http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20The%20Perils%20of%20Political%20Distance%20%288%29.mp3 The longer someone stays in politics, the more remote they become from their home constituencies. The throb of political life these days occurs at the centres of power, not in our scattered communities. The farther away …

http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20Against%20Our%20Wishes%20%287%29.mp3 We might very well be walking the road to greater independence of our respective communities if the more senior levels of government don’t stop treating them like distant cousins. None of us wants this. We would prefer a place at the tabl…

http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20Our%20Turn%20%286%29.mp3 A surprising call from a Conservative MP out West. Political theatre that is becoming increasingly remote. A partisanship that cripples our democratic estate. Yet despite such realities, Canadian communities, like those American ones just prior to th…

http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20The%20Meddling%20Factor%20%285%29.mp3 it becomes an increasing difficult reality when more senior levels of government swoop into our communities during campaign seasons in hopes of securing our votes, then disappearing back to their capitals as though we didn’t factor into …

http://twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20The%20Humiliation%20Factor%20%284%29.mp3 Desperate times cause politicians to do desperate things. It’s tough enough for our communities to face difficult times, but when we take on the process of undermining our efforts at building for the future by attacking one another, then …

http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20Can%27t%20Do%20Alone%20%282%29.mp3 Emerging entities – globalization, mass culture, the transcendence of money over meaning – have arisen in recent years to lay something of a choke hold on citizens and their ability to come together for greater purposes. Despite impressive …

http://www.twilt.ca/twilt/Pearson/community%20engagement/Section%201%20-%20Increasingly%20Alone%20%283%29.mp3 Communities are feeling increasingly abandoned. Funding formulas among senior levels of governments have left our cities and regions on the outside looking in. But the effects of poor policy and an under-performing economy have left communi…