Mike's Musings - An introduction - The state of media in Mississauga

“Here’s the first in a series of columns dealing with politics, written by someone who’s been involved in it for decades.
Yes, it’s something different from us and the hope and aim is to start respectful, intelligent conversations and exchange ideas without name calling, bullying or personally attacking anyone.
And with that, let’s start a conversation “- Jay

 My friend Jay Kana – the publisher of Modern Mississauga – has heard my rant many times before. 

“Nobody pays attention to Mississauga!  We’re Canada’s six largest city and we have no daily newspapers; just one radio station; no TV news … and the Toronto Star has a “GTA” section that apparently only extends coverage as far as Etobicoke.” 

Jay’s response: “I hear you – but what about me?!?!  What about Modern Mississauga?” 

Good point Jay. What about you? What about publications like Modern Mississauga? 

Jay is absolutely right.  Modern Mississauga is the future of media and deserves our support.  It’s a flexible, digital platform providing content that people want in formats people can easily digest. It’s good quality content and it’s focused on the community. It’s news you can use and (mostly) stays away from opinions and editorializing.  But it’s not the traditional newspaper or radio station or magazine we all grew up consuming.

I think it’s better! 

So, now that I think about it, my beef is really not about Mississauga needing more media or for outside media forces like the Globe & Mail to pay attention to us (though that would be nice.)
What Mississauga needs are more voices; more compelling local content; more engagement of citizens in civic debates. And it needs people in Mississauga to get involved; get engaged; to take pride in where they live.

We need local citizen journalists, writers, observers, bloggers and tweeters (yes, even the tweeters) to be observing what’s happening in our community – good and bad – and chronicling it. 
We need more people taking a minute to consume the news coming from our community and critically evaluating what they see. We need a local “conversation” … to borrow the modern parlance. 

So, then I started thinking … I have opinions (my wife thinks I have too many opinions, in fact) … why don’t I write something for Modern Mississauga? 

Yeah, why not? 

So here I am. The first of what I expect will be a semi-regular contribution to Modern Mississauga where I’ll muse about what’s going on in our community, our province, our country … and occasionally cast an eye to the international scene as well. 

But I’m going to warn you: most of my opinions are about politics and public policy and I come at these topics from a “centre-right” position.  I’m a believer in free-markets, democratic institutions and individual liberties and responsibilities. I also don’t suffer fools lightly. If I see stupidity, I’ll call it out.  (And occasionally, I’m forced to eat crow when someone calls out my stupidity. That’s ok, I can take it!)

I’ll write about what I’m seeing in the news – or what I think should be in the news – and I’ll try to come at my topics from a different perspective that I hope will make you think, challenge and question. 

I’ll probably shy away from being critical of my wife or her Council colleagues … I’m doing this column for free, after all!  We’re no George and Kellyanne Conway here!  (Look it up, if you don’t get the reference.)

I hope you enjoy it.  I hope you learn something. 
Most importantly, I hope it sparks a dialogue. 
I look forward to the conversation.

Mike Ras is a keen observer of public policy, politics and media. For his day job, he’s director of government relations with a prominent Canadian financial institution. A resident of Mississauga, part-time “professor” in the Government Relations program at Seneca College and an active volunteer with a number of local charities.
Connect with him on Twitter here.