We face emergencies on several fronts, including housing and climate change and they require a new approach in municipal politics. Strong mayor powers are a tool that could speed up good decision-making. What kind of political system do we want? Do we want a system in which the…

Council’s flub of an affordable housing project on a parking lot in Stoney Creek has thankfully been vetoed by the mayor. It’s time for Hamilton to act on the housing emergency that’s been declared. On April 12, 2023, Hamilton city council voted unanimously to declare a state of…

The death of Ryan McGreal’s mother in California provided the circumstances to try driving an electric vehicle on a 8,400-km round trip through challenging conditions. My mother died last December in California where she had been living. In mid-January I learned that the cost to transport her…

Hamilton needs big wins to meet the housing crisis but it seems we can’t even manage tiny ones.  In April 2020, the City of Kitchener embarked on a transitional housing project called A Better Tent City – a community of tiny cabins for people experiencing chronic homelessness.

We need to build more homes – of all kinds – in Hamilton. That means understanding that we can’t simultaneously hold fast on the urban boundary while fighting intensification in existing neighbourhoods. We are in a housing crisis, in Hamilton specifically and across Canadian cities more broadly. The…