Eisenberger Vs. Trump Round 1

It is uncertain whether U.S. President Donald Trump will show up to this fight (he has shown that he will sometimes engage via twitter with American Mayors) but Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger seems to have thrown caution to the wind with the tweet shown to the left.

Rather than focus on the President's comments regarding NAFTA, Mayor Eisenberger takes a broad swipe at Trump's presidency. While there is no doubt that Mr. Trump and his presidency is rich in controversy, it is questionable whether the Mayor's swipe was a smart or appropriate thing to do.

What is your view? Do you think Mayor Eisenberger's comments were appropriate and called for?  Do you believe the tweet will be noticed and responded to by Mr. Trump?

With Clr. Whitehead - on LRT

Clr. Terry Whitehead

We checked in with Ward 8 Councillor and friend of The Hamiltonian, Terry Whitehead on LRT. Enjoy our chat with the Clr.

1. With the addition of Eastgate Square as a destination, how comfortable are you with LRT as it is currently being envisioned. Has the Eastgate addition and perhaps other adjustments made, moved you significantly from a place of extreme concern to a new perspective on the matter?

My role as a councillor is to ensure that we understand the risks, the consequences and mitigate those issues as much as practical when making decisions. The LRT system moving from McMaster to the Queenston traffic circle was the worst case scenario for a comprehensive transit system. With no North/South connectivity this plan was not consistent with the city endorsed plan and would have put taxpayers of this community at great financial risk. When we were dealing with the EA report at council I knew that the vote would be tight. In good conscience I could not allow the LRT plan in its incomplete design, pass or be supported. I chose to leverage the original plan to Eastgate which provided a greater level of connectivity in our transportation plan. It would increase possible success, but for sure would mitigate the higher risk plan that was in play. I still have misgivings. I believe the uplift argument is overinflated especially when the Canadian Urban Institute indicated that after all is said and done we’re still only looking at only a 1% assessment increase and this projection was made before the Scott Park lands became a non-tax generating revenue property. Ridership is sitting at 444 passengers at peak hour in peak direction. The growth projections for Hamilton have not been met for the last 10 years and I doubt they will be met for the next 10 years therefore these numbers should not be relied on for ridership projections on ridership, uplift, and the operating and maintenance costs. As a metaphor, I believe that this is a plan tantamount to us buying a size 10 shoe when we’re only a size 2; knowing that someday we will grow into it.

Unfortunately so many things can change in that time frame and the costs will still be borne by the

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak-Cooking from the heart – An Un-Recipe for Mushrooms on Toast

Cooking from the heart – An Un-Recipe for Mushrooms on Toast

My last piece called for institutions to do better in how they approach food service. Since that was published I have been engaged in some interesting conversations with a local food producer and the Chair of a Hospital, in advance of a kind of summit retreat I’ve learned is being organized on the topic.

There will be more to come on that later, but the piece also got me thinking about recipes and the way our mothers and grandmothers cooked. I don’t often publish recipes, the last a wonderful rhubarb dessert, appearing over two years ago. When I look back at it now, it was more about the feel of the dish rather than any real precision in how it was put together.

The wonderful Jacques Pepin recently spoke about the inherent contradictions between codified

Media Release:Hamilton and Niagara lead Major Trade & Investment Mission to Colombia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hamilton and Niagara lead Major Trade & Investment Mission to Colombia

HAMILTON, ON – The City of Hamilton, in partnership with the Region of Niagara, is leading a trade and investment mission to Colombia aimed at building business opportunities for local businesses. This will be Ontario’s only trade and investment mission to Colombia in 2017.

With a combined population of more than one million people, the two locations have complementary key industry strengths in advanced manufacturing, agriculture and food and beverage manufacturing, ICT/Digital and Goods Movement. The strategic location of the two includes Hamilton’s 24-hour cargo/passenger airport with a major seaport on the Great Lakes as well as Niagara’s several U.S. border crossings.

The Hamilton representatives on the trade and investment mission are Mayor Fred Eisenberger and Jennifer Patterson, Senior Business Development Consultant from the Economic Development Office.

“This is a mission to solidify new business connections, nurture investment leads, and ultimately create new jobs for this city," said Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger. "Since the Pan Am Games we have been working with the Colombian Government and this trade mission is a major step forward in this business relationship. I look forward to promoting Hamilton on an international stage."

As part of the mission to Colombia, there will be the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding" aimed at strengthening ties for both countries and will formally establish a solid working relationship in order to move business initiatives forward.

The trade and investment mission will attend business meetings in Bogota, Barranquilla and Medellin, Colombia from September 2 – 9. The delegation includes local business owners as well as academic and government representatives from Hamilton and Niagara region. The Federal Trade Commissioners in the specific cities will act as liaisons to the delegation, facilitating and hosting meetings with a number of Colombian firms.

“Our entrepreneurial spirit is present from our smallest start-ups to our largest firms with a talent pool of highly educated, motivated and engaged citizens and business leaders. This is a good example of our local business owners making international connections to move our city forward,” says Jennifer Patterson, Senior Business Consultant in Economic Development Office.

Hamilton’s Economic Development Office is the central point of contact for business assistance. Its services are geared to serve new start-up companies, corporate relocations, and the expansion and retention of existing business. Its mission is to serve as the catalyst for continued economic growth, job creation, and revitalization in Hamilton.

Our Readers Write.....

Looking for Good Governance - is that a big "ask"?

The trend today is for the average voter to be turned off the electoral process because politicians are seen as promoting their own agendas rather the wishes of the electorate. In the US, people were attracted to Trump because he claimed he was an outsider who would rid government of the self serving. But this view by voters is the reason so few are voting anymore. People do not think voting matters.

Elected representatives need to remember that citizens are not making trouble for you; some of our elected leaders are doing this to themselves by ignoring citizens and playing games with the lives of others, serving their own self interest and that of their chosen friends and City Hall technocrats.

Citizens are taxpayers and voters and want their concerns heard by politicians.

For example, in Dundas, the desire of a significant number of citizens who opposed the sale of a well used public laneway to a numbered company were ignored. Similarly, the brouhaha over ward boundaries revealed elected officials looking after their own re-election self interests and ignoring the highly paid consultants. They wasted our tax money, in the process.

The mitigation of an undocumented safety risk to school children on Sydenham Road in Dundas resulted in putting up white posts to shield those on the sidewalk from cars. In the process, they made it less safe for bicyclists. This error then resulted in a new scheme to widen the sidewalk with a boulevard at a cost of about $105,000 awarded in sole source contract. This was all done with little consultation.

We face the reality that elected officials increasingly turn to private consultants for advice at considerable expense and then ignore the advice they get. Conversely, citizens offer free advice, if consulted at all. But the reality is that community consultation process appears to occur after the decisions have already been made and all that is needed to “sell” what is inevitable by chicanery or misdirection. For shame!

The 2018 municipal election is coming and changes need to happen.

Jordan Hill
Dundas, ON

Do you have a view you'd like to express on The Hamiltonian? Write to admin@thehamiltonian.info to pitch your piece. 

Media Release: Hamilton Fire Department Now Accepting Applications For Volunteer Firefighters

Hamilton Fire Department Now Accepting Applications For Volunteer Firefighters

HAMILTON, ON – August 18, 2017 – The Hamilton Fire Department is now accepting application for volunteer firefighters. The Hamilton Fire Department is looking for highly motivated men and women who are dedicated to serving the needs of the community to be a part of our team. If this describes you, then consider becoming a Hamilton volunteer firefighter.

In order to ensure that all applicants understand the required qualifications and the recruitment process, we ask that those interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter for the City of Hamilton visit the following website: https://www.hamilton.ca/volunteer-firefighter-recruitment to obtain additional information.

The closing date for volunteer firefighter applications is Wednesday September 6, 2017 

With Keanin Loomis - On LRT

Keanin Loomis

Enjoy our chat with Keanin Loomis, President and CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and friend of The Hamiltonian.

1. You have been known to be a staunch supporter of the implementation of LRT in Hamilton. At times you have been very critical of those who do not share the enthusiasm for LRT or who otherwise raised concerns about the approach. What do you say to those who may suggest that your views and passion may, despite good intention, prove alienating to business members of the chamber, or Hamiltonians who may be opposed to LRT or otherwise concerned?

In any community, champions are needed to get things done on a grand scale. We’ve been proud to join many hundreds, if not thousands, of staunch Hamilton LRT supporters that are passionate about bringing ambition back to the Ambitious City.

The promise of LRT was one of the reasons I decided to settle here in 2009 (the only question at that time was whether it’d be ready for the PanAm Games!). The appeal of light rail transit is certainly informed by my own travels and by my desires for the type of city I want to live in.

However, as President & CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the calculus is necessarily different. In the position of CEO of the Chamber, I did not come by the decision to actively advocate for LRT lightly, because at no point does a leader of an organization want to get too far out in front of his/her key stakeholders – in this case our membership and the Board of Directors. When it comes to arriving at a certain position for an organization of 1,000 members, it’s imperative that a rigorous, open-minded and inclusive process be put in place to gauge opinion.

Fortunately, many of our members spent many years on our LRT Task Force (which was struck well before I came into this role), hearing delegations and researching numerous case studies of proven economic uplift in other cities. It was after this process that our Board of Directors and our staff felt empowered to advocate for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I am not critical of those that do not share the same enthusiasm, because certainly I don’t expect unanimity across the community. Especially on a major project like this, you have to overcome a lot of anxieties and skepticism. This is Change Management on a community-wide scale, and it’s the responsibility of champions, in an intellectually honest way, to help people understand the business case and, eventually, get excited by the vision.

Concerns are natural and in many cases legitimate, but what I have always been critical of are alarmists that grasp at straws and spurious thinking to whip up hysteria in an effort to undermine this $1 billion investment.

2. Why is it important for LRT to move ahead? What do you see as the short, medium and longer term impacts/benefits.

Hamilton is experiencing an incredible renewal and it’s a very desirous city in which to live. However, it can be so much more. When it comes to our streets and our transportation system, the status quo is completely unacceptable. We need to make some radical investments to maximize our potential…

…and, fortunately, after many years of planning and hurdles cleared – the most significant being the pledge by the province to fund the entire $1 billion project – LRT is very close to becoming a reality. Because of all we’ve invested (time, money, optimism) in getting to this point, it was my contention in my April 18th Hamilton Spectator op-ed that the costs of doing nothing are enormous and irreversible. (https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/7248850-the-high-cost-of-doing-nothing/)

The impacts of building LRT, on the other hand, are temporary and manageable. It will require good planning, a lot of hustle and a positive attitude to get through to the other side, but I’m confident that we are on the right track.

The long-term pay-offs will be in the infrastructure we are upgrading along a significant swath of the city, the long-needed investment we are making in modernizing our transit system, and the residential and commercial development that all of that unlocks. We’ve already seen a significant amount of development attributable to LRT, but it’s just the beginning as the number of new Hamiltonians we’ll have to absorb within the existing urban boundary is immense. The projected population increase of 250,000 by 2041 means that the market size for every business in Hamilton is anticipated to increase by 50% over the next 25 years.

3. If you were to allow a serious concern about the implementation of LRT in Hamilton, what would that concern be and what makes you comfortable living with that concern. What mitigating factors would you look to. 

Just because I’m a champion for the project doesn’t mean I haven’t asked myself many times over the last number of years if we’re doing the right thing. It’s healthy to constantly re-evaluate your assumptions and course of action.

When it comes to the design, planning and implementation, I’m very confident that the highly professional staff at Metrolinx and the City of Hamilton are doing everything right.

Ultimately, my biggest concern is the impacts to businesses in the lower city, especially retailers along the corridor. I’ve said many times that being Hamilton’s Voice of Business requires us to be staunch supporters of the project, but also obligates us to do everything possible to mitigate the impacts of construction to businesses.

After much study and discussion with experts, I’ve learned there are a variety of things we can do to make sure that those impacts are mitigated. The great thing is that we are not the first city in Southern Ontario, let alone North America, to be building LRT. And there are a lot of lessons to learn from those cities.

As a result, we’ve been proud to work with Metrolinx over the last year to design an LRT Ready seminar series that helps Hamilton businesses understand the impacts that they are about to face and the measures they as business owners, and we as a community, need to embrace to get through construction.

I believe our first session, held on June 6th, should be mandatory viewing for not just businesses, but all Hamiltonians. (www.lrtready.ca).

Our second session will be a road trip on August 21st to K-W to talk to businesses that have been through the process. Subsequent sessions will help businesses build digital loyalty (website, CRM, e-commerce, social media) among their customers.

Our friends in K-W and Eglinton said they didn’t have these conversations until construction started and the fact we’re having these discussions two years before shovels go in the ground will serve us very well.

And we’re already discussing with Metrolinx what comes after the business preparedness series. In development are: 1) a communications plan that will help businesses understand what’s going during any given day of construction, and 2) a branding and marketing plan that will make sure the community is mindful of where its dollars need to be spent over the course of the project.

4. LRT has been a divisive matter in Hamilton, which is to be expected given the magnitude of the change and its rippling effects. How do you ensure the voice of all of your members is heard, agnostic to your personal views on LRT?

As LRT grew as a topic of conversation in the community and among our membership, I was surprised to find that there is actually very little controversy among our members on this matter. What I’ve come to realize is that a chamber of commerce is usually a collection of the more forward-thinking and community-oriented businesses in any community. Most businesses understand that you need to make strategic investments to remain competitive – if you’re not innovating, you’re dying. The same goes for the community in which these businesses operate.

5. What do you say to transit union members and people like Eric Tuck, who are gravely concerned about the impact of LRT of his members? 


The issue of operations hasn’t been within our purview and it’s only recently become a hot button item. There is still so much that remains to be worked out when the winning consortium comes into the equation, but I’m sure all parties will share the same goal: this system has to be as well-run as possible. And I’m sure that will involve unionized workers.

6. Is there anything else you’d like readers to know either about your views on LRT, or the views/concerns of your members?

The business case for building LRT in Hamilton is very sound. This is the right time and place for this type of project. There are of course no guarantees, but if you do it right – and we have thus far – this project will completely transform this city.

I’ve learned that these projects follow a pretty similar pattern. Once you get over the initial resistance to change, and once the project is done and delivering its intended impacts, everybody will say they were for it all along! Fast forward 20 years and nobody will question the wisdom of this decision. 

Thank-you Keanin for engaging with Hamiltonians via The Hamiltonian

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - Narrowing the gap between mush and perfection

Narrowing the gap between mush and perfection

As I sit in the garden enjoying freshly made bread, with a slab of sharp, aged cheddar and a sliced tomato still warm from the vine, I’m moved to a brief reflection. In July I spent ten days in hospital, the location being of no import. I’ll forever be grateful for the great care I experienced then and, indeed over several occasions during the past forty years when I’ve found myself in such a situation.

Without being aware of the specifics, I know our institutions face huge challenges in providing three squares a day for folk who are ailing, particularly faced with picky eaters like myself. But the sad truth is the food was stereotypically awful. Indeed the best thing I had during my stay were the two chunks of freshly-sliced watermelon that appeared one day on my tray. They were crunchy, seasonal and juicy, such a contrast to much of the other bland, gag-inducing mush. I gobbled them down with gratitude.

The saving grace was, once I was up to eating, family and friends brought in treats. Fresh-squeezed orange juice stirred the palate, freshly-made sandwiches on crusty bread tempted me to eat and gain strength. Strawberries from the garden were a huge treat paired with the packaged Rice Krispies I hoarded from my breakfast tray.

Just prior to my confinement I had the privilege of eating a meal at one of the best restaurants in North America. Dinner at Langdon Hall, just down the road from us, in Cambridge, was beyond my expectations: the setting and service were spectacular, but it was the food that blew me away. (My review of that dinner appeared in both the Spec and the Waterloo Region Record in late June.)

A small complimentary appetizer epitomised the importance of appearance and textures in food. Chicken and duck liver parfait was artfully presented in a pretty duck foot porcelain egg cup. I wrote “Thin fried chicken skin, translucent caramel crisps, and cacao and dark chocolate crumb garnishes added further delicious dimensions.”

So the dish was not just beautiful, the tiny portion of unctuous parfait was counter-pointed with interesting, complementary tastes and textures. That excursion, coupled with my hospital stay, served as a re-calibration of sorts, important for someone like me who writes about food. 

Obviously not every dish, no matter the setting, can be amazing, though chefs at establishments the calibre of Langdon Hall strive for perfection every day. What one should expect however is some appreciation of the importance of seasonality, fresh local ingredients, attractive presentation, and flavour and contrasting texture in the food we are served. 

Chefs have largely got the message, and it is time, within the limits of the strictures facing them, that our institutions do the same, and narrow the gap between mush and perfection.

To see all past columns please see (and “like”) the Food for Thought Archives
Alex (Alex can be reached on twitter @AlexBielak)