A Strange Awakening

Today is a brand new day!  People will still complain even so, I know I do, you might have noticed.

What happened this morning revealed a whole new perspective on things.  We regularly get vagrants, where I live in downtown Hamilton, that pick through refuse.  I never would have believed that today, in this country, I would see people rifle through garbage to find…anything of value.  I’m not talking about scrap metal or bottle/can collectors.  I mean tearing open a garbage bag and pulling out the contents kind of garbage picking.  That started happening a few years ago.

A sound drew me out of sleep this morning, a plaintive voice, calling out steadily.  It took me a little while to realize what it was, but then I quickly got up as I thought I’d heard a cry for help.  It was just last night that my wife and I discussed the worry we have when people enter the giant dumpsters that grace our neighbour’s parking lot for the last half-year.  It isn’t safe to do so.  I opened the back door and called out into the darkness,

“Do you need help?”

The voice answered in the affirmative and added something unintelligible.

“Shall I call an ambulance?” I asked.

“I need a Chapstick, my mouth is so dry,” was the response.

“You’re calling out for a Chapstick?!” I asked incredulously.

No answer.

I closed the door uneasy with my thoughts.  Who knew the needs of Hamilton’s poorest were so trivial?  So small a request, and still I couldn’t help him.  I wondered if I really just didn’t hear him correctly.  Is he waiting for me to call an ambulance?  I heard him again a little bit later and opened the door, and he quit his swearing.  Well at least he’s trying to be polite.  I went back to bed, unhappy for him, myself, and Hamilton in general.

If you don’t vote, then don’t complain they say.  In my own defense, a corollary might be: I’m running for office, its my job to complain!  Here’s what I will leave you with before you go out there and cast your ballot:  If you want this town to become a little Toronto, go ahead and vote for Eisenberger.  If all you need is Chapstick then maybe Sgro’s your man.  If you want to step forward into the twenty-first century as an ambitious city, willing to actually make a difference for people and the environment, vote for me, Henry Geissler for mayor, and build the NSLRT.

Aliens set to invade; they’re already here!

It is clear to me now that the City Council/Metrolinx B-Line is a demographic driver for changing the people along the route and nothing less.  They know that the person who takes his car to Burlington to work, or his truck to Ancaster to pick up some drywall, is not going to use the B-Line to get his job done, it won’t help.  No, that guy is going to become so frustrated with the slow traffic, he’s going to move, or die of an aneurism because what took him 15-20 minutes in the past is now going to take more than an hour, everyday, both ways.  Enter the person from Toronto who thinks nothing of buying a shack for $500,000.  He’s used to terrible traffic, and plans his life according to that reality.  That’s all fine and good for him, but why in God’s name would any Hamiltonian vote for that?  It is a completely artificial crisis the evil geniuses from Metrolinx have foisted upon us and hypnotized those who are supposed to represent us into believing.  They are either evil or stupid, and I don’t think that they’re stupid; they are on the cusp of seizing control of downtown Hamilton.

Proponents of the plan use the narrative that we need the tax base to be increased to afford future infrastructure costs.  A fine argument, but we don’t need to sacrifice a functioning traffic grid, and hundreds of trees, in order to increase the population density and increase the tax base.  A North-South LRT routed along Wellington St, Victoria Ave, the Claremont access and Upper James will allow for trains, traffic, and trees, and all the benefits of higher density housing along those corridors, without the traffic congestion that the B-Line would cause.  Neither do we need Metrolinx to usurp HSR’s role.  A responsible voter must examine this NSLRT and ask the question “Is it a better plan than that of Vito Sgro?”  He is going to spend the money piecemeal, and miss a golden opportunity.  Check out the rest of this website, navigate the different pages by clicking on the blue words at the top of the page, especially “GO to the Airport”.  Which plan addresses energy efficiency and emissions?  Which encourages GO Train commuting?  Which maximizes the potential of our city’s resources?  Which builds environmentally superior infrastructure that will benefit generations?

The gentrification of Hamilton’s downtown has already begun.  There is no need to accelerate the turnover of the lower city to the fancy-pants from Hogtown.  You can’t stop them from buying up the bargains we offer, but why force out the old guard with a B-Line plan for traffic chaos?  Mark my words, if Eisenberger gets his LRT, there will be a mass exodus of people complaining, “We didn’t know it was going to be like this!”, and the invasion will be complete.  Resist selling out our city to speculators and bullies.  Don’t fall for the fear tactics that call for acceptance of a bad idea over no idea in order to get the money.  Be strong and recognize a plan with vision.  With feet firmly planted in reality, and an eye to the future, we can instead build a logical rail link from the train station to the airport, offering all Hamiltonians a public way, intra-city, inter-city and internationally.  Don’t give up without a fight.

Vote Henry Geissler for mayor.

 

Keanin Loomis joins Ryan McGreal’s influence peddling

Keanin Loomis is in today’s Hamilton Spectator again.  His being referenced as the president and CEO of The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce brings the total of articles and announcements to four since October 10th.  Combined with Ryan McGreal, who also had four articles and references, I’d say that journalism at the Spectator is suffering a lack of breadth and depth in opinion.

Paul Berton has the gall to congratulate himself and his newspaper in today’s edition.  As Editor-in-Chief, he is ultimately responsible for the shamefully narrow focus and framing of the election coverage.  I would not have believed it, had I not lived it as a candidate for mayor myself, that has been ignored and silenced by his filthy rag.  Yesterday’s token coverage of four “other” candidates was hollow and cynical.  He might never face justice for his crimes of political manipulation and censorship, but God knows he will pay the price.  In the meantime the citizens of Hamilton will pay the price, led by the oligarchs to believe that the “only two candidates with a real shot of reaching voters city-wide” (front page, Oct. 20) were Eisenberger and Sgro with their corrupt and vacuous platforms.

Don’t let them win!  Just because the powers that be say it is so, doesn’t make it so.  Vote for the candidate with the best platform.  Examine what each candidate has to offer and vote based on that.  I hope that when you do study each candidate’s plan, you will see that my plan, to redirect the LRT from a traffic-snarling, tree-cutting Metrolinx disaster, to a NORTH-SOUTH LRT joining the lower to the upper city, from the West Harbour GO Train station to the Hamilton Airport will transform the city into a winner with the greenest public transportation around:  A place for all citizens to thrive, not just the well-heeled.

Vote for change, vote for common sense and vision, vote for a North-South LRT, vote for

HENRY GEISSLER

Will the man who gets near daily mention in the Spectator reveal from whence he hails?

I think it is important to know a little bit more about the one who is so frequently mentioned in the Spectator.  We know he created a website called “Raise the Hammer”.  In 2004 he wrote that “Raise the Hammer is a group of Hamilton, Ontario citizens…We are non-partisan and our members come from diverse political backgrounds. Our common interest is revitalizing our city, a goal that benefits everyone.”

Pardon me, Mr. McGreal, but spare me your altruism.  Please don’t revitalize my city for me.  I don’t know what you are trying to change it into, but I have a good guess.  If you are so keen on change, perhaps you can rewrite your “overview” statement as your stance on LRT is hardly non-partisan.

New Business opportunity for King Street with B-Line LRT

Hamilton Spectator admits its pro-Metrolinx stance in election

The Hamilton Spectator showed its true colours, but it has been rather obvious leading up to today’s op-ed hasn’t it? Take for example the article on October 10^th in which Dreschel quotes Keanin Loomis and informs us that the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and their partners, the Realtors’ Association of Hamilton-Burlington, the Hamilton-Halton Home Builders’ Association, and the Hamilton-Halton Construction Association endorse the current plan for LRT.  The very next day at the top of the business section is the pronouncement that the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the Realtors’ Association of Hamilton-Burlington, the Hamilton-Halton Home Builders’ Association, and the Hamilton-Halton Construction Association support the B-Line LRT, with quotes from Keanin Loomis.

The pronouncement by the Spectator “For the Record” at the top of the business section endorsing the B-Line LRT, ends with the handy notice that those associations have produced #YesLRT signs. Where did I see that previously?  Oh yeah, on Ryan McGreal’s website, the same Ryan McGreal who had his piece published last week in support of the B-Line LRT.  That is the article to which I submitted a rebuttal and was denied.

It’s no surprise with that kind of double coverage in support of, and no coverage of this candidate’s opposition to the Metrolinx planned LRT, that the editor announces today, “Rejecting LRT now a historic mistake for Hamilton”.

Vote Henry Geissler for mayor and make the North-South LRT happen, a logical link from the GO Train station to Hamilton airport.

Come an’ get it!  Hot off the press, the new handbill:

We’ll be handing out the best information for a news-starved public at the art crawl tonight on James Street North.  Come talk to the man with the plan, Henry Geissler.

Special thanks to Justin and Nicole at Minuteman Press at 40 Wellington St. N. for going the extra mile and getting the goods to me today!