Robert's Thoughts

US Government Shutdown

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:45:00 +0000

Over the next week the news is going to be dominated about stories about the US government being shut down. It's a great example of the three branches of the US government (Execitive, Congress, Judicial) being unable to solve complex, nuanced, problems. This post briefly describes what the impact of a shutdown may be, why this is happening and why it matters to Canada.

What It Might Look Like
The US government shut down in 1995 and again in 1996, when Bill Clinton was President giving us some idea of what a shutdown may look like. All non-essential functions of the government stop in a shutdown, which can get pretty bad pretty quickly. Exactly what gets shutdown, or slowed is a grey area, but some examples are likely to include:

Ancillary education programs such as head-start
Workplace safety inspections would stop.
National parks would close
Regulation of the financial markets would be weakened
Environmental regulation would be weakened
Processing of new visa, passport, social security and medicaid applications or changes would stop or slow
Military workers would likely continue to work without pay, under the assumption they would receive back pay when the shutdown ends

Essentially, if you're a person who receives a paycheque from the US government; that cheque doesn't come when the government is shut down.

Why it is Happening

In an attempt to make a highly controversial debate simple, I'll try this in point form:

The US creates spending commitments in their budget. Since either 2000 or 2001, the US government has committed to spending more than it has taken in revenue each year, known as a deficit.

See: 9-11, Iraq War, Fannie May-Freddie Mac, Economic Collapse in 2008, aging population, etc. for reasons why that happened.

In order to pay for this deficit, the government has to borrow the money. The amount of money that the US can borrow is known as the debt ceiling. Every time the US borrows up to this ceiling, they have to raise that ceiling to continue to pay for the commitments made in the budget.
The total US government debt is increased every year that they run a deficit. If the government was to run a surplus, they could choose to pay off debt.

IMPORTANT: The debt ceiling is not the budget. The debt ceiling is the artificial limit Congress imposed on the country for how much money the government can borrow.

Therefore (and this point would see some debate from extreme Conservatives) a refusal to raise the debt-limit is a refusal to pay bills they have already committed to.
The US is about to reach their debt limit and congress is saying they will not raise the ceiling without putting conditions on a bill approving a raise to the ceiling:

Congress is broken in to two houses: Senate and House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has a majority of Republicans and the Senate is majority Democrats. The Republicans in Congress are mostly made of members who would describe themselves as Tea Party members, an extreme Conservative group who believe that government is generally a bad thing and should be limited.
The main condition the Tea Party members want to place on raising the debt limit is to not fund the health care law that all three branches of Government approved in President Obama's first two years in office.
If Congress sends a bill to the President for approval that raise the debt ceiling but has any conditions, the President has said he will veto that bill. This is likely where the government shutdown will occur.

This should all come to a head in October. Currently the treasury department in the US is saying that if the debt ceiling is not raised the US will default on it's bills by the end of October.

Why This Matters to Canada
It's challenging to say what the exact impact on Canada will be, but some examples could be:

Longer lines at US borders, as customs officials are government employees.
Impact on manufacturing in Canada, as the US is our largest customer.
Financial Markets are likely to plummet, with many people around the world having vast sums of money invested in the US market or ties to companies listed on those markets.

Links
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/09/20/government-shutdown-101-what-happens-when-the-lights-go-off/
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Republican-Clash-With-Obama-Adds-Risk-of-4832222.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/us/politics/house-spending-bill.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/house-gop-debt-limit-increase-96982.html

So, what have I been writing about?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 06:55:00 +0000

For the time being, the easiest place to see the articles I had published in the Mercury for the past year is through my linkedin profile, I think they are visible publicly:

ca.linkedin.com/pub/robert-routledge/a/995/736/

I will link them through the blog eventually. You can find them through www.guelphmercury.com and searching for Robert Routledge, but that site has a limited number of free views.

I'm back...a little

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 06:47:00 +0000

You may have noticed that I just posted on my blog. If so; congratulations! You're one of a handful of people who read it :). I became a member of the Guelph Mercury Community Editorial Board last year and whenever I was inspired to write something down, I generally contributed there. As I have left Guelph, although still technically a member of the board, I'll be slowly starting to get my blog up and running again.

As always, there's likely to be a fair bit of political or community organizing slanted articles. It's also been suggested to me that I start to incorporate translating National or World events into plain English and put them in context (eg: Syria, Energy East, DOMA, Trayvon Marting and George Zimmerman, etc.) Many of these are way beyond the scope of anything I feel comfortable writing about, but I might take a stab at something every now and then. I'll also likely start to incorporate some of what I actually do for a living, since I think I've learned a little about working with post-secondary students and residence life over the past ten years :).

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. Hopefully it was worth the click!

Generation Y, Millennials, Entitlement and a Little bit of Go Fuck Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 06:43:00 +0000

There's been social media attention recently to the issue of Generation Y (generally accepted to be people born after 1979ishand before 2000ish) being unprodcutive and generally unhappy in the workforce. You can see a popular story/meme here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

The essence of this story is that people in this demographic have unrealistic expectations, face unrealistic and somewhat imaginary pressure from their peers and are going to struggle with career paths as they discover that they aren't special and building a successful career takes work.

I stumbled across this story for the first time while reading a rebuttal on deadspin.com: http://aweinstein.kinja.com/fuck-you-im-gen-y-and-i-dont-feel-special-or-entitl-1333588443. The author of this story stumbles across a couple of nuanced points; that the Millenials may feel special when they shouldn't but that society is so stacked against them that their fucked anyway so why bother? It's an interesting point, as part of conferences I've attended in my career I've heard more than one speaker casually reference how the baby boomers (children of the generation that fought the two world wars, particularly the second) have let society down and created situations like global warming and a series of rapidly escalating financial crises. I wouldn't say I would agree that any of these loosely defined generations are better or worse than eachother, but I would agree that a) The students I work with by and large all face issues of entitlement b) Many young professionals I have hired face significant issues with entitlement and c) When you look at macro issues such as North American health care system or the growing wealth gap, we clearly have a problem.

This brings me to my last thought: I saw an interesting interview on the Daily Show last night with Robert Reich. Available on this link in Canada: http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/shows/thedailyshow?videoPackage=138682. He tells Jon Stewart, the host of the show, to be optimistic because ultimately Americans make the right decision. If we extend this argument to theoretically all of us may eventually make the right decision, then another part of extending Mr. Reich's hypothesis comes into play: These problems will be fixed when we decide to fix them. If we decide that the growing wealth gap in Canada reported in the last census (from September 13, 2013), http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/wealthiest-1-earn-10-times-more-than-average-canadian-1.1703017, is a problem then we can demand that the problem be fixed. We are not constrained by the current choices presented to us, we need to demand better.

When faced with this kind of thought, I refer back to Saturday Night Live. Fix it. Find the problem, fix it, repeat as necessary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo3uxqwTxk0. I don't claim to have the specific answer, but if you're a person who finds yourself relating to either of the stories I referenced above about the Millenial Generation (aka Generation Y) then I suggest you take this approach. We face solvable problems, we just need to fix them.

Thank you MPs May and Valeriote

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Thank you Mr. Valeriote and Ms. May,

I’ll be the first person to admit that I have not voted Liberal, nor do I intend to in the near future, but I greatly appreciate the actions you are taking by supporting the actions being taken to block the budget implementation bill (bill C-38) in parliament.

The Conservative Government attempt to put through one budget bill that re-write or eliminates 68 other bills is unethical and exemplifies a style of politics that turns people off of government. Opaquely trying to change the way we care for our seniors, protect our environment and take care of those among us who are unable to take care of themselves will not encourage more Canadians to help solve problems. Changing the will of a majority government is nearly impossible, but doing nothing show Canadians that politics doesn’t matter.

I believe that politics does matter. I believe our politicians should act in a way that encourages reasonable debate before taking action. I believe that by supporting the hundreds of amendments that are being created for bill C-38, you are showing that you are willing to make politically risky decisions in order to do the right thing.

Thank you.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/opposition-aims-to-disrupt-passage-of-omnibus-tory-budget-bill/article2446013/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Politics&utm_content=2446013

Unethical, lying, cheating Conservative Party

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:22:00 +0000

I am for smart, conservative fiscal party. I am for having a government that stays out of my personal life. I am for a government that protects the oppressed and gives voice to the disenfranchised. I am for a government that is willing to make difficult or unpopular choices now that will benefit my family for generations.

It has become shockingly, egregiously clear that the Conservative Party of Canada is the antithesis of that.

Here are some quotes from the last month or so of news:

On changing the definition of EI:
"There is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job." - Finance Minister Flaherty
Response: Why not create a system where skilled workers have easier access to skilled jobs, as opposed to pushing them into minimum wage, low-skill or poor work environments? Won't this create the next major brain drain?

On cutting the National Round Table of the Environment
“It should agree with Canadians. It should agree with the government. No discussion of a carbon tax that would kill and hurt Canadian families.”" - Environment Minister Kent
Response: Government agencies should only create reports, research and knowledge that agree with the government and Canadians? I'm not 100% sure what this means, but it seems to be supporting a culture where we are looking for the easiest and expedient solution, not the best one.

On pushing through the 475 page budget implementation bill without amendments and minimal discussion
“We see the results of delay and inaction in Europe today so I encourage the opposition to be wary of counterproductive political theatre at this serious and fragile time.” - Finance Minister Flaherty
Response: This bill rewrites 68 other pieces of legislation that have no linear connection to the budget. The Conservative Government limited debate to seven speaking days. If we want to change the way we discuss and protect the environment in this country (as is severely changed in this bill), why not allow some room for a national conversation between our elected leaders?

On breaking Election law in 2006
"Every single Conservative accused of wrongdoing has been cleared today," spokesperson Fred DeLorey
Response: The Conservative party made a plea bargain admitting their guilt in spending more money than was legally allowed in the election, how is anyone involved cleared of wrongdoing?

And More..
A computer in the Guelph Conservative 2011 campaign office has been identified as the computer that ordered the infamous Guelph robocalls disenfranchising voters.
Our International Development Minister, Bev Oda, upgraded to a very upscale hotel in London, England at unacceptable cost to taxpayers.
Our Defence Minister has been caught lying to Parliement twice about the cost of both the F35's and the military's mission in Libya.

Action you should take:
If you share the values I expressed above, the next time we face an election: Look for the party that shares those values with you. It's become clear it isn't the Conservatives.

2 cents on GPO Strategy for Kitchener Waterloo by-election

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:50:00 +0000

There's lots of conversation about what the GPO should do with the upcoming by-election in KW. Here are some thoughts:

Assumptions
-No matter the results of this election, the balance of power in Queens Park will stay the same
-It's likely that the Liberal candidate will be the significant frontrunner, given polling data and the demographics of the riding
-Due to problems with financial filings from many years ago, the GPO has not been allowed to establish a CA in KW.
-The First Past the Post Voting system is a fundamental problem in our democracy, but is nearly impossible to make a campaign issue out of and can realistically only be addressed by a party in power.

Idea:

Find a credible candidate in KW (maybe growing on the credible candidate tree?). This is likely to be challenging but not impossible.
Raise a ton of money from around the province to get a 75K+ campaign pulled together
Recruit volunteers from London, Hamilton and Guelph to knock doors
Recruit volunteers from around the province to make calls
#Bebold with the ideas we talk about. Unabashedly be ourselves in what we represent
Regularly complete internal polling on progress in the election

Then...if we show growth up to 15ish percent of the both and begin to appear threatening to the Liberal candidate, negotiate that they table a bill BEFORE election day putting proportional representation forward, have it be something that the NDP would likely support. We then dial down our campaign and maybe even suggest our voters vote Liberal.

Potential Results:

-A significant issue moves forward, fundamentally changing democracy in Ontario

-We identify thousands of supporters in KW that we can hopefully eventually engage (incrementally)

-Backlash from media/voters over not just straightforwardly running to win

-Develop a reputation for putting solving problems ahead of winning

Walman Dr. Street Party: A VERY good day!

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:53:00 +0000

The Walman Dr. Street Party happened yesterday, and by any measure it was a success:

-The new Deputy Police Chief came and played about an hour and a half of road hockey

-Neighbours who came to complain about the street being closed or about students ended up staying for a hamburger and to chat

-Around 25 students came out

-Many families came, with about 20 kids

-Students from the University ran a few great activities for kids

-Students from Katimavik helped with a craft reminding people about Earth Hour

-The Guelph Environmental League had their Earth Hour runner came through to promote Earth Hour

-Mostly: A lot of people who would not otherwise have met came out, grabbed a bite to eat, play a game or two and got to know eachother a little bit.

For anyone that asks me how to grow their volunteer organization, or how to make a small difference in the world, I can't recommend one of these enough. The total cost was less than $500 and it probably took around 20 hours of planning (mostly canvassing the neighbourhood to get support for closing the road).

The difference between Voter Suppression and other Robo Calls

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:43:00 +0000

There appears to be a lack of clarity about what defines an act that violates our basic right to participate in an election under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what is a dirty political trick. This is a VERY important distinction, as the latter is a type of politics that people should be ashamed of (as practiced by the last campaign for Frank Valeriotte) and the former is illegal.

The Mercury does a good job of explaining something MP Valeriotte's campaign did that was legal but something I would say is wrong in our system in this article. Essentially, his campaign sent out a voice message to thousands of people in Guelph informing them that Marty Burke (the Conservative candidate) opposed abortions. Nowhere in this message did his campaign choose to identify that the message was coming from the Liberal candidate. This type of negative attack designed to prey on emotions of voters with personal statements turns many people off of politics and acts as a barrier to participation from community members who would make strong community leaders, but is only a minor violation of the Elections Act (the Elections Act requires all campaign advertisements to have a statement saying who paid for it).

I can't find an article from the local paper outlining the severity of what the Conservative Party (allegedly) has done, so I'll refer back to previous blog posts: The voice messages (robocalls) sent out to thousands of people on election day sending them to the wrong polling station, purporting to be from Elections Canada, were a blatant attempt to keep people from voting. This is one of the few things in life we can count on as being blatantly illegal.

Elections Canada is investigating, aided by the RCMP. The Government of Canada needs to be urged to set up their own independent investigative body, much like the Gomery commission. This should not be done because it is easy, but because it is right.

Full disclosure: As the manager for the Green Party campaign for John Lawson in this election, we used a telecommunications company for polling, a telephone townhall and robocalls. Our robocalls were used to invite people to events, remind them to vote and then one was sent in response to the suppression call to let our supporters know that the voting locations had not changed. The company we used was Solusone, I believe they are based out of Vaughan, Ontario.

Conservative MP gives key Robo Call information away

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:56:00 +0000

http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2012/03/06/voter-identification-massive-job-central-conservative-campaign-gives-voter/29964

For those who don't know the ins and outs of national campaigns in Canada: There is a nationally coordinated campaign run by the 'central' party, this is supplemented with local campaigns. Big expenses, such as: advertising, leaders tours, etc. tend to be paid for by the central campaign as they have a much larger budget and spending allowance. In the case of at least the NDP and the Green Party, all supporter identification is handled locally and is one of the goals of all the phone calls and door knocking that occurs during an election.

In this article, MP Velacott is stating that the Conservative Party centrally coordinates and pays for all of the supporter identification done over the phone, to the point where local campaigns are not given the phone lists of their ridings (made available by Elections Canada to each Party and campaign).

If what he says is accurate, then any phone calls made to Guelph (and any other riding) were coordinated by the Central campaign and not a 23 year old recent University Graduate who is so far the only person to have any kind of accountability for the voter suppression that took place.

We need Elections Canada, our elected representatives and our friends in the media to get to the bottom of who organized and paid for these calls. Attempting to suppress fundamental Canadian rights needs to result in consequences that will deter any politician from taking these actions again.

Thank you Guelph Mercury!

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:59:00 +0000

I think the title of this Guelph Mercury editorial misses the mark, but otherwise am appreciative that they posted! Encouraging people to write letters to media and providing a template for those who are not confident or for those who want to have a starting position doesn't strike me as inherently evil and I'm proud to be a member of a group encouraging our community to take action! Our email list also differs from a robocall in that anybody can opt out of it at any time.

So let's not lose focus: the Conservative Party has been caught suppressing the vote and violating our rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Let's encourage Elections Canada to quickly get to the bottom of this and help our media ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and doesn't let the Conservative Party spin machine turn this into a story about dirty tricks. If you feel strongly about this, I continue to urge you to write to the media outlets or elected officials listed in my previous post (using the template provided or not).

Update: It's worth noting that they attribute the letter to the Green Party of Canada, while in fact it was from the local Guelph Green Association.

#Robocalls: Take action

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:53:00 +0000

It's become increasingly clear that actions were taken to suppress the votes of Canadians, in Guelph and allegedly in other ridings in the 2011 Federal Election. Don't let some media outlets spin this as a story about "crank calls" or "bad politics". This was an illegal act that violated our charter rights. The Guelph Green Party has just distributed an email to it's supporters urging them to contact your local media and elected officials to demand that the incident be treated with the severity it deserves. The person/people/organization responsible for attempting to mislead Guelph voters must be found and held accountable.

Write a letter or email to the following media outlets:

The Guelph Mercury: editor@guelphmercury.com.
Toronto Star: lettertoed@thestar.ca
CBC (editorial): yournews@cbc.ca
Toronto Sun: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/contact/letters/index.html?name=Letters&subject=Letter+to+the+editor
Globe and Mail: letters@globeandmail.ca

Update: If you'd like to tell the Guelph MP Frank Valeriote what you think, contact him at: Frank.valeriote@parl.gc.ca

For a template letter/email to the editor, you can use this if you would like.

Another impact of the robo calls

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:40:00 +0000

We're at the point where it's been proven that the Conservative campaign for Marty Burke knowingly worked to suppress voter turnout (see: bit.ly/wvr5kb for the latest).

So here was a question I was discussing over the weekend: Is it possible that these calls may have prevented the Green campaign for John Lawson from getting 10% of the vote? This is a significant number, as the Lawson campaign would receive a rebate of around $27,000. Any amount less than 10% of the vote and the campaign does not receive that rebate.

As this investigation continues, it will be interesting to learn who the Burke campaign was targeting. If these calls went to people that the Conservative campaign identified as Liberal and Green supporters, then I wonder if it is possible to prove that the Green's would have earned their campaign rebate?

For a look at the numbers, visit Election Canada here: http://elections.ca/scripts/ovr2011/default.html. Essentially, the Green campaign would have needed 2,191 more votes to reach 10% of the total turnout in the May 2011 election.

CTV reporting on the robocalls

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:52:00 +0000

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120223/robocalls-tories-politics-elections-120223/

There's a comprehensive series of stories covering the Conservative robo-call voter suppression into 18 ridings in Canada. PM Harper states that there may have been "rogue" elements of his party that organized this act of disenfranchising Canadian voters. From this list of names attached to the company that made the phone calls, here are potentially some campaigns that contain those "rogue" elements (names listed from invoices to Rack9, available on my previous blog post):

Campaign to elect Stephen Harper - Calgary Southwest

Campaign to elect Rona Ambrose - Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women
Campaign to elect Jason Kenney - Calgary Southeast - Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
Campaign to elect Ryan Hastman - Edmonton Strathcona
Campaign to elect Leon Benoit - Vegreville—Wainwright
Campaign to elect Laurie Hawn - Edmonton Centre
Campaign to elect Lee Richardson - North Battleford
Campaign to elect Devinder Shory - Calgary Northeast

Uh Oh: Proof that the Conservatives organized robo-calls on election day in "swing ridings"

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:21:00 +0000

For the full read of the gory details: http://www.scribd.com/sfharris/d/82589631-Payments-to-RackNine-from-local-Conservative-Campaigns

But it boils down to: Steven Harper's campaign, the campaign of many cabinet ministers and other Conservatives paying the company Racknine for GOTV calls on Election day to "Swing" ridings. This is not very many steps away tying the Prime Minister Office and central Conservative campaign directly to voter suppression.There is one email in particular about halfway down about some confusion about payment for robo-calls into swing ridings, notable because a) The voter suppression calls were made in to swing ridings and b) the email is from STEPHEN HARPER'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER IN CALGARY.

So, what happens if we find out that leaders in the Conservative party actively suppressed the vote of Canadians?

Guelph 2011 Federal Election Robo-Call fraud

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:03:00 +0000

On election day way back in May of 2011, robo-calls were placed to an an unknown number of voters in Guelph, informing them that their voting location had changed.

That sentence may seem innocent, but it isn't by any measure.

First things first: A robo-call is an automatically recorded voice message that is sent to your phone. If you pick up, it gives the message directly to you. If your answering machine picks up, it leaves a message. Odds are you have received one at some point.

Secondly: Voting locations had not changed. These calls created mass confusion for all campaigns. Anecdotally this particularly affected the Green campaign for John Lawson (disclosure: I was the manager) and the Frank Valeriotte Liberal campaign. Voters were showing up to locations that were not voting stations and then not having the time or patience to go to the correct location to vote.

Finally: An investigation has now linked the calls to a company that primarily contracts out work to the Conservative Party of Canada:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/racknine-inc-fraudulent-election-calls-traced/
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Elections+Canada+investigating+robocalls+that+misled+voters/6194146/story.html
If this turns out that there is one or two independent malicious/evil individuals who were doing there best to prevent Canadians from completing their civic rights then the odds are there will be significant consequences to those individuals and the story will die.

However...this could become the story of Conservatives bringing the ugliest possible side of American-style attack politics to Canada. This could turn into the story where the conservative party is connected to these calls in some way. The Conservative Party of Canada denies involvement: https://twitter.com/#!/davidakin/status/172525793229012992

Let's hope that our governing party and Prime Minister are not connected to actions that most Canadians will find reprehensible. I believe that all of us would agree that elections (and governance) should be about engaging as many Canadians as we possibly can in a discussion about what is best for us. Not lying and manipulating people out of the process.

Students: This isn't helping

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:44:00 +0000

Walman Drive: 8:20am Friday February 3rd

If you are a University of Guelph student, you probably didn't do this. You probably have never been out with anyone or a group that has done anything like this. But: Guess what? You just got blamed. The owner of this car is likely to come out of their house, see their vehicle and immediately feel a moment of anger about students living in their neighbourhood. It might not even have been a student, but there's a pretty good chance that this happened between midnight and 8 this morning and most non-students are asleep in that time frame. The people that live on this street year round probably don't like the idea of having to walk through garbage to go to work and have a very easy time making the assumption that someone would have to feel like they don't live their to do something like this.

If you're out with someone doing something this stupid: Maybe ask them to stop? If you see a mess like this, maybe proactively get out there and help clean up? Leave a note on this house saying how frustrating it is that actions like this make it difficult for students and permanent residents to form a sense of community.

I'm confident that we can do better than this. If you're looking for a way to positively contribute to your community, why not check out Winterfest this weekend? You can sign up to help through Reg on the university website, or you can just check out the city's information page and just show up. Choose to be a great neighbour, we can make this a better community.

City Getting it Wrong?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:27:00 +0000

In today's Mercury, Scott Tracey reports on Guelph's city council deciding to change course on their approach to the "rental housing challenge." The article describes how we are going from a by-law that wasn't working, restricting the number of lodging houses and accessory apartments (places where students usually live in high numbers) and moving towards a system where these types of residences will be licensed.

I'm not convinced that either of these approaches deal with the issues in our neighbourhoods. We have the opportunity, as a community, to help a generation learn how to be good neighbours, good community members and engaged adults. I would love to hear about how individual councilors are working towards fostering relationships between students and permanent residents, perhaps even creating a culture where students want to stay in Guelph post-graduation and create jobs/industries that will last through the 21st century.

Assuming that Mr. Tracey's article accurately reflects the meeting that occured, it is unfortunate that councillors (particularly in Ward 5 and 6) aren't talking about the actions they are taking with their friends, neighbourhood groups and constituents to pro-actively frame "rental housing challenges" as an opportunity to make Guelph a better place to live. Continuing to focus on how we can better regulate our landlords and police our student community members does not seem like a sustainable, long-term solution.

Block Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:56:00 +0000

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd write a quick update on my latest project: Organizing a block party with the Hanlon Creek Neighbourhood Group (HCNG).

I'm a big fan of leaders identifying problems and working with a group of people to fix them. We have a problem in many South-Guelph neighbourhoods of some students not acting like good neighbours. These students create a terrible reputation for students in general, as demonstrated by the media's framing of many stories this year (see some of my previous blog posts).

In an effort to help students build relationships with their neighbours, I asked the board of the HCNG if we could plan a street party that would help bring them together with activities for families during the day and get-to-know you stuff at night. The board enthusiastically supported the idea and we've been moving forward for about a month.

Unfortunately, we have discovered that things are a little bit worse than we thought. The first street that we canvassed to gauge interest gave us a resounding "NO WAY." They assertively expressed that they had no interest in getting to know the students who had been making their lives difficult.

We're working to see if there are other streets in our neighbourhood that are interested, but it's too bad that things in this part of the city have gotten this bad. I hope we find a location for the event, that a handful of people come and that we start building a culture of pro-actively building relationships with students to help them learn how to be good neighbours.

Dear Gloria Kovach (and the rest of city council): Who cares?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:23:00 +0000

If you haven't heard, which is likely, Guelph City Council voted to remove a councillor from a board called the "Police Services Board." Councillor Bob Bell is upset about bad government. Councillor Piper organized the motion that unseated Kovach and then was appointed to the committee herself.

My question remains: Who cares? Why aren't we hearing stories about city council finding ways to support local business? Why aren't we reading about how the Mayor appears to support big business in renewable energy over small locally-owned businesses? How is council planning on better integrating their younger community members in student neighbourhoods? As the city grows, are we ensuring that we are on the cutting edge of urban design, or are we heading towards urban sprawl?

I'd be much more interested in seeing leadership coming out of city hall, rather than watching them generate stories about political infighting.

Link to the CTV story: http://swo.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111206/guelph-councillor-ousted-board-111206/20111206/?hub=SWOHome
And the Mercury: http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/634993--in-controversial-move-councillor-pulled-off-police-board

Building a Strong Organization

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:37:00 +0000

It's clear that the Guelph Green party has a lot of work to do towards building organizational capacity. We have to answer tough questions about why we exist and do a better job at communicating the answer to that question in a way that demonstrates the urgency we feel around the issues we face as a community.

In addition to that, people who believe that the Green message is important can choose to help us build a credible organization by supporting the Guelph Greens financially. We have launched two new fundraising initiatives in the past month that use one of the primary lessons learned from the Obama campaign in 2008 and from the Conservative movement in Canada: Small monthly donors can build a substantial bank account.We currently have commitments from supporters in Guelph to raise over $10,000/year, but that won't be enough to compete with traditional parties war chests in the next elections.

If you want to see a credible Green organization in Guelph, one capable of communicating our values and ideas in a way that clearly distinguishes us from traditional parties, I'd ask you to think about giving. Amounts as small as $10 month to both our local federal and provincial organizations can add up to a substantial amount for us over a four year term. With the tax refunds the provincial and federal governments give, this typically results in a net gift of $2.50 a month to you.

For more information about how we can build our financial capacity, please check out www.guelphgreens.ca/cornerstone.

Christmas is a great time to be Green!

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:35:00 +0000

2011 was a year of significant learning opportunities for the Guelph Greens. The provincial and federal elections have provided a few key lessons:

· The Green party in Guelph has not yet established itself as a credible organization that provides meaningful leadership in the community.

· Guelph is looking for a new kind of leadership. Both the incumbents were returned in their respective elections, but declining turnouts and obvious dis-satisfaction voiced throughout the year show us that there is a need for a strong Green voice talking about the values our organization operates from.

As we move into the new year, you can expect to see the leadership of the Guelph Greens move us in new directions. We’ll be asking for your voices, time, money and leadership to help find ways that our group can build momentum and make a difference in the lives of people living in the community. Expect to be asked if you can give a small monthly donation to the Greens and if there are any challenges in your area that we can help solve. Expect us to help you ask to be the voice of the organization in advocating for common sense, meaningful advocacy with issues that will help to create jobs, improve our health and lay the groundwork for a healthier environment. I continue to choose to be Green because I believe our party is the only organization that can provide a new, transformational leadership style.

Mostly: We to have fun building something powerful! We want to have bbq’s, play sports, watch movies, have interesting discussions and enjoy some laughs along the ride.

It’s a great time to be Green!

Letter to the Editor (Guelph Mercury)

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:43:00 +0000

I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Guelph Mercury today:

Where is Liz Sandals’ Leadership?

Last week the Liberal government put the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program on hold in order to re-evaluate the feed-in tariffs being paid. These tariffs represent the fees paid by the province to anyone who puts up a power-generating solar grid and connects it to the Ontario Power Authority’s grid. Putting a hold on FIT has delivered a devastating blow to the solar industry. It is likely to be many months before solar companies will be able to tell prospective customers what the return on their solar energy investments will be. Who will buy solar panels without knowing if they are an investment that will return a profit? How many solar companies are going to shut their doors because they can't afford to function under this terrible Liberal policy? Will Guelph Solar have to resort to layoffs if solar companies do not order the panels they make? There were other options available for re-evaluating these fees that would not have been so damaging to the solar industry. I have yet to hear Ms. Sandals’ voice advocating for her constituents, let alone the NDP or Conservative MPPs providing any leadership. We should expect more from the people we elect to lead us.

Sincerely,

Robert Routledge

CFO – Guelph Green Party

What the Green's Could be

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:44:00 +0000

I recently re-watched one of my favourite TED talk videos about leadership and messaging (Simon Sinek): http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html, and it reminded me of the two things I think we need to do to turn the Green Party into legitimate community leaders:
1) Define, clarify and communicate who we are more effectively
2) Build relationships and establish Green Party members as community leaders.

To steal the model from Simon Sinek, I would want the Green Party (Canada or Ontario) to re-organize around this:

Why: We are community leaders who are interested in identifying problems and solving them. We are fundamentally committed to leaving the world a better place than we found it.

How: We build relationships with people from a wide variety of ideologies, religious beliefs, genders, ethnicities, capabilities, etc. In these relationships we talk about how our communities could be better. We combine these conversations with sound, scientific analysis to create comprehensible policies. We work with other political parties to implement these policies

What: We want you to vote for us, to join us and to help us move away from a divided politics of fear to a politics of good ideas and solving problems.

What it means on the ground:
Practically, this means several steps:

Resources need to be shifted to hiring organizers with experience building volunteer organizations. These organizers need to be given a region that they have the responsibility to assist in developing organisational capacity.
Candidates, campaigns, messaging teams need to be motivated to shift away from talking about why our ideas are right, and towards how our ideas connect to the "why" message above.
EDAs and CAs need to develop the ability to identify ways their communities could be better and to find ways to help other community leaders solve those problems.

Students in the Guelph Community

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Routledge) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:01:00 +0000

With the last Ontario election we are likely to see in the next four years, I've continued to think about how I want to use my volunteer time. I've settled on a project that combines some of what I like about politics with lots of what I like about my job: I want to encourage people to be better neighbours.

Guelph has a long history of contentious relationships in student neighbourhoods, which is not unusual for a University town. The administration and the city do important work on setting expectations, policing and responding to complaints, but I'm pretty sure that we should expect more leadership from the people actually living in the community. If students could put names and faces to the people living in the houses around them, they would be less likely to vandalize their yards or keep people up with noisy parties. If long time Guelph residents spent a little bit of time building relationships with students then perhaps we'd encourage more University Graduates to stay in the city and apply what they know to develop R&D, Green or 21st century jobs in places like the Hanlon Creek business park.

So, I'm going to be using my involvement/relationships with the Hanlon Creek Neighbourhood Group, the Green Party, the University and the City to see if there aren't some relationship building events we could run to start having students and permanent Guelph residents get to know each other. I think we should demand that our leaders work to create less of these stories:
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/more-needs-to-be-done/
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/make-u-of-g-students-pay-for-their-actions/
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/student-problems-in-downtown-too/
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/603545--university-of-guelph-suspends-men-s-rugby-team-for-two-games-over-off-field-conduct

And more of these:
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/604610--downtown-under-control-but-guelph-neighbourhoods-get-closer-look-in-effort-to-address-off-campus-headaches-attributed-to-university-students
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/600912--university-of-guelph-students-assist-goderich-residents-in-wake-of-summer-tornado