Free Transit: Can we do it?

Often when the idea of Free Transit is raised people like it, but wonder, understandably, if it is possible.

It is!

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has had it for over a year and the Free Transit movement is growing worldwide.

On April 11, 2014 I wrote in rabble.ca about how Free Transit is not only possible, but is a truly important environmental and social goal:

You can read that full article here:

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/michael-laxer/2014/04/free-transit-three-reasons-it-idea-whose-time-has-come

For many other transit related articles and ideas, check out our Transit Issue Page here: Transit

Free Transit is achievable, is environmentally and socially just and is the right thing to do!

Public Services Must Be Put Back into Public Hands!

In yesterday's mayoral debate all of the candidates affirmed their support for either the "status quo" or the further privatization of garbage collection in Toronto.

This is wrong. Garbage collection is a public service that should be in public hands and that should be operated solely for the public and environmental good, not for profit.

A fundamental part of the right wing austerity agenda is to make public services private. Eventually they would like to see all government privatised and run for the profit of corporations and Bay St. instead of for the needs of the community. They want to drive down wages and make the people pay for what should be free services.

If elected to council I will fight not only against the further privatization of any public services, including garbage collection, but also to put back into public hands all services that have been privatized.

Public services must be in public hands and operated in the public interest, not for corporate profit and greed.

Bringing an anti-austerity program of social justice, public services & higher wages to Ward 6

Our first election leaflet is in! I am very proud of this first campaign piece and want to thank all of my friends and supporters for their input, corrections and advice in the process of putting this together.

It would not have happened without you!

We want to get the first batch of these out to Ward 6 over the next few days and then print another round.

Bringing directly to the community an anti-austerity message of hope centred around:

- Public services, higher wages and fighting for a $15 an hour minimum wage
-The expansion of transit and the fight for FREE transit
-Housing and landlord licensing
-Police accountability
-Democratizing City Hall

And much more!

You can read the campaign manifesto here:
http://electmichaellaxer2014.blogspot.ca/2014/01/michael-laxer-for-city-councillor-ward.html

I also need your help to get this message out. If you can distribute the piece where you live in the ward or can come out to help distribute it...please let me know! And if you can make a financial contribution to help pay for this and future pieces it will be greatly appreciated and put to immediate use. Any amount helps. $25, $50 or whatever is possible.

Contributions of $25 or more are eligible for a rebate. Contributions of less than that can be made, but are not eligible.
For full details on donating please visit:
http://electmichaellaxer2014.blogspot.ca/2014/01/i-need-your-help-to-get-our-anti.html

Thanks to everyone who has donated and thanks again to everyone for their help and input.

I am looking forward to our campaign over the coming months!

Join us for drinks and discussion at our first Ward 6 campaign social - Monday, March 31!

Come out Monday, March 31, 2014, for our first Ward 6 campaign social. It will be an informal evening of drinks and discussion at Sloppy Joe's.

Everyone is welcome! Meet or catch up with me, other friends and supporters and members of the community.

Where: Sloppy Joe's,  3527 Lake Shore Blvd W. (It is on the 501 Queen Streetcar line, and is in between Kipling and Brown's Line).
When: Monday, March 31st, 7 p.m.

I also think Sloppy Joe's has the best chicken wings in the city. I even went for some with Irish Socialist leader Joe Higgins when he was in town. I wrote about it:

http://leftyfoodblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/going-for-torontos-best-chicken-wings.html

This will be your chance to let me know if I am right...about this or any other issue!

There is no charge or donation required to attend this event. Sloppy Joe's is fully licenced with a full menu but drinks and food are not provided. Children are welcome at Sloppy Joe's, but only until 9 p.m.

Please email with any questions!

I need your help to get our anti-austerity message out to the people of Ward 6!

Our first piece is soon to go to print...and we need to raise money to pay for it and find volunteers to distribute it so that we can start to take an anti-austerity message door-to-door. A message centred around expanding public services, improved and free transit, a comprehensive housing strategy and higher wages!

 

If you might have some time over the coming weeks to help us take the message door-to-door to the people of Ward 6, please email us at electmichaellaxer@outlook.com and we will get in touch! We have lots of doors to knock on and mailboxes to drop, so your help can allow us to get the message out!

 

If you can help out with a donation, it will be greatly appreciated and put to immediate use!

Any resident of Ontario can donate, and is eligible for a rebate. Contributions may only be made by individuals, not corporations, businesses or unions.

The donation can be sent via cheque or money order to:

Michael Laxer Campaign
c/o 2858 Lake Shore Blvd. W.
Toronto, Ontario
M8V 1H9

Or you can donate via Paypal or credit card by using the Donate button on the side.

 Any contribution of between $25 - $300 will be eligible for a 75% rebate from the city. Contributions over $300 to a maximum of $750 are also eligible for rebates. Please email us for any further information or details regarding the rebate program.

Please note that contributors who contribute over $100 will have their name and address posted on the City's website.

Help me advocate for and bring to City Hall a Socialist alternative to cutbacks and austerity, an alternative that will allow us together to build a truly better Toronto.

Elect Michael Laxer 2014 Candidate Card!

This is our first Elect Michael Laxer Candidate Card. Let me know what you think!

We will be going door-to-door starting within the next week or two. If you have time to help out...please email us at electmichaellaxer@outlook.com

Front:

Back:

Watch for our first consultative planning meeting announcement shortly.

Michael Laxer for City Councillor Ward 6

Sisters and Brothers;

 

 

As a long-time resident of and small business person in Ward 6, and as a lifelong resident of Toronto, I am announcing today that I am running for election to seek to serve the people of Etobicoke Lakeshore Ward 6 as your City Councillor. I have lived in the Ward and worked on the Lakeshore every single day for over twelve years. 

I feel that, as a city and a society, our governments and many of our politicians have lost track of the principles of equality, justice and community that so many of us see as a fundamental part of what kind of a place we want to live in. 

The programs and freedoms that our foremothers and forefathers fought for are being sold off and whittled away on the altar of corporate greed in order to generate greater wealth for the already wealthy.

We need to turn things around in Toronto. We need, together, to work towards a new direction for our city and its government.

We need a real alternative.

For too long we have been led by one version or another of austerity and cutbacks. Fewer services, lower wages, higher user fees, while the rich get richer and the city becomes impossible for many to afford to live in. For too long the agenda has been set by and for the rich, powerful and privileged, like Rob Ford, instead of by an agenda centred on the interests of the working people and residents of the city and Ward 6.

As a candidate for City Councillor I want to help to change this. I want to work with you around issues like:

1) Economic Justice and Equality: We need a new Toronto. A more just and inclusive Toronto. A Toronto that leaves no resident behind. To do this we need the fight for economic justice to be front-and-centre and as a City Councillor I will fight to make higher wages a part of the business standards expected of retailers and businesses who wish to operate in the city, will actively fight for higher wages and benefits for all people and for stopping wage cuts for city workers or workers under contract to the city. Our city does not benefit by pushing the wages of any workers down.

Instead we will fight together to raise the wages of all.

I will actively advocate as a Councillor for a $15 an hour minimum wage in the city and province.

2) Transit: As Ward 6 City Councillor I will fight to see the Waterfront West LRT plan brought back to connect our Ward with Toronto's downtown in a faster and easier direct route. I will work to see transit expanded city wide and to have revenue tools put in place to finance and maintain this expansion. I will work to integrate GO Transit and TTC routes within the city so that people can use the Lakeshore line as if it was a subway.  I will also fight against any agenda to raise fares and will work towards FREE transit, which should be the environmental and social goal of any government.

3) Housing: Toronto needs a serious housing strategy with the building of more co-op and community housing and fighting to get the province to implement stricter rent controls, especially in high rise and condo buildings. We need to bring in landlord licensing so that landlords who consistently fail to keep units in good repair and meet basic standards of conduct lose their right to be landlords. Public housing, which has been neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair over the past 20 years must be raised to a higher standard. We need to end homelessness in Toronto. Housing is a basic human right that needs to be made more affordable. Far too many Torontonians are homeless or one paycheque away from homelessness. This is unacceptable.

We also need to continue the fight to abolish the pro-developer Ontario Municipal Board.

4) Police Accountability: The police in Toronto are meant to serve and protect ALL the citizens and residents of Toronto. There are simply too many cases where some police officers think and seem to be treated as if they are above the law. This has to stop. As a City Councillor I will work to fight for greater civilian oversight of the police and greater police accountability. No one should be above justice.

5) A More Democratic City Hall: For too long our City Hall has seen many of the same faces backed by the same interests. It is time for a more democratic City Hall, more open to change and new ideas and voices. For too long highly paid City Councillors have made cuts to the programs, wages and services that those making far less than they do depend on.

As City Councillor I will fight to see term limits implemented, so that no Mayor or Councillor can serve more than two terms, to see stricter rules around campaign donations implemented, including limiting the ability of wealthy candidates to donate to themselves, and I will pledge to make no more in income than the average resident of the city does, donating the rest to charity and social causes. If City Councillors are going to make decisions affecting the lives of the people of the city, they should have to make ends meet on the wage of an average resident to truly understand the impact of their policies!

6) Fighting the Ford Austerity Agenda: When I ran in 2010 I was the only candidate in this Ward, and one of the few in the city, to stand up against Rob Ford publicly. His pathetic and dangerous personal behaviour aside, it was his agenda I most opposed. Together we need to fight this agenda, an agenda that goes beyond Rob Ford and that is the Capitalist agenda of service and wage cuts. We need a real and forceful Socialist alternative to this agenda. A Socialist alternative built around people and not profit, built around community and not the rich.

This is just the start of our shared platform. There is so much to work towards in so many areas. As a candidate, and as a Councillor if elected, I will hold meetings every month open to all members of the community and anyone from anywhere in our city to get your input and your ideas for how we can, together, build a better, more equal and more just Toronto.

A Toronto whose government is centred around our collective goal of ending injustice, inequality and oppression.

A Toronto that will be known internationally not for a dangerously out-of-control reactionary mayor, but for its dedication to building a new society and a better world, starting right here in our own neighbourhoods and communities.

A new Toronto.