Civic elections in Toronto are not meeting our expectations.

Turnout is surprisingly low. New faces on City Council are uncommon. Candidates can 'win' a seat with as low as 20% of the vote. And perhaps most importantly, our City Council does not reflect the evolving demographic of Toronto's diverse population. 

Should Toronto have municipal parties? Term limits? A lower voting age? Ranked ballots? Multi-member wards? Borough councils? Online voting? Finance reforms? 

Join us at the Better Ballots Town Hall meetings to learn about fourteen specific ideas that could make Toronto's elections more inclusive, diverse and fair. What are the possible benefits and concerns for each proposal? 

This is your chance to learn about options for election reform in Toronto and to join the discussion.

Website: http://www.betterballots.to/townhalls.htm

Facebook Events:
North York (April 13): http://bit.ly/betterballots_NORTH
Scarborough (April 20) : http://bit.ly/betterballots_EAST
City Hall (April 26): http://bit.ly/betterballots
Etobicoke (April 27): http://bit.ly/betterballots_WEST

Let's raise our expectations, and work towards a voting system that meets them. 

The good people at Yes! Magazine have recently put out another great-looking issue called America: The Remix. Here's their summary:

There's an unwritten rule that to avoid controversy, don't talk about race, religion, or politics. The fact is: we're a truly multiracial society. Do we embrace it? Confront it? Fear it?

Image via Wikipedia

Democracy Now!, a long-time open-source software focused organization (and my personal favourite daily news show), is seeking technical assistance with a large CiviCRM project. You can read the full RFP on their Web site. Quick summary is:

Democracy Now! seeks to implement a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system using CiviCRM to manage constituent relationships with donors and prospects, activists, stations, webstore customers, volunteers, and other constituents.

The overarching objective of the project is to increase the effectiveness of Democracy Now!'s global website and e-communications for both internal users (i.e. Democracy Now! Development and Outreach staff) as well as external users (i.e independent media consumers).

It appears that short expressions of interest are due by March 3rd. Great endorsement of CiviCRM by an award-winning news program that is now broadcast on over 800 radio and television stations worldwide.