I love the smell of conflation in the afternoon. It reminds me of...

...obfuscation.

The situation in Hamilton regarding the 'Peggy Chapman's Getting a Raise' kerfuffle is getting a little ripe.

Witness this commentary over at Raise the Hammer by Michael Borrelli, co-hort of mine on the inaugural Town Halls Hamilton effort.

So, given the title of this post, I'd like to pose a few questions.

1) What is it precisely that irks so many people about all this? Is it a) the amount of the proposed pay raise, b) the timing, c) the way it was 'announced', d) the way in which Mayor Bratina mangled the 'explanation' about why Ms Chapman was being given this increase in salary, e) all of the above, or f) something else entirely?

2) Let's suppose for a second that we were, by consensus, having a marvellous year in Hamilton. (I know, I know, Mayor Bratina believes this is the case, and has stated this consistently of late, for all to hear.) Let's suppose that it was a banner year, that beneficial development was coming along like gangbusters, that unemployment was even lower than it is, that there's a real sense of possibility in the city. Would this situation still be eliciting the kind of rancour, indignation and enmity that's been so profoundly on display?

3) Further to the above 'What if?', if the Mayor and Ms Chapman hadn't made such a dog's dinner of the general perception of The Mayor's Office, what with enforcing a distinct lack of access, trying to control the messages coming out of City Hall to a highly questionable extent, if there weren't perceptions of City Staff being 'bullied' by The Mayor's Office...would this situation still be eliciting what it's been eliciting from most quarters?

4) Is it really necessary to bring into the discussion the inarguably distasteful amount of the proposed increase as it relates to a 'living wage' or subsistance living or poverty?

I swear, this is like the scene out of 'The Music Man', only the final part of the verse is '...and that rhymes with 'C' and that stands for 'Conflation'.

In desperate times, people get... Well, desperate. And they don't think straight. And complaints rise up and issues get combined in some amazingly energized ways...

...and suddenly the most cogent in the crowd, even the most considered thinkers in the throng, they start seeing things as 'All or Nothing'.

Desperation, I tells ya.

From the moment the Jill Stephen Non-crisis was foisted upon an unsuspecting and almost wholly disinterested city citizenry this summer, we've been mired in the most useless quagmire we could possibly have imagined...given the variables, given the stakes...and given the distinct lack of bodies at the end of the day.

Why?

A lack of clarity, a lack of maturity...and a surfeit of conflation. It's like- Well, maybe we should scrap 'The Mustard Festival' and become the World Capital of Conflation and have a corresponding celebration.

Look; I'm not a big fan of Mayor Bratina's. I didn't vote for him, I've not been impressed at any point (although I have witnessed some quite stirring moments in Council...but then I have to balance them against other non-stellar ones...) I don't think much greatness is going to result from his term, if only because he surely isn't delivering much of Graham Crawford's 'All I want for Christmas' list. But at the same time, I kindasorta expect our politicians to slip and slide and not perform quite as hoped. I actually expect more from people-with-opinions. (See how crafty I'm being in my veiled references?) I expect thoughtful observations, not rouse-the-rabble, appeal-to-the-common-denominator rhetoric. I expect considered context, perspective that results from a sincere weighing of the facts...I expect for what's offered to be of a much better calibre than The Toronto Sun. 

Hamilton has no shortage of problems. Some serious problems. Some visible, some egregiously front-and-centre-and-yet-still-not-properly-addressed problems, some seemingly invisible, shamefully-ignored ones. 

Not enough people are focused on these problems, with too many currently venting frustrations that quite honestly, aren't going to accomplish anything. 

And Hamilton deserves better.