I hope that you will write your MLA and tell them you care about local democracy. Because today the Minister of Municipal Affairs tabled Bill that will allow for more money and more secretive money to be part of our local elections.

Today, Bill 29 was introduced. It sets out to make changes to the Local Authorities Election Act. You can read the government news release here. The release promises to “level the playing field” for local elections. But, in reality, Bill 29 will disadvantage candidates who refuse to take large, secretive donations. It will give candidates without personal wealth a HUGE disadvantage. And if I run again, it will give me an even larger incumbent advantage than I already have. This is all very bad news for local democracy.

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I’m angry. And I’m worried.

Because I think that local government has a HUGE role to play in people’s quality of life. I think that local democracy is vital to making sure it delivers on improving the life of residents. And (as seen by voter turnout), participation in local democracy is often weak.

For the sake of our residents and communities: local democracy needs to be strengthened.

So I’m angry and worried by actions that the provincial government is taking. Because these actions are designed to undermine local democracy.

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There's been some.... impassioned... conversation about changes Council made to the Display of Address Bylaw tonight.

I've also received a rather nasty PM about it.

If people are truly this passionate about displaying (or not displaying) an address: then I hope they will come to a Council meeting and let us know what they think this bylaw should look like. I also hope they will follow my page to see what we are talking about at future Council meetings: it's always better for Council to hear your thoughts BEFORE we decide on something. Here's my post where I gave a preview of this bylaw amendment: https://bressey.ca/meetings/2020/jan27pre

However, I suspect that most don't actually feel too strongly about the Display of Address bylaw. I think this might be a case of social media anger amplifying itself due to not everyone having the full picture.

Some context:

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