Audio recording from Garth Turner’s Owen Sound Town Hall

September 28, 2007

Garth Turner Owen Sound town hall Last night I had the opportunity to take in a presentation/discussion with Garth Turner at the Owen Sound Legion. I quite enjoyed the event and I learned a few things while I was there. I was also reminded of a few things too. Like, for example the troubling demographic situation our country faces. It was likely demographic study that first introduced me to Garth. During my previous teaching career I referenced a couple of his books in my courses: 2015 revised: after the boom: how to prosper through the coming retirement crisis and 2020: new rules for the new age.

Both worthwhile reads I would suggest, especially if you happen to be studying demographics.

More recently, my interest in Garth Turner has been in his use of technology, mainly the web, to maintain an ongoing dialog with his constituents and other’s interested in the Canadian political process.

“In this Parliament Garth is known for his proactive outreach to Canadians and his belief in the future of digital democracy. His interactive Internet blog has received international attention as a first for an elected politician, and receives more than 2,000,000 hits a month.

At the same time, he has founded MPtv, an Internet television-type broadcast which takes Canadians behind the scenes with MPs of all parties on Parliament Hill. He balances his Internet profile with many Town Hall public meetings in his own constituency and across Canada.”
Source: http://www.garth.ca/garth/

I really like the idea of a “digital democracy”. First off, it just sounds cool. It’s so futuristic. That of course is not really the case. The idea of a digital democracy has been around for a quite a while. This seems like a good time for a quote from Alex Steffan, another author/leading thinker I admire… “The future is here. It’s just not equally distributed yet”.

The tools required to really make the “digital democracy” work are currently at our disposal. This site itself is to a certain extent proof of that. We are not mainstream media, we work on a shoestring budget, we haven’t got an army of writers/editors/producers but we are getting “the word out” to an increasing number of area residents. Take for example our current audio series on democratic reform. In effect we are using a few of the “readily available” technology tools to capture and distribute some very timely, important political information. The biggest “value added” feature of this particular example of the digital democracy from where I sit, is the “time shifted” nature of what we are doing. We have taken an event that occurred 3 months ago and we are making it available to the public to consume at a time that’s convenient for you.

Same goes for last nights event. For those not in attendance (which by quick calculation would be about 99.9992% of the local federal riding) you have another chance to hear what went down.

You can listen at your computer when you have a few minutes to spare in your day or you can download the audio files and drop them on your favourite portable (.mp3) player. Now you can listen on the go, perhaps as you walk to work or at the gym, or on the bus, or…. I think you get the idea. It should probably also be noted that you don’t necessarily need a new fangled mp3 player to get this content to go. You could burn a CD to listen to in the car and when your done with the disc you can pass it on to a neighbour or co-worker. I am going to look into adding this and future audio and video content at from theOwen to the collection at the local library as well. This takes the while Internet based distribution out of the loop and should serve to make our content available to a much greater percent of the population.

Hopefully you are starting to see how this might be of important if we are going to re-engage citizens in the political process. Garth.ca is a good place to start when looking at how a “blogging” MP or MPP or Mayor… can communicate directly to those who elected them. I hope you enjoy the audio. After you’ve listened to the town hall you should drop by and listen to our MMP series if you have a question or two about the coming provincial referendum.

Garth Turner Town Hall in Owen Sound (about 38 and a half minutes run time) You can listen with the flashplayer below or you may download the audio mp3 here, (right click save as)

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Podcast, The Area, Events, Politics, Audio, theOwen

Step One: Read Garth Should Stay Home, Step 2: Head down to the legion tonight

September 27, 2007

As we mentioned earlier, Garth Turner will be in Owen Sound tonight holding a “Town Hall” meeting at the Legion. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of discussion is brought up by the area residents. The event kicks off with an informal meet and greet, followed by presumably a more structured presentation and question period starting at 7:00.

My personal interest in tonights event has less to do with the local issues (although it should provide some food for thought on local stories to cover) and more to do with the style of the event. Further to that I am very mush interested in Garth’s efforts to promote an open conversation with our political leaders. I am personally interested in what Garth has to say about the emergence of the digital democracy and a how new web based tools are changing the conversation we engage in with our local MP, MPP, Mayor , councilors…

For an example you should definitely stop by Garth.ca and read a few posts from Garth’s daily weblog.

A great article to start with might be Garth Should Stay Home, the most recent post on the site which addresses the town hall meeting going on in Owen Sound tonight. While you are there be sure to scroll all the way down to the comment section. In my mind that’s where the real action is. At the time I read the article there were 30 responses, some insightful, others not, but 30 voices all the same.

What do you think about the use of the web as a tool for communicating with our political leaders? You can freely add your Comments below and if 30 of you respond then we are truly onto something.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under The Area, Community, Politics, theOwen

Garth Turner to host Owen Sound Town Hall meeting

September 24, 2007

We received the following press release earlier in this week from Garth Turner, the Federal (~~conservative~~, ~~independent~~, liberal MP for the west GTA riding of Halton.

MP wants voter input on federal issues – Income trusts, economy, real estate, Afghanistan, the environment

Voters, taxpayers and constituents in the Owen Sound region will get a rare chance on Thursday September27th to send a message directly to Parliament when outspoken MP Garth Turner hosts a public Town Hall meeting locally. While residents are free to raise any topic they wish, the Conservative government’s decisions to tax income trusts, and raise personal income tax – breaking specific promises by Prime Minister Stephen Harper – are likely to spark a hot debate.

The income trust move is believed to have cost more than two million investors, most of them seniors, more than $20 billion in lost retirement savings. That is the greatest private loss ever to result directly from one government action, and came as a shock to voters after Mr. Harper promised repeatedly in the last election campaign that he would never impose such a tax.

Turner says many homeowners and investors are also concerned abut the real estate meltdown in the United States, and the potential for that to affect people here. He will address those concerns in a presentation, “What every Homeowner and Investors must know.”

MP Turner, ousted by Stephen Harper last fall for his opposition to several Conservative positions, has been a champion of jilted investors, and will bring an action plan to the meeting for those anxious to know what their alternatives are. Turner joined the federal Liberal caucus in February, after sitting as an Independent member of Parliament for four months, for the west GTA riding of Halton.

“I have heard from many people in Ottawa, and across the country, very unhappy that their Conservative MPs, like Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound’s Larry Miller, have refused to call such a meeting,” Turner says. “They seem only too happy to hide in Ottawa these days where Mr. Harper has rewarded severely muzzled his caucus and taken actions which seriously call into question his stated goal of having an open and accountable government.”

Turner says Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Harper need to explain to Ottawa residents not only why income trusts were taxed, but also why so many Canadian companies have been purchased as a result recently by foreign firms. Garth Turner, a noted personal finance author before going to Parliament, says he is also concerned by the government’s move to raise income tax and bring in an inflationary budget with record spending which has increased loan and mortgage rates later this year. He said that is endangering the economy, as the United States falls into recession.

Attendance at the Owen Sound meeting is free, and all are welcome to attend. Here are the details:

Thursday, September 27, 7 pm

Owen Sound Legion

1450 2nd Avenue

Owen Sound, Ontario.

A social ‘meet-&-greet’ event will precede the meeting, in the same location.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Web Tools, The Area, Events, Community, Politics, theOwen

Ontario Referendum Part 3

September 18, 2007

The following audio clip is part three of a four part series of audio talks presented earlier this summer at the launch of FairVoteCanada’s Yes Campaign.

The event in Owen Sound was held in Owen Sound at the Public Library on June 20th. Unfortunately the event was held immediately following Snowbirds air show (you can check out some of the show here if you missed it) and it was a beautiful sunny day= not a great time to learn about electoral reform in the basement of the library.

So what was the event all about? By now I am sure you are aware that this October 10th, when we hit the polls to elect our local MPP, you will also be given the opportunity to vote in an Ontario referendum on Electoral reform in Ontario. The choices, of which you will the details in the following audio are to stick with the present First-Past the post electoral system (you can grab more details about FPtP from Referendum Ontario here) or to make a switch to a Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system (another page from Referendum Ontario about MMP).

Fair Vote Audio Part 3 (about 13 and a half minutes run time) You can listen with the flashplayer below or you may download the audio mp3 here, (right click save as)

If you have itunes and you don’t want to miss out on part 4 and all the other great audio content produced by theOwen.com you can subscribe to all theOwen.com audio with this link

We really think this is some important info and that more people should know about it. You can use the share this link below to email a link to this page to your friends, family co-workers …

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Podcast, The Area, Election2007, MMP, Events, Community, Features, theOwen Features, Politics, Participation

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