In the immortal words of Damon Wayans...

sigh

Look; I'm all for self-expression. I'm all for political satire, for freedom of speech, for community solidarity, for all that. (I'd be one hell of a hypocrite were I not, huh?)

But to return to the well and quote yet another entertainer, 'This is disturbing on so many levels.'

Yeah, be mindful on October 27, 2014 and craft your vote consciously. Bring whatever biases you feel are appropriate within your value system and cast your ballot accordingly.

But seriously; doesn't that pretty much cast the mental die for the next 875+ days?

Doesn't this mean that for all intents and purposes. what's happened during this term so far is going to determine how someone who agrees with this effort (found here, by the way), will vote more than 28 months from now?

So I propose instead that it's

Time to Rethink our City's Governance

(And that means you.)

Honest-to-God; this mindset of 'WHEN'S THE NEXT ELECTION?!?', 'WHEN WILL WE BE FREE OF (fill in the blank)?!?' is enough to corrupt all synaptical processes. Because let's face it: though a 'new hope' in the form of a Candidate Saviour is the fervent wish, it's entirely possible that Mayor Bratina could win again. Or that a candidate who eventually proves even less palatable could be voted in. Or...or...

So how about re-thinking the roles that we as residents, as Hamiltonians play, one that involves engaged citizens by way of energized neighbourhoods? How about moving towards taking our rightful place at the governance table along with Council and The Others (who, for the most part, are Developers-in-Various-Guises)? How about being more involved, participating more, actually effecting the change we want to see in our own day-to-day?

Therefore, I invite my dissident brethren and sistren to get all this out of their systems, all the dissatisfaction and rage and barely-attenuated apoplexy, and instead of waiting two years to try to get your candidate(s) elected, how about working on how to change the paradigm in ways that we're fully capable of, now?

So I offer up this in response to the effort's main thrust:

M Adrian Brassington