpayers. Just like the good ol’ days.

If Duvall has registered, the city’s progressives should work on uniting behind a compelling, electable, realistic candidate for Ward 8 councillor. Despite his ostensible NDP cred, Duvall isn’t what Hamilton needs right now. He, and the other right-wing populist candidates getting ready for 2026, are hoping nostalgia gets them elected. But the problems of today will not be solved by the leaders of yesterday - many of whom were in positions to prevent today’s problems from happening when they had the chance. Rewarding them for their poor performance would be a sad reflection on our priorities and on our democracy.

Speaking of outdated ideas…

Freeze ray

Ward 14’s usually quiet Councillor Mike Spadafora jolted to life during Wednesday’s council meeting, driven by his newfound obsession with the city’s staffing levels. Council backed Spadafora’s hiring freeze by a 9 to 5 vote, agreeing that the city should hire absolutely no new staff in 2026 (except, of course, for more police and first responders).

The day before, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce (referred to by the city’s right-wing political establishment as a “social club” for some unknown reason) hosted the State of the City address, where City Manager Marnie Cluckie talked about the need for all of us to work together and build on the progress the city has made over the past years.

At the event, Beni Colalillo, a local landlord embroiled in a pitched renoviction battle with his tenants, commandeered the mic and chastised the city for it’s slow response to cutting red tape and expediting plans for new developments. While Colalillo is a decidedly imperfect messenger, the sentiment - that it takes city hall too long to get things done - is one that’s shared by many in the community.

And so here’s the situation we’re in:

1. For decades, the city pursued a policy of emphasizing low-density, car-centric development - development that nets less in tax revenue than is put in to it - across Hamilton.

2. Successive councils put off major infrastructure investments and kept the size of the local government small to avoid dealing with the city’s revenue issues.

3. Now we’re faced with a veritable cornucopia of crises - an infrastructure crisis, a housing crisis, a “trust-in-local-government” crisis - necessitating action on the part of our political leaders.

4. In order to expedite new developments - developments that will add housing units to the city’s housing “stock” and will expand the city’s tax base - we need planners and engineers and experts who will ensure the projects get the necessary approvals as required by federal, provincial, and municipal law.

5. The city’s new conservative leaders have decided that they don’t want to be blamed for tax increases, so they’re looking at cutting what they can to appear fiscally prudent when knocking on doors in 2026.

6. By pursuing a hiring freeze, they ensure that the approvals backlog will only get worse, preventing new development and keeping the city’s tax base low, creating an ouroboros of inefficiency that will hamper us for decades to come.

Basically, the right wing of council’s fiscal policy is a version of the “no take only throw” meme :

This move to “cut the fat” is like cutting off Hamilton’s hands to achieve a weight loss goal. We can’t grow the local economy if there aren’t capable and qualified staff at city hall ready to do the work necessary to speed up the approvals process, get shovels in the ground, and expand the local tax base.

That, and we’re racing toward another recession. By preemptively passing a motion that will cut off a classic Keynesian response, Hamilton’s right-wing opposition caucus might have created the circumstances by which any financial hardships the city faces may be prolonged and made worse.

My instinct is to say these council members should go take an ECON 101 class somewhere but, by this point, I could develop an entire undergrad curriculum for some of them.