Toronto Civics 101
For the past two months, I’ve been participating in a new initiative called “Toronto Civics 101” , which is organized by the City to engage citizens in the political process. The six themed sessions (e.g. finances, make the city make’s decision, etc.) were led by people like our budget chief, the city’s CEO or the Mayor himself. In other words, it wasn’t your average information session.
This being the pilot, I think there are plans to do it again so if you’re interested in learning about how your city operates and meeting like-minded others, there will be more chances. In the meantime, I’ve written some relfections pieces which you can find on the 101 Blog here. Below is my final piece, more of a ‘what’s next’ rather than straight reporting. For more on that, again check the blog or the 101 official site.
One last thought: Our city is great. Civics 101’s existence validates this.
Adil “Toronto Fan Boy” Dhalla
Civics 101 Final Session: Grassroots
Do you demand more from our government?
I do and I have often felt that by demanding more, I was doing my leaders somewhat of a service. Having high expectations, after all, may be considered foolish by some but it can also be a flattering indication of one’s perceived potential. I know my city is consistently ranked among the world’s best but like many, I have this prevailing feeling that we can be better. It’s for this reason why I originally applied for Civics 101 – to determine whether or not my expectations were flattering or in fact foolish. It turns out that they were indeed flattering but rather than finding myself demanding more from City Hall, I’m now demanding more from us.
I thought that Civics 101 would provide me with the answers I sought about how my government worked so I could ostensibly derive some comfort from my newfound information base. But in reality, I completed 101 feeling slightly less comfortable about our prospects, because I now fully understand the full gambit of the activities and challenges City Hall faces. It’s not as if I was fully ignorant to these things before but where 101 was most successful was in encouraging me to truly consider the challenges our local leaders face. This left me with a new understanding of the difficulty to create change especially when it involves many stakeholders. Thus, while I might have begun 101 thinking tax raises were bad for me, I left wondering if they were in fact a needed reality for us.
The reason for this, of course, is related to our fiscal imbalance and that is merely one area (albeit a very big one), where I’m now convinced that the city requires help from those in the grass roots. Not only can our elected leaders not be everywhere, but it’s inconceivable to think that but we need to demand more from ourselves to pick up the slack where they cannot. This is the only way that it can work.
At the last 101 session, the word engagement came up a lot and for good reason. The purpose of this initiative was not just to inform, it was to activate. It was hammer down the idea that our shared vision could only be accomplished if change was coming from both sides. Certainly, part of this involves communicating with and demand more from our leadership, but a large part of this starts with us.
So the question is, what are you going to do now?
2 Comments
1 Mark Kuznicki wrote:
I’m very interested in what exactly the participants in Civics101 feel that they are being engaged TO DO. The question I always ask when someone talks about citizen engagement is this: What are we engaging citizens to do? I’m interested in your perspective on this and what you heard from other Civics 101 participants.
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2 adil wrote:
I’m glad you asked Mark as this is the area where I think 101 stands to improve the most in. My impression is that the organizers hopes were that attendees would go ’spread the word’ (about Toronto’s challenges, services, awesome Mayor, etc.) and this alone would justify 101’s value. There is a grassroots element that i like to this but with so much potential in the room, I couldn’t help but feel like we left a lot on the table when we walked away.
101 was new so I don’t know if there was much, if any planning, into post-101. I do expect that next time around, there will be something more than a speech about it ‘actually being the beginning and not the end’. Well, I expect that speech but anticipate (hope), that the organizers realized that they can leverage more from those who attended.
One simple idea would be to close out 101 with an open house for the many organizations in the city who are need of citizens to help in different ways. The issue of homelessness, for example, interested a large amount of attendees. Why couldn’t organizers from a shelter or two be there with a “sign up to help” sign? People at 101 seemed inclined to help but at the end weren’t sure where to go – bridging that gap would be valuable. If this idea is too intensive, the same results could even be achieved by simply asking participants what area/topics/issues they would like to be further involved and following up with them after with places or people to connect with.
What are your thoughts? It sounds like you have an opinion on what qualifies something as being successful in its attempts for engagement.
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