But first…a word from the Sewer.

Sorry, early newsletter. There were two things that were on my mind all weekend and I thought it best to write about them while they’re still fresh in everyone’s minds. All the action this week is front-loaded, plus most of council is off at a conference, meaning the likelihood that major new stuff will happen in the next 48 hours is low (this is my warning to you, news). Plus, an early newsletter is my way of making up for being so delayed over the past few editions.

In my end-of-year survey from 2023, 87% of respondents said they wanted the newsletter to keep coming out on Thursdays. I hope this early edition doesn’t ruffle too many feathers. Every time I publish, I get some people dropping off the subscriber list and some people signing up, not really giving me any good indication that people are wedded to Thursday outside of simply enjoying the consistency of publishing end-of-week.

Enjoy!

Very demure, very mindful, very focused on business constituents

Just as I got my head around the concept of brat summer, a whole new trend has blown everything up.

I was settling in, letting the messiness of the season consume me as though it were some spectral being from ţ̴̆h̷̼̏e̷̮͒ ̶̢́v̴̞́o̴̼̓i̴̦̎ḓ̸̒, when social media exploded with a new trending phrase. For a second there last week, every corner of the internet seemed to be jammed with the same four words: very demure, very mindful.

As with most new trends, this one came from TikTok. This newfound focus on demurerityness specifically came from the creator Jools Lebron who, in a recent video, demonstrated their “in the workplace” look. “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron says.

Great, something new to learn that will be obscure in three weeks. Being 34 is harder than I expected. I’m not adapting as quickly as I once did! Ahh, my bones!

Sometimes, all it takes is one personality to say a phrase enough times for it to enter the contemporary lexicon, with that simple collection of words either flaming out with incredible speed or settling into the common parlance of the people. What are the rules around this? No one knows! And that’s okay because English is, in the words of another viral social media post from last week, nothing but “the shower drain of languages.”

Ward 6 councillor Tom Jackson tried his hand at entering a fun new phrase into the public record during last Friday’s council meeting. I doubt this one will stick, though, since his effort looks more like one to rebrand an existing phrase with some pleasant-sounding nonsense.

Heritage Greene zoninge changese

Council had a lot on its plate last week - sifting through a stack of correspondence, passing a host of committee reports, hearing more from staff about the Great Ransomware Attack of 2024, motions and bylaws and a whole array of fun, fun stuff.

Nudges readers awake.

Things were trucking along until the gang got to Agenda Item 6.4. That was the report from last Tuesday’s planning committee meeting. Tucked away in that report was Item 7, discussing an application for an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment (a twofer!) regarding four parcels of land on Upper Mount Albion Road in Ward 9.

Taking a look at this image from Google Maps, it is clear the parcels in question are ripe and ready for intensification. They’re across the street from a power centre, down the road from the Heritage Greene transit “terminal”, and within spitting distance of massive, massive, massive roads. So many roads.

The planning committee report recommends council approve the requested changes, which have been coming down the pipeline since this application was submitted in 2022. The changes would allow the developer to up-zone these parcels and build a 9-storey mixed use building with ground-floor retail (that’s actually at sidewalk level and isn’t set back in some ugly parking lot!), 64 studio apartments, 60 one bedroom units, 17 one bed+den, 90 two-bedroom units, and 4 two bed+den apartments with underground parking, amenity space, and commitment from the developer for EV charging stations, 146 bike lockup spots, and carsharing space.

Sure, it looks like it’ll be condo and there is zero commitment to any affordable units, but, for all the folks just screaming for more housing units, this addition of 232 units is great. And it’ll look something like this:

Things got started on Item 7 with Brad Clark, the ward councillor for the area where the development has been proposed. Clark made the case for approving the zoning changes. “This development here really helps us to continue our progress in making this a walkable community,” Clark told his colleagues. That sounds admirable and, honestly, not much to disagree with there.

Councillors have long talked about deferring to the ward councillor when it comes to supporting or opposing a project. There’s debate about how appropriate that is (is a ward councillor part of a team or some kind of local lord?), but it is something Clark has raised on occasion, so the assumption was this would just sail by without much controversy.

But then Ward 6 councillor Tom Jackson added himself to the speaker’s list.

And then he launched into it.

I present his initial comments - transcribed, unedited, and unabridged:

Narrator’s voice: it was very convoluted.

I’ll summarize from here.

The “business constituent” of Jackson is objecting to the development, not because of the development itself, but because they, themselves, were a developer in the area years ago. When they built their development (the massive, sprawling power centre around the proposed new condo), they had to pay for the infrastructure that was put in. They bought up farmland with the intention of slapping down some big box stores. In order to do that, they needed to enter into an agreement with the city stating they would front the costs for new roads and sewers and all that fun stuff. It’s only fair if you’re going to make money off it, really.

There was a fancy little section in their agreement with the city that said “hey, if in the next ten years, someone else comes along and wants to redevelop vacant land around here, they have to pay you back for putting in the roads and sewers they’re now going to profit from”. But after that ten years, the agreement ended, and all obligations were called off.

Jackson’s “business constituent” made that agreement in 2008, meaning the requirement for anyone to pay them back ended in 2018.

That “business constituent” turned around in 2021 and told the city they wanted to extend the agreement but totally forgot about it for three years and they’d very much like to extend it if that would be okay. Unfortunately, that was legally not possible, limiting their options to make a little extra cash from their development.

The Ford Tories made changes to Bill 185, the “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024” (what a terrible name) which made it impossible for any third parties to hold up development, cutting off Jackson’s “business constituent’s” last possible avenue for recourse, aside from pulling Jackson aside and asking if he could go to council and do their bidding. He did, got shot down, and that was that.

Jackson was very folksy about the whole thing. He joked with the Acting General Manager and the mayor, kept it light, and did his usual “down-to-earth regular dude” routine. But something about his interjection lingered heavy in the air. It was more distracting than even his awkwardly placed banana.

What, pray tell, is a “business constituent”?

The $250 question

Credit where credit is due, it was Ward 8 councillor JP Danko who stepped in with a point of clarification.

“When items come before the planning committee, we always want to speak in terms of who the actual parties are. So I’m clear on who we’re talking about, instead of ‘business constituent’ or ‘adjacent landowner’, who specifically has brought these concerns forward?” Danko asked.

Jackson jumps in, saying that his concern was from “the legal representative Scott Snider of TMA Law on behalf of…representing Winterberry Paramount Corporation and the particular individual as the owner of the company Gerald Asa of Effort Trust.”

Ahh. There we are. Took a while, but we got down to it.

So let’s just break this down so we’re all clear on this.

The constituent in question is not the lawyer, Scott Snider, though Snider does work for TMA Law. “TMA” stands for Turkstra Mazza Associates. The “Turkstra” portion of the name is in reference to Herman Turkstra, a giant in local politics and advocacy who, from 1970 to 1972 was on Hamilton’s Board of Control. The “Mazza” portion of the name is in reference to Paul Mazza, a local lawyer who, in 2022, donated $250 to Jackson’s re-election campaign.

The constituent in question is not Gerald Asa of Effort Trust, as Asa’s municipal donation records indicate an address in Dundas. Those are the records showing that, in the 2022 municipal election, Asa gave to mayoral candidate Keanin Loomis, Ward 3 candidate Laura Farr, Ward 7 councillor Esther Pauls, Ward 9 candidate Peter Lanza, and Ward 13 candidate Arlene VanderBeek.

Oh, and $250 to Tom Jackson.

The constituent in question isn’t even other people involved with Effort Trust, namely members of the Weisz family. Effort Trust was founded in 1978 by Arthur Weisz, but it was his son, a corporate lawyer named Tom Weisz, who quickly became President and CEO and led the company to incredible growth. Today, Effort Trust is one of Hamilton’s largest property owners and landlords. Across the city, the company owns and manages 192 commercial and residential buildings, as well as other industrial holdings, all totaling around 10 million square feet of property, with a head office in the downtown core.1

In Ward 6, they own 8 apartments and 4 commercial holdings. They are the owners of every commercial development surrounding the proposed mixed-use building in Ward 9 and, according to these old renderings, the owner of the large vacant parcel of land behind the proposed building as well.

Just for reference, here’s what the ownership in the area looks like. Everything outlined in blue is owned by Effort Trust (many of these locations are owned by them through separate corporations or entities) and the red portion is the proposed new condo on parcels not owned by Effort Trust.

Tom Weisz and his wife Sasha aren’t the constituents in question. Tom passed away a few weeks ago and was a Westdale resident, living across the street from McMaster University. Tom’s sister, Janet Weisz, isn’t the constituent in question either, as she is, funny enough, the spouse of Gerald Asa who, again, lives in Dundas. It is worth noting here that Tom, Sasha, and Janet also contributed $250 each to Jackson’s 2022 municipal campaign.

So let’s be clear about what happened: When Jackson was speaking at council, he was not representing a living, breathing constituent. He was representing Effort Trust, a corporate entity. A corporate entity that wanted to get a better deal from the city. A corporate entity that stands to profit off the decisions that council makes. A corporate entity that is not based in his ward. A corporate entity around whom are multiple people who donated the same amount to his 10th re-election bid to become Ward 6 councillor in 2022.

Jackson’s performance last Friday was a clear demonstration that he is bought and bossed by the city’s wealthy real estate developers. He’s working for them, first and foremost. He used time at a council meeting, not to advocate for his constituents in Ward 6, but to advance the interests of a corporation with business before the city.

A city for whom?

And, you know, maybe that’s what Hamiltonians want.

Jackson has been in office longer than I’ve been alive. In the first election he won, he earned just over 48% of the vote. He hasn’t dipped below 50% of the vote since then. Hell, in 2000, he won nearly 89% of the vote. That’s what I like to call the “DPRK Special”.

It is apparent that voters in Ward 6 don’t seem to mind (though voter turnout on the east mountain has hovered between 43% and 35% since 2003).

Jackson sure doesn’t get the flack that other councillors get in the Spec letters to the editor. The last time he was mentioned there was in December, when he was praised by a resident for the “clarity and conscience in his thought process”.

Ditto for how he’s treated in relation to some of his colleagues on social media. According to some folks over on r/Hamilton, Cameron Kroetsch and Nrinder Nann (and, depending on the day, some of the other ladies and gays on council) are entirely responsible for everything that’s wrong with the city. Falling home prices? Traffic delays? The relocation of the Santa Claus Parade? The entire concept of homelessness? All their fault. There weren’t even any problems in this city until they showed up here from out of town!

The worst r/Hamilton posts and comments you’ll see about Jackson are that he’s been around a long time. The worst things you’ll see about Kroetsch claim that he’s the human embodiment of Satanic wokeness who single-handedly destroyed downtown by defunding the police, creating homelessness, and turning the city into a one-party socialist state. The critiques are not the same, even in the slightest.

Jackson’s treatment online is demure. Kroetsch’s treatment online is unhinged.

The best that people have come up with to counter Jackson is continuously bringing up the idea of term limits as though we are so entirely bereft of organizing capacity that only legislation can end his reign over the east mountain.

Jackson is clearly under the impression he’s invincible. Why would a local politician so flagrantly and so publicly do the bidding of a giant corporation that he has, in the past (and through high-ups in the business), accepted donations from for his re-election bid? At this point, it seems like he doesn’t even care if people find out. He can spend his time on council doing the bidding of a business as though he were a lobbyist on their behalf before turning around and asking the residents of the east mountain to send him back to 71 Main Street West for another four years to keep serving developers and landlords.

Famously, Jackson announces his intent to seek reelection very early. Around a week after he won his 8th bid for Ward 6 councillor in 2014, Jackson announced a 9th reelection bid for 2018 - a full four years before the next election and before he had even been sworn in for the new term. He hasn’t mentioned anything about running in 2026, so maybe he feels free enough to lobby openly for Effort Trust because he has no intention of running again.

But there’s always the possibility that he registers for reelection in 2026. And if he does, voters on the east mountain should be asking him one question when he knocks on their doors: are you going to work for the people of the east mountain or just for your “business constituents”?

Jackson’s performance last Friday should give them some indication who he really serves. And there was nothing demure or mindful about it.

A ten-line highway to mediocrity

I’ve been thinking about two large conferences that are happening right now.

The first is the Democratic National Convention, the party convention where the Democrats in the US will officially nominate Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as their presidential and vice presidential candidates for this November’s vote. There’s a lot to say about the Democratic ticket and I’m sure many, many people will have very valid critiques of both candidates, the party, and the general state of American democracy at the present moment. Critics gonna critique and all that.

But you can’t help but get caught up in the energy of it all. Two months ago, it looked like America was about to sleepwalk into a new, weirder kind of fascism thanks to the stubbornness of its political leaders and the inflexibility of its institutions.

Now, it feels like 2008 all over again and there’s a kind of enthusiasm bubbling up from America like we haven’t seen in a long, long time. Particularly when faced with the kind of threat that someone like Donald Trump poses (in large part because of the much smarter people around him who know that he has a cult following and they can leverage that to get what they want - namely a dark and frightening Christian nationalist future where freedom and justice are subject to their own interpretation of religious texts) it is refreshing to see that all is not lost. As I noted last week, you can only fix something if it still exists. American democracy might be broken, but you can’t fix it if it has been dismantled. With the Harris/Walz ticket, at least there’s something to be hopeful about.

The second conference is the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa, which coincides with the organization’s 125th anniversary. Municipal politicians and figures from across the province are meeting to discuss the challenges municipalities face and how to address them.

Side note: my present work contract has me doing work for a research group that also includes the AMO. It isn’t necessarily a conflict, but just wanted to put that out there in the name of ✨transparency✨.

Doug Ford was at the AMO conference to speak about his government’s achievements and “plans”. During his speech, he talked about his government’s “most ambitious plan to build in Ontario history — we’re investing nearly $100 billion to expand and improve transit, roads and highways.”2

This comment comes on the heels of a report from The Trillium which details how the government’s own projections are that typical commute speeds on Ontario’s 400-series highways will be about 40 km/h in the next 15-ish years (that’s slightly slower than the running speed of your average house cat). The intrepid folks over at The Trillium got access to these documents through a Freedom of Information request and they are…damning, to say the least.

Despite the Progressive Conservative’s fear-mongering about traffic hell if they don’t build their shiny new Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass (linking Highways 400 and 404 north of Newmarket), their own internal projections state that, at peak traffic times, commutes will be between the low teens to about 40 km/h (slower than non-highway surface roads and house cats) with or without the Highway 413.

Oh, and they’re already pre-planning for the potential for the Highway 413 to be ten lanes across. All of the modeling indicates that, after temporary congestion relief, all the highways will fill up again, and worse, because the 413 is, in the words of one expert The Trillium spoke with, “as much a development play as anything.”3 They slap down a new highway, encourage sprawl development beside it, developers and Tory insiders get rich, everyone else suffers, life gets worse and worse and worse.

It isn’t just highways. This is just one more example of how Doug Ford’s whole leadership style is erratic and self-interested. Even this Monday, there was another example of that, as the CBC reported on how Ford’s government has gone from completely anti-green energy to totally pro-green energy. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s caucus exists to do the bidding of the premier, who exists to do the bidding of Ontario’s wealthy elites. It doesn’t matter how many times Ford says “folks”; he’s still a multi-millionaire working exclusively for multi-millionaires.

His government is actively pursuing policies that will, at best, maintain the broken status quo and, at worst, make life worse for the people of this province. Highways that won’t solve congestion, housing plans that won’t lower costs, healthcare plans that won’t reduce wait times, education plans that won’t improve conditions in the classroom, economic plans that benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy.

And polling indicates that, as of a month ago, in a provincial election held now, the PCs would win 44% of the vote - higher than their share of the popular vote in 2022 and their highest level of support since then.

Now, a word of caution on this. This isn’t necessarily because the PCs are popular. Ford’s Tories are only at 44% in the polls because the electorate is shrinking. We had record low voter turnout in 2022 when only 43.5% of Ontarians bothered to vote. That was the lowest turnout of all time in this province. Despite winning a higher percent of the vote, the PCs lost over 400,000 actual votes. The New Democrats shed over 800,000 votes. The only major party to not lose votes from 2018 was the Greens, who managed to pick up almost 15,000 new votes. There’s nothing to indicate that voter turnout will increase at all in the next election, especially if it’s early.

And that’s, in large part, because people don’t know what to vote for.

An Abacus poll was released on Sunday that found three of the top “vote winners” for Canadians - the issues more Canadians said they would support than oppose - are straight from the progressive playbook: raising income taxes on the 1%, making public transit free, and universalizing post-secondary education.

There isn’t a political party in the province willing to adopt these policies. Ontario’s progressive parties remain committed to pursuing platforms of mediocrity despite the electorate crying out for something bold.

Something isn’t clicking. Somewhere along the line, something isn’t getting through to our political leaders. There’s a fundamental disconnect between the electorate and the elected.

Ontarians want something ambitious, something interesting, something to be hopeful about. We want big ideas and a meaningful challenge to Ford that isn’t just Ford bad Ford bad Ford bad Ford bad Ford bad repeated over and over and over again. I laid out the problems with his government in ~400 words because it doesn’t take much for people to see the reality of life around them. Repeating it without offering a coherent and compelling alternative is just wasting everyone’s time.

A book that I return to regularly is Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way, a now-dated handbook from the foundation named after the late left-wing Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone, aimed at people interested in getting their start in politics. It is geared toward progressives in the United States who, when it was published in 2008, didn’t have access to a lot of the training and resources they have today. It is an almost nostalgic re-read for me, but it has a lot of very important points in it.

One point they discuss in the book is about “contrasting”. There’s a difference between mindless attacks and contrasting between your ideas and those of your electoral opponent. The authors note: “Elections are about choices, after all, and a winning message must acknowledge that choice, either implicitly or explicitly…Using contrast is simply a way of letting voters know the choice in front of them.”4

But that’s the thing: there needs to be a clear choice. If Ontario’s opposition parties want to really contrast between Ford’s Tories and themselves, they need to have something to point to, not just point at. Ontarians deserve a credible alternative to the 413 that isn’t just “413 bad”. Yeah, no kidding, we know the Highway 413 will be bad. How are you going to fix congestion if you’re saying that the 413 won’t?

Where’s the talk about rapid, reliable, universal transit? Where’s the talk about more efficient communities that put residents before profits? Where’s the talk about ending sprawl and focusing on different forms of housing, ending wasteful spending on highways and investing in active transportation, ending a total reliance on the corporate market to create jobs and instead helping local businesses and small firms create meaningful work opportunities in their communities?

As we barrel toward an increasingly-likely spring provincial election, I can’t help but think that we, just like the Democrats in the US, deserve something to be hopeful about. Are we in a position where our political leaders are so stubborn and our institutions are so inflexible that they won’t see the need for real change? And, if that is the case, then shouldn’t we do something about that?

Cool facts for cool people

• Next Wednesday, August 28, the ever-amazing Kojo Damptey will be interviewing Luke LeBrun, the editor of PressProgress, on Kojo’s Corner, where they’ll discuss far-right groups across Canada. This will be a wonderful conversation and I’m very excited for that! Keep an eye on Kojo’s social media for that. I know I’ll be tuning in!