You can still vote if you’re not on the list, just make sure you take your ID and stuff with you. For more information, please contact the town.

You can add yourself (or correct information) by using this form.  Remember,you can start voting on the 11th, you don’t have to wait until the 25th of October.

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It was late and I was tired, so there may be errors and omissions. I apologize for those. Otherwise check it out : http://miltonvote.wordpress.com/

The site has RSS Feed, so you can subscribe and will be notified of changes.

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Not many people like neighbourhoods littered with yard signs.  Unfortunately, for non-incumbents like myself, they are critical in getting name recognition. They also help establish a candidate since when people see their neighbours supporting someone, they are more likely to consider and support the same candidate.

I would be honoured if you lend me a small portion of your yard for my sign.  Someone from my campaign team will put it out (at an undisclosed date).  We will remove them immediately after the election. 

Please e-mail me if it’s cool to put a sign on your lawn, or leave a comment (without your address) and I will contact you for details.

I know I have asked for a lot of favours lately: I asked for donations, and many of you gave me your hard-earned money; I asked for support, and many of you volunteered; I asked for publicity, and you told all your friends about my campaign.  Words cannot expressed how humbled and honoured I am to have such awesome neighbours. 

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not just my personal campaign. It is a community campaign.  Ward 8 needs an involved neighbour in the council, that’s what this is about.  I appreciate your help in getting real representation for this community. 

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I actually wanted to talk about something else. 

I attend every Council, Planning Committee and Community Services Committee meeting, provided that I am not traveling.  For half of the meetings this year, I actually had to get baby sitters so I could attend.

In addition, I sit in the Transit Advisory Committee and Halton’s Inter-Municipal Committee on Sustainability. I attend both those meetings as well.  In addition, I’ve attended most public input sessions. 

Candidates should attend for following reasons:
1 – To learn. You don’t want to be a rookie councillor with no idea on how to handle the job
2 – To demonstrate that you care – If you cannot even bother to attend meetings when you are trying to impress voters, what expectations can they have from you when you are already elected?
3 – If you win, you’ll vote on issues that are discussed. If you haven’t been attending these meetings and did not participate in the debate, how will you vote?

A number of candidates have attended 0 meetings, 0 public info sessions and 0 open houses. I know my opponent hasn’t been to any meeting. I am not mentioning it as a ‘negative campaign’, I am saying it because I live in Ward 8 and would like to be represented by someone who actually cares about the community (even if it’s not me).  Someone who lives nowhere near ward 8 and is completely uninvolved isn’t the right choice.

Next four years are tricky for both Milton and ward 8.  The issue of education village will come up, construction in and around ward 8, further Tremaine expansion, Milton Heights neighbourhood that potentially has an impact on ward 8, hospital funding and expansion, library issue and so on. 

Vote, and vote carefully. 

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Candidates really have a lot more social media presence this time around, but all presence isn’t equal.  Simply creating facebook and twitter accounts, and registering a blog isn’t enough.  If they are not engaging in a meaningful two-way conversation then they might as well have no presence. 

Many candidates use social media sites purely for marketing, and not to form connections and start dialogues.  Those candidates are not getting it. 

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I am about to leave for the Transit Open House today when I notice that my mother-in-law has parked her car behind mine, blocking my car in the garage.  I try to call my wife but she doesn’t answer.  Sadly, there’s no all-day transit on Scott Blvd so for a few minutes I think I can’t go. 

“No wait”, I tell myself, “I can walk to the hospital and take route-2”.  The hospital is 1.4kms from my house, not the end of the world. 

So I run to the basement and accidentally pick up the new map, one effective September 7th. I noticed that the bus was due soon, so I run to the hospital quickly.  Fortunately, I get there just as the bus pulls in and I catch the bus.  This is where the drama starts.

The bus goes somewhere else, not where I expected (of course, I looked in the new map).  So now I am stuck in the bus, $3 short (I did not have exact change), going further away from where I needed to be.  Well, the bus goes all around (old route is horrible) and takes me to the GO station.  I ask the driver and he tells me to take route-2 going the other way.

Foolish me, I expected route-2 to go west on Main, which would take me to my destination.   Oh no, that would be too easy. The bus starts to go back towards the hospital using same route it took to get to the GO station.  I patiently waited for 10 minutes and finally at Laurier and Ontario, I panic and get off.  The bus had retraced it steps and logic dictated that it would continue to do so, ending up at the hospital.

Logic would be wrong. 

Oh what do I see when I get off?  Instead of continuing on, the bus turns north on Ontario towards the Main St.  “Argh”, I go to pull my hair and realized I had already lost it. 

Now I am 40 minutes late, $3 short and steps away from where I got on the bus.  I hopelessly see the bus racing towards my destination as I contemplate what else could go wrong.

So I start another 1.5 km walk and finally arrive an hour late.  Did I mention I couldn’t run because I did not want to sweat?   I had to walk fast enough to get there quickly but not so fast that I would sweat. 

So there. My story of how I walked to the Senior Centre from home and still spent 30 minutes in the bus, getting a tour of Milton I really did not have time for. 

At least I made it to the open house in time to be yelled out (not literally) by four very nice ladies in their 80s about how the town doesn’t listen to them and doesn’t give them a proper transit system. 

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Wednesday, August 18
• 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Milton Seniors’ Activity Centre
• 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Milton Sports Centre

Thursday, August 19
• 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Milton Public Library (Beaty Branch)
• 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Town Hall

I will be there for three of those sessions (fourth one conflicts with the Wind Turbine Public Open House). You can see new transit routes in the community map (warning: large file).  Hope to see you there.

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Now I am here to ask you to help people with another disaster.  Politics aside, over 20 million people are homeless and 3.5 million children are at serious risk due to water-borne diseases.  In fact, number of people impacted are greater than the 2004 Asian Tsunami, 2005 Pakistan Earthquake and 2010 Haiti Earthquake combined. 

Once again, I am not recommending a specific charity. I am myself donating to one not affiliated with the government of Pakistan (umm, obvious reasons).  There are plenty of good private charities.  This Government of Canada website lists a number of good charities.  

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Image on the left is from Woodinville, WA.  On the right is from Ballard, WA.  Both in the Greater Seattle Area.  Which one do you think is efficient for people, emergency response vehicles, transit and traffic?  In fact, research shows that traffic goes up when there are cul-de-sacs in a community.  Also, another research shows that as neighbourhoods become walkable, more people start walking and biking (makes sense).

Milton actually discourages cul-de-sac.  A resident during door knocking asked why because she liked them.  Luckily I found this picture that really says it all. 

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