To Tim Bousquet,
I appreciate you are trying to be helpful to the community through your commentary, but I am confused by comments about our organization in "The Big Lie from Citizens for Halifax" (Sep. 11, Reality Bites blog).
You spend a significant amount of your writing efforts in The Coast pointing out the issues facing our city and the lack of vision in the leadership which is responsible for the management of HRM. Yet, you've taken every opportunity to discredit an organization whose main focus is to get citizens engaged in the municipal process so that we can improve the leadership and vision that is guiding our great city.
I am pretty sure that you have yet to attend a Citizens for Halifax event, and you have not had a discussion with any of our board members, but you continue to give us a hard time for taking some initiative to improve things at city council.
If you had been to one of our earlier events (in February), you would have witnessed a vote by our membership to not slate candidates for this election, but to focus our limited volunteer efforts and finances on supporting candidates who come forward for election.
We have spent the majority of efforts this year on community engagement sessions. At these events we worked with members, citizens, even councillors and the mayor to define a vision that represents what a vibrant and liveable city is and how we, as a community, can get there.
This effort has resulted in seven principals that outline a vision, with specific goals, that will move Halifax forward. Our goal is to bring these issues to public discussion about the future of Halifax and challenge our newly elected council and mayor to make credible, focused movement towards achieving them.
Have a look at the people who have volunteered to give up a significant amount of their time to generate better discussion about the future of Halifax.
I invite you to meet with us and discuss our organization, principals and the leadership and governance requirements that will make Halifax Canada's most vibrant and liveable city.
By --Malcolm Fraser, chair, Citizens for Halifax
