‘People are pissed off’: Pre-election survey aims to highlight Hamiltonians’ anger over housing crisis, scandals
They're mad about affordable housing and city leaders who hide the truth when things go wrong.
But most feel safe walking their neighbourhoods and like the state of city parks.
Those are among the preliminary findings of a 2,000-plus resident survey conducted online by IELECT, a grassroots group that isn't shy about its goal: electing as many fresh faces to Hamilton council as possible in the 2022 vote.
Graham Crawford, an IELECT co-founder and unapologetic council critic, says a lot of the responses - as well as voluntary additional written comments - suggest leadership is a real issue" for respondents. I think it shows people are pissed off," said Crawford, who helped kick-start the social media-heavy campaign last May.
So far, it appears people in Ward 1, 2 and 3 are more eager to share their dissatisfaction - with nearly half of all respondents coming from the west, downtown and central lower city. No other wards had more than seven per cent.
Respondents were not asked to opine on particular council members (although some did, in written comments).
Instead, the survey offered 23 statements representing IELECT namesake priorities - infrastructure, economy, leadership, environment, community and transportation - and asked respondents to agree or disagree, strongly or not.
Unsurprisingly, statements like It's easy to find an affordable place to live in Hamilton," spurred heavy disagreement. (For the record, council has earned both praise for new funding and criticism over its handling of tent cities in recent years.)
So too did statements about city transparency," with some respondents pointing to the 24-billion-litre sewage spill kept secret for legal reasons.
The survey was not a weighted opinion poll: anyone could log onto the website and participate. In fact, you still can. The survey results so far are public on ielecthamilton.ca, but the group is partnering with the McMaster University Research Shop to analyze final results early next year.
Crawford said he wants more residents to read the survey ahead of an October 22 election his group is hoping will attract a larger crop of candidates - and voters. For the record, only 38 per cent of eligible Hamilton voters, or 138,549 people, voted for mayor citywide in 2018.
Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com