Campaign for Fair Election Financing Now gets quick response
August 23, 2006

Monday evening's release of the CATCH call for “Fair Election Financing Now” has attracted considerable attention.

Councillor Bratina was one of the first respondents. He sent an immediate email to his council colleagues saying: “ I believe these  requests are fair and workable and I've sent this letter to you  in case you did not read the original message. I would like to bring a motion forward to our next council meeting  to endorse these measures.  Prior to that I would appreciate your comments on the requests of the Campaign to Councillors.” 

It isn't clear when this motion and discussion might take place. The next meeting of the full council is scheduled for the evening of September 13.

Bratina's email was supported by Brian McHattie who said: “I think its particularly important to publish the list of donors before election day so we are all operating in an open and transparent fashion, and the electors can see that - the substance is critical but so are the optics - we also need to be seen to be transparent and not influenced by corporations or unions.”

Sam Merulla also responded to Bratina. He expressed concerns about the timing of the CATCH statement but said “I'm willing to also comply so long as all candidates sign on to the agreement.”

CHML reported on CATCH's call on Tuesday afternoon. Their story is available on-line at
http://www.900chml.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912
&rem=45821&red=80121823aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm .

The Hamilton Spectator provided extensive coverage in today's paper. It can be examined at
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid
=1156284611870&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815.

A CATCH spokesperson was also interviewed by a reporter from the weekly newspapers.

MayDay magazine has agreed to reprint the CATCH statement, and VIEW magazine has indicated it will cover it in next week's issue. We have also received supportive comments from a number of individuals, as well as several new subscribers to CATCH's free updates.

CH-TV has scheduled a segment of their 5:30 Live show today on the issues raised by the CATCH statement. It will include councillor Bratina, as well as representatives of CATCH, the Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

CATCH is holding a meeting next week to discuss the campaign for Fair Election Financing Now and its implementation over the next three months. Everyone interested in assisting with the campaign is invited to attend. The meeting will take place on Thursday, August 31 beginning at 7:30 pm in Room 110 of City Hall.