Read on Twitter
just attended @anabailaoTO's budget town hall. here are my reflections:
1/ this event was far from a "town hall", the participant list was concealed, you could not chat with or see other people's questions. there was more focus on censorship than a community or discussion
1/ this event was far from a "town hall", the participant list was concealed, you could not chat with or see other people's questions. there was more focus on censorship than a community or discussion
2/ staff selected questions from chat participants strategically i.e. about parks, recycling, funding tree-lined streets. the hard-hitting (verbal) questions could not be controlled. her team seems to work hard to avoid and limit critical questions (but can't control verbal q's)
3/ ana's responses to defunding the police were disappointing as expressed by many who attended and asked follow-up questions. the call for defunding the police has allowed politicians (like ana) to shy away from addressing abolishing the police by making it about the budget.
4/ ana's response to defunding the police was about "deep structural change", fancy words for reform. reform is consistently criticized for not changing anything. we need abolishment; ana will never say this word and she will not vote to defund the police.
5/ overall ana does her very best to outwardly appear as a progressive politician and it takes a smart, attentive constituent to analyze her arguments and realize her opinions and approaches to policy are nowhere near progressive and mostly PR to appeal to all voters
6/ this week, ana voted against supportive housing for people living in encampments, in shelters, and on the street. why? a bullshit reason that it risks leverage with the province.
BUT she didn't forget to say "I have a big focus on housing as well" contradicting her actions
BUT she didn't forget to say "I have a big focus on housing as well" contradicting her actions
7/ ana knows that these events have a low risk of impacting her approval ratings as a councillor; few people attend and there's no public forum between constituents. the discussion is exclusively between her and individual constituents, which gives her a huge amount of control.
8/ ana was called out by a constituent for not being able to say that racism and racial profiling exists in the toronto police service. she was called out for being insensitive to a Black constituent's experience with racial profiling and harrassment by a toronto police officer.
9/ it was obvious that ana was annoyed/frustrated by the repeat questions and arguments for defunding the police. she went from not addressing a constituent's experience of racial profiling to laughing in hopes that the ontario government will give more COVID relief funding.
10/ ana said she's "committed to rethinking public safety" about 50 times. constituents consistently asked what she means by this. it's obvious that this means nothing for constituents and it's political spinning in hopes that the demands to defund the police go away.
11/ it's clear that ana tries hard to create distance between her and her constituents. she was criticized in another question for not responding to several emails and calls from a constituent requesting a meeting.
12/ it's clear that ana's objective is to stay safe in her job. she knows she's protected by locked doors, narrow communication channels, and low political involvement from constituents (people are more concerned about putting food on the table).
13/ we won't see anything radical change from ana. pushing her won't achieve anything either. ana does the minimum to engage with her constituents and it's become the norm for politicians to ignore what citizens are demanding for. i repeat, this is only a job for her.
