http://www.samaracanada.com/samarablog/samara-main-blog/2012/02/22/profiles-in-civics-stephen-young-of-the-civics-education-network

• Opening a Civic Engagement Office in the Rotunda of City Hall.
• Launching a ‘Dialogue to reconnect people with government’ in 2012
• Dedicating Civic Engagement Staff to supporting resident community groups
• Installation of better signage in City hall and Civic Centres
• Holding elections on Saturday or Sundays.
• Using rank ballots and instant run-off voting
• Improving the elections website with ward searchinformation, links to candidates’ websites and contact information
• Pro-actively promoting the nominations process and encouraging nominations.

This is all preliminary but exciting, and excellent context for our visit next week.  Let us know what you think of the proposals below.

Event: We will be visiting Dave Meslin’s exhibit ‘The Fourth Wall: Transforming City Hall,’ which explores the real and imaginary barriers separating citizens from the political process and stage.

Description: Most residents are simply spectators, passively witnessing local politics through headlines and soundbites. How can we break this ‘fourth wall’ and create a culture of local citizen engagement? How can we open the doors to meaningful dialogue and participation, allowing us to collectively build the city we want to live in?

Place: Urban Space Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.

Date: Monday, January 30^th

Time: We will visit the exhibit from 6:00-7:00pm. Afterwards, you are welcome to join us for a drink and discussion at Hey Lucy on King Street.

Cost: Free! A $5 donation to the Civics Education Network would be greatly appreciated, but is not mandatory.

Bio: Dave Meslin embraces ideas and projects that cut across traditional boundaries between grassroots politics, electoral politics and the arts community. Some of his projects include 2006′s City Idol contest, which put a new face on council elections; co-editing Local Motion, a book about civic projects in Toronto; and Dandyhorse and Spacing magazines. And he’s part of the Toronto folk/indie collective Hidden Cameras, using their worldwide touring to research voting practices in the cities where they play. He recently founded the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (RaBIT).

If you are not already familiar with Dave’s now-viral TED Talk, entitled ‘The Antidote to Apathy,’ it is a highly recommended resource for both you and your students. Please visit http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_meslin_the_antidote_to_apathy.html  

A Havergal college, a group of students are leading the charge to change the upcoming changes to the $50 bill.  Our current bill includes an image of the famous five, women who lead the charge on women’s rights in Canada.  With the refresh of the currency going through the system now (starting with the $100 last month), they have been removed from the design in favour of the arctic research ship CCGS Amundsen.

A CBC article recently highlighted this change and opened up an enormous online debate over the issue.  The girls at Havergal have taken to starting an online petition to change the government’s decision.  We encourage you to take the issue to your classes and support their work as engaged, involved citizens.

Elections are important for people of all ages, even if you are not old enough to vote, understanding the democratic process and learning what your City does for you is important. For those reasons we are updating and adding brand new education tools under the Students and Youth and Education sections on the Toronto Elections website. http://www.toronto.ca/elections/students-youth/index.htm.

Our goal for revamping this section is to allow youth and teachers alike a, ‘one-stop shop’ for excellent educational resources such as, videos, games and presentations.

The refurbished section will not only serve students and youth, but also teachers and educators who need additional resources relating to Toronto and municipal elections. Everyone will be able to find interesting information and engaging educational resources.

The Art of Democracy National Youth Challenge invites young Canadians aged 14 to 30 to submit images, videos, blog posts and tweets in response to the question “What does our democracy mean to you?”.

A five-member panel of notable Canadians will judge the entries.  Contestants will win prizes for the best submission in each category and their work will be displayed at www.democracy-democratie.ca.  The prizes are:

Best Image:

• Winner: Nikon camera – D3000 with 18-55VR and 55-200VR lenses
• Runner-up: PlayStation 3 – 320 GB System

When does a democracy begin to lose legitimacy? When do we cease being democratic? Yes it is a democratic choice to not vote, but how far can we let that go before we can no longer call ourselves democratic?

Where does the blame lie? Just about everywhere starting squarely with the politicians themselves. Can anyone even tell me what this election was about? It’s time for a radical rethinking of the way we do democracy and politics in this country. The world is a different place then when our system was created. That’s not to say that there is one silver bullet, rather we need to seriously look at everything and perhaps change most of it. We need to leave partisanship behind and we must demand our politicians do better. Democracy is important and worth saving.

John Ibbitson’s recent article in the Globe and Mail on the recent turnout is an excellent read.

1. Every human being has a right to lead a dignified life.
2. A dignified life means an opportunity to fulfil one’s potential, which is based on having a human level of health care, education, income and security.
3. Dignity means having the freedom to make decisions on one’s life and to be met with respect for this right.
4. Dignity should be the basic guiding principles for all actions.
5. Ultimately, our own dignity is interdependent with the dignity of others.

http://votecompass.cbc.ca/en/