These days its hard to find anyone without a computer or some form of internet access. Will blogs and websites change the way elected representatives interact with voters? Someday it will. Maybe on the higher levels it might, but on the local level its more difficult.

In the bigger cities you have councillors who use these tools and they find them to be quite helpful.

Town councillors are part time positions in the town of Milton. It becomes a full time job when you are a regional councillor like Barry Lee and Colin Best. Its not too difficult over the course of the term in office (now 4 years) to pick a weekend, pick a neighbourhood, and go out and talk with people. Communication is a two way street and right now we have both sides saying to themselves “no ones listening.” Its time to make some noise then.

As someone who commutes into Toronto for work, has two young children and all of the demands that go with them as well as other side projects in my ’spare time’, I think it’s more likely to assume people aren’t paying attention rather than council doing an amazing job.

A councillor who has a website or blog updated regularly is sure to have an advantage with voters I would think.

Councillors need to make an effort to communicate with the voters in their wards. Only a few councillors have websites and even fewer use them as a tool of communication.

We as voters need to speak out when we dont agree with the direction things are going. Its either that council is doing an amazing job and no one has any issues or people arent paying attention.

There needs to be an in-depth discussion on Milton transit and should we or shouldn’t we have it. I am a believer that Milton does need a reliable transit system and that people would use it. The only problem is right now, not many people are. Buses are regularly running empty or with only a few riders.

Ill try to find some ridership stats and blog about it at a later time. The commitment that Milton’s made to increase the number of buses while not knowing the full picture on ridership numbers shows that council is making decisions based on theory and not actual practice.

Milton is at the point where yes, we need to communicate with each other and our councillors. Things are happening so fast and most of us are so busy with our day to day lives that we just sit around and trust our councillors will do the ‘common sense’ thing (and I’m as guilty as anyone). Then you hear about Jan Mowbray and you wonder….

I also agree with Mike on the transit issue. I wait for a GO Bus every morning and watch several empty Milton Transit buses go by me… Yes, transit is important, but again, before spending this kind of money, some studies should have been done - my thought is that we probably could have waited a few years to upgrade to the larger buses - I don’t see a large number of people using them at this point. Milton, because of its rural location, means that most residents get around by car. I think that money could have been saved for now…

Anyways Milton - it’s time to question our councillors and make them accountable. Make sure they’re doing the job YOU hired them for.

Its a shame you didn’t get elected in November. You seem to have a common sense approach that’s needed at town council.