The Incline's 107th Edition Spectacular!

A lot has happened since last week’s edition! I entitled that one “The Heat”, reflecting on the extreme heat wave that had gripped Hamilton since the end of June and that, at the time, did not appear to be easing up.

Since then, Hurricane Erin has moved closer and closer to the eastern seaboard of the United States. This, combined with a persistent low in the north Atlantic, has jostled the jet stream, creating a “trough” over Ontario into which cold Arctic air has been pouring. This fascinating weather event means that our persistent heat wave now seems like a distant memory. Across the city, Hamiltonians are breaking out their fall jackets and cozy sweaters, as though it were late October.

The heat surrounding my own situation at city hall remains cranked, though. I’m still working through things and hope to have everything resolved eventually. I’m not going to lie; things have been tough because of this investigation. But I’m trying to keep my head held high and focus on doing what I can to stay active in the community.

While I will still avoid discussing matters of civic importance, there are a few things I wanted to write about. This newsletter is as much a project to help me work through my thoughts on issues of the day as much as it is a way for me to provide my unique insights into our politics, our history, and our community.

So here are some news stories I think deserve more attention, as well as links to some of my favourite Incline editions from the past few months. Think of it as part-clip show (for The Incline’s 107th edition, if you count all the editions written as “The Sewer Socialists”), part-nod in the direction of things that we should pay attention to over the next while.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference wrapped up yesterday in Ottawa. While the main focus of this year’s conference was intended to be about the brutal toxicity gripping our civic conversations and how municipal politics is becoming unbearable for even the most hardened of politicos, these conferences never end up going as planned. The annual AMO conference is a chance for provincial and federal leaders to take the stage in front of a captive audience of, not just civic politicians, but the national media.

Near the end of the conference, Education Minister Paul Calandra participated in a discussion regarding trustees, specifically in the context of his placing some of the province’s largest school boards - boards representing 44.8 percent of Ontarians - under “supervision”.

Calandra said that he is presently examining school board governance models and that he is “open to” the idea of eliminating the position of elected school trustee entirely. As a reminder, school trustees have been elected in Ontario since 1816, so Calandra is saying that the Ford government is toying with the idea of eliminating over 200 years of democratic governance of Ontario’s public schools. Calandra even stated that the government may abolish the office of trustee before next year’s municipal elections.

School trustees immediately sounded the alarm, reminding reporters that they’re often some of the first ones calling for increased funding and better policies. Trustees work to advance the interests of the local community - a community that pays into the public school system regardless of whether they have children.

Previous attempts to eliminate trustees have all failed miserably. In Nova Scotia, the school councils designed to replace trustees were unable to function and schools became, in the words of a UOttawa professor, “less responsive to parents and community members.”¹ The elimination of the office of trustee remains controversial, with the province’s NDP trying to force their governing PCs to bring elected trustees back.

In Quebec, the province eliminated trustees to create “school service centres”, but have been bogged down in a fight with English-language boards over their continued existence and the right for Anglophone Quebecers to elect their own representatives. There’s been little said about the matter in English-language media, but Quebec has a tendency to oscillate wildly when it comes to matters of local governance (see the saga of amalgamations and deamalgamations that has created enclaves within enclaves on the island of Montreal).

So it’s possible that, on your 2026 municipal ballot, there will be no line for school trustee, marking just one more way that Ford’s government is reshaping the entire province however they please.

Speaking of which: supervised consumption sites.

When the Ford government mandated the closure of supervised consumption sites (SCS - places where people could use drugs, supervised by trained staff who could reverse overdoses and get them help, including resources on how to overcome their addictions), they did so because of what seemed like shocking statistics.

In Ottawa, so the government claimed, crime was 250 percent higher around SCS locations than in the rest of the city. At last year’s AMO conference, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said that violent crime near one SCS location in Ottawa was up 146 percent.

Those numbers would be shocking, if they were true. But they aren’t.

Last year, the Ottawa Citizen found that, in the years the SCS that Jones focused on was active, crime in the surrounding ward actually dropped 6.2 percent. When asked, the Ottawa Police could not provide data proving the Health Minister’s claims, and a spokesperson for Jones, when asked to provide proof, simply said the number “speaks for itself”.² Questions around the actual statistics hung in the air for nearly a year, with the Ministry unable or unwilling to provide evidence for their claims.

CTV did a follow-up this year, providing us with some actual hard data. The investigation by CTV found that, no, crime was not 146 percent higher around the site Jones fixated on, but was, instead, 14 percent higher than the city average. This was mainly because of small crimes like drug offences, theft under $5,000, and disturbing the peace. It appears that the Minister took stats from 2018, when there was a 158 percent increase in the number of violent crimes around the SCS location, and ran with that. The 158 percent increase seems jarring, but it means that, in 2017, there were 12 reported violent crimes and, in 2018, there were 31.

And, now that it has closed, residents are noticing more crime than before. The closure of the SCS location hasn’t improved the situation and has, instead, forced people who use drugs out into the street where circumstances are less safe for everyone involved.

The Ministry of Health made the unilateral decision - without consulting addictions specialists, healthcare workers, or experts in the field - to close SCS sites and transition to abstinence-only Homeless and Addictions Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs in 2024 based on numbers that appear, at this point, to be almost entirely made up.

From trustees to SCS locations to provincial parks, the Ford government continues to reshape Ontario into the province that works best for them and their wealthy supporters. While it might seem like things can only get worse because we are years out from the provincial election, there are two events happening shortly that might offer some hope.

The first is the Ontario Liberal convention, happening from September 12 to 14 in Toronto. The province’s third party is riddled with internal dissent and, if leader Bonnie Crombie does not achieve a suitable level of support from party members in her leadership review vote, there may be change at the helm of the Liberals. It is hard to say if that will or will not happen, but the debate will be interesting regardless.

The very next weekend, the Ontario NDP meets for their convention in Niagara Falls. Leader Marit Stiles’ position looks far safer than that of Crombie. Stiles - who says she is “taking nothing for granted” heading into the convention - has been listening to party members, engaging in some critical self-reflection, and is working to rebuild the party to get it ready for the next provincial election.

Now, there’s obviously more to look forward to with the ONDP than the Ontario Liberals. Crombie’s tenure as leader has been disastrous and the party seems content to be the Tories with different branding. But with the federal NDP’s leadership race already energizing a new crop of young activists, the possibility for spillover that can revitalize the province’s opposition is positively exciting.

Okay, so that’s what I think folks should be considering over the next while. But, if you’re hankering for a more in-depth Incline experience, please check out some of these recent pieces with which I was very happy:

The Relocation - June 7, 2025: The story of Hamilton’s Alpha Neighbourhood at Burlington Street East and Sherman Avenue North. For decades, this diverse, working-class enclave was tucked away from view, thriving in the shadow of expanding industry. As the economy changed and the city’s policies shifted, the community began a slow march into oblivion. This was the written version of a talk I gave at my first Incline: LIVE! show back in June. I’d love to do another one of those, so stay tuned!

Victoria, Queen of the Gore - May 16, 2025: The story of Gore Park’s iconic statue of Queen Victoria and the civic boosters who campaigned hard for it at the turn of the century. With conversations abounding about the legacy of Hamilton’s statues, this piece looks at the one that stands guard over the core.

What force on earth is weaker - February 26, 2025: Right before the 2025 provincial election, I published this piece on the Hamilton Labour Schism of 1934 and how the parallels might be seen in the campaign for Hamilton Centre.

Alright, that’s the 107th Edition Spectacular! Well, 24th edition if you only count things published as The Incline.

I also want to take this time to thank everyone who has reached out to offer their support in their own way over the past two weeks. When this all kicked off, I felt extremely down. But the way in which people have shown their support has helped lift my spirits and keep my head above water. Thank you all, so much, for your kindness and support. It means the world to me.

1  _{“Eliminating trustees would leave schools 'at the whims of Toronto'“ CBC News, August 21, 2025 (Link).}

2  _{Elizabeth Payne. “The problem with the province’s crime stats and closing supervised consumption sites” Ottawa Citizen, August 29, 2025 (Link).}