Democracy dismissed

It’s hard to see any democracy left to Hamiltonians in the decision of the provincial Progressive Conservative government to force a massive urban boundary expansion on the city and its residents. Just over a year ago, city council voted 13-3 to reject any boundary expansion, and specifically to turn down a proposed much smaller one than what the Ford government has now imposed.

The November 2021 decision was overwhelming, unexpected and apparently game changing. “For as long as anyone can remember, developers have allowed local councillors to posture against their projects when necessary to appease constituents, so long as their interests are ultimately protected and projects approved,” explained political analyst Joey Coleman. “Hamilton City Council’s decision against an urban boundary expansion is a seismic shift. Council voted against the interests of the development industry.”

Of the three councillors who supported a boundary expansion, two chose not to run again in last month’s election and the third was defeated despite decades in office. Indeed Maria Pearson placed third in her failed attempt to return to council, garnering less than 30 percent of the vote.

The two pro-sprawl councillors who declined to stand again for office were Terry Whitehead and Lloyd Ferguson. The latter unsuccessfully endorsed another candidate for his ward 13 seat, but the alleged unbeatable Ferguson empire in Ancaster turned out to be over.

Instead the decisive winner was Craig Cassar, one of the leaders of the stop sprawl and save farmland movement that lead the fight against the boundary expansion. Through the efforts of Cassar and others, city council was convinced to conduct a resident survey on the boundary expansion question. And over 90 percent of the more than 18,000 who participated in that survey voted for no boundary expansion.

Cassar is being joined on the new council by two other stop sprawl leaders – Alex Wilson and Cameron Krotesch – both of whom soundly defeated two other long-time incumbents (Arlene Vanderbeek and Jason Farr). That puts the city wide survey, the overwhelming position of the last council and the election results all confirming that Hamiltonians oppose any boundary expansion.

If there was any doubt, the three leading mayoralty candidates also campaigned against any boundary expansion. Opposing positions were extremely rare among the ninety candidates for council office.

But the developers have a way around all this opposition – just go over the heads of city council and the overwhelming majority of residents, and get the Progressive Conservatives at Queen’s Park to wipe out all that annoying local democracy. And do it when the old councils are no longer functioning and the new ones won’t take office until November 15 and won’t be functional until weeks later.

That has left residents in a similar position to many others across the province facing the dictate of Ford and his PC MPPs. Those would include the poorly paid education workers whose right to negotiate a union contract has been crushed this week in Bill 23 despite being guaranteed by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It also would include the province’s 36 Conservation Authority boards made up largely of elected municipal officials who also this week have been stripped of rights to defend Ontario’s watersheds, ecological diversity and even the conservation lands they have sworn to preserve in Bill 24. As Hamilton councillor Tom Jackson said on Thursday at the meeting of the Hamilton Conservation Authority, this is all apparently to remove obstacles to developers.

And it would include any resident who may not agree with developer plans anywhere in the province, whose right to appeal these schemes has now been abolished. Bill 23 limits those appeal rights to developers and municipal governments – no residents, resident groups or allies such as environmental groups would be allowed anymore.

Some may call this a ‘shock and awe’ assault on democracy. Others may differ, concurring with the Guelph folk singer James Gordon (also a city councillor) that “the system isn’t broken, it was made that way”. Lots of fig leaves blowing in these autumn winds.