Introduction

Three years ago Humanize Toronto said that Toronto needed to make Human Rights, the Environment and Real Democracy its focus. Now, three years later, everyone is talking about "Toronto's decline". Homelessness and smog increases, there's a lack of affordable childcare, the TTC is crumbling and the erosion of neighbourhood power continues. Meanwhile, City Council flounders, lacking the vision to make the necessary changes.

Of course, the Federal and Provincial governments share a large portion of the responsibility for our state. But, beside some thoughtful initiatives put forward, there is surely more that the City could be doing to address the dehumanization of our city.

For our part, we're not waiting: even though no HTO candidates were elected in 2000, we've continued to work for the Toronto we want to live in. For three straight years, we've run our Real Budget project ­ a door-to-door campaign to organize public input into city budget. And with the feedback we received, we've run campaigns to stop TTC fare hikes, and in 2002 and 2003, we worked to make the TTC free on smog days.

The candidates of Humanize Toronto believe that together we can solve our problems. Our city is an incredibly wealthy city, drawing human knowledge and experience from every culture and corner of the planet. The expertise and imaginative power to create a truly humanized city exists right here, right now.

However, in order to reap the collective knowledge of the people of Toronto, we need to put power in the hands of the neighbourhood. We need a decentralized city where all our voices can be heard and where we can have a real say in how our city and neighbourhoods are run. For example, we need a Participatory Budget system so all of us can decide what kind of Toronto is built with the resources we have.

Our proposal is that Toronto frame all of its activities around Human Rights, a Healthy Environment and Real Democracy. That is, we must ask ourselves if everything we are doing is working to meet the basic human rights of all people in Toronto; if everything we are doing is creating a greener, healthier and safer environment in the city; and if everything we are doing is helping to devolve decision-making power down to the neighbourhood, to let people have a real say in the running of their city.

Now is not the time for empty statements about "a new deal for cities" or "stopping Toronto's decline". The fact is, we know what kind of city we want. We know what challenges we face. What we need is more faith in ourselves and in each other, and power to the neighbourhood.

On November 10th, in 6 wards across the city, vote to Humanize Toronto.