Meet the Press

Today was the day the Hamilton Spectator published my commentary piece. It was very exciting to open the paper and see it there.

Hey, I know that guy!

When I took a look at the rest of the page, I kind of laughed since, to me, it looked like a bit of a theme page. There I was with two of Hamilton's better known civic-minded voices: Margaret Shkimba and Ryan McGreal.

Another interesting thing to note was that the printed version was an edited version of the piece I'd submitted. Having worked on it for quite some time, I spotted small changes throughout the article. Everything was still there but more condensed. 

So that I could post it to Twitter and Facebook, I got the link for the on-line version and there I found the full text. Here it is: http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4874300-my-priority-is-dundas-and-i-have-the-tools-to-make-a-difference/.

Though there is currently an odd conspiracy theory floating around town that the Spectator is undermining the democratic process (here's a link but be warned, proceed with caution... http://www.thespecrigselections.ca/), I'm going to chalk it up to a software word-count glitch. Google Docs showed my text at 743 words (the limit is 750) but as a former student newspaper editor myself, I know that you have to do the best with the limited space you have.

In any case, the web editor at the Spec actually contacted me to address any concerns I had which I thought was nice. I said I was actually pleased that the full text was on-line and that my messages were the same in both versions.

It was important to me to get my thoughts out there right around this point in the campaign. I wanted the people of Dundas to have a very clear picture of my values and priorities as we head into this final month. I wanted to demonstrate that I'm taking a strong stance on the issues that matter most to us and I think I've accomplished that quite nicely.