Earlier this week Mayor Gordon Krantz announced that he’d seek re-election.  Two days ago on hawthorne villager a long-time Milton resident, Marshall Horner, threw in his name as a Ward 7 candidate for the local council.  He plans to announce his platform and more background information after he is nominated on Jan 4th.  For now he said: “If I am elected, I will stay in touch with my constituents and, any other resident of Milton who asks for my help.” 

Stay tuned.

It’s not their views on policies as much as their principles (see here for the difference).  More importantly, a councillor needs to listen to his or her constituents and represent their interests in the Council.  An inaccessible councillor cannot possibly be a good representative. Unfortunately, we have a couple of these in Milton. 

Encouraged by Jan Mowbray, Mike Cluett and Jennifer Brooks at the Rurban Fringe (here and here), I have spent a few weeks shopping almost exclusively in Milton.  I even bought clothes and shoes in Milton.  I also went just a little out of my way to buy Canadian-made products, instead of imports (provided that the quality was same or better and the price was in the same range approximately).

I live in Milton, I work in Milton and now I shop exclusively in Milton as well, buying Canadian as much as I can.  Feels good!  Try it.

http://www.miltoncanadianchampion.com/opinions/article/290502

DEAR EDITOR:

A few months ago I found myself really frustrated at the pace of construction on Derry Road.

As a result, I started petitioning the Region of Halton to expedite the construction of the CN Rail underpass between Bronte Road and Scott Boulevard on Derry Road. I set up a website to reach residents who wanted to e-mail their councillors to express frustration over the Region’s infrastructure plans. When I finally took the petition off-line last week, a total of 374 residents had sent e-mails via my website at http://zhamid.ca .

I’m happy to report that regional council passed the budget December 16, allocating $2.4 million for the design work to be done in 2010. The construction, subject to the future council’s vote, can start in 2012 and will take 18 months to complete. This means we may get an underpass on Derry four years sooner than it was originally planned. I would like to thank all 374 people who signed the petition. I would also like to thank Halton’s public works department staff for including the design work in the 2010 budget, Regional Councillor Colin Best for championing it, Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr for supporting it, regional council for passing it and the Champion for covering it.

The subdivisions west of the rail tracks are completely cut off. I shudder to think what would happen if there were a medical emergency and an ambulance got stuck waiting for the train to pass.

Let’s hope that we never have to find out.

ZEESHAN HAMID, MILTON

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Here is a depressing news related to my previous post on retirement saving.  An RBC survey found that only 35% of Canadians will contribute to RRSP in 2009.  Worse, 45% of those above 55 are not doing any retirement planning whatsoever.  Worse yet, 32% of Canadians have not even started saving for retirement yet.

It’s the realm of Federal (or at least Provincial) government but I am a big fan of some forced savings in this case (CPP and Old Age won’t cut it). 

Vieux-Québec has done a great job maintaining its unique character.  Can Milton do something to achieve same level of success? 

Milton still has a lot of growth left.  As many new neighbourhoods get created, town planners have an opportunity to define the character of the entire future city.  What can Milton do to achieve a more European-esque look and feel? 

Essentially look at the main historic downtown and think about ways to achieve the same feel, likely via townhomes and 3-4 storey condos, on all arterial roads like Britannia, Loius St. Laurent, James Snow (it’s too late for Derry, unfortunately). 

It’s coming to Milton tomorrow!  It should be at Main and Bronte at 8:30sh.  It’ll make its way through downtown and arrive at James Snow by 9:10sh.  More info here.

I am very concerned about the amount of debt Canadians (both individuals and governments) are taking. I am equally concerned about the lack of retirement savings.  We are quickly headed to a cliff.  An average Canadian household owes $145 for every $100 it makes.  That’s insane!

This impacts local municipalities indirectly because number of seniors with inadequate savings in many municipalities is set to shoot up just as the number of people getting crushed under mounting debt is going up.  Here’s what I propose Federal government should do on the debt front:

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Please ignore the missing filename error.

This eyesore is in Mississauga near my parents’ house in an otherwise low-rise neighbourhood.  How is this aesthetically pleasing. 

When dragons were rejecting the Milton family, I felt rejected. I’ve never met the family, but I suppose it was the Milton-bond. I was yelling at my TV, telling the dragons they were dumb to let that deal go!

http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/pitches/cosy-soles.html