I just sent the following email to Councillor...

Monday, July 11, 2011

I just sent the following email to Councillor Minnan-Wong after hearing his comments today regarding the core service review survey that only “certain people” would take the time to fill it out, or attend the public meetings (i.e. those with a left-leaning agenda). This, he said, skews the results and makes them unreliable.

(FYI, the results of the survey indicated that respondents don’t support cuts and would instead be open to an increase in property taxes).

Dear Councillor Minnan-Wong:

CBC News Toronto just aired footage of your comments on the results of the Core Service Review, specifically those regarding the citizens of Toronto who participated in the online survey and public meetings.

You said something to the effect of, “we all know that there are certain people who go to those websites, and certain people who go to those meetings.” As someone who took considerable time to fill out the online survey to ensure my voice was heard in this process, I am dismayed to hear an elected official express this position. I ask you what, then, was the purpose of even ‘consulting’ the public in this process if our voices were to be discounted if they were not in line with what the current mayoral administration has in mind?

Why, then, do we hear Mayor Ford telling the press on other occasions that he does what the taxpayers tell him to do, as though ‘the taxpayers’ have some kind of unified monolithic voice. Are we to believe that it is not ‘certain people’ who call the mayors office to, for example, remove the Jarvis bike lanes? Does everyone who participates in a consultative process have a hidden agenda? And, respectfully, does everything this administration does have to be so politically divisive that its members automatically discredit stakeholders with opposing voices who might have different, but still totally valid, visions for this city?

People participate in these processes when they care about the issues being presented. On an issue like the Core Service Review, of course you are going to hear from those who are strongly in favour or who strongly oppose aspects of how the city runs itself. To suggest that this skews the results is ludicrous, and tells me that, as a citizen who thought the city could benefit from my input, my time taking the survey was wasted and my voice doesn’t count.

The next time the city asks for my input in what appears to be a democratic and participatory consultative process, I’ll remember your disparaging comments that aired tonight on the evening news, and seriously reconsider whether or not I want to waste my time if my views are going to be immediately dismissed by elected officials if they don’t happen to fit into their obviously predetermined agendas.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.

Respectfully,

MB

I did want to add “PS - comb your hair” but somehow I thought that would unnecessarily lower the level of discourse.