Political initiative
From eg
A political initiative is any initiative that requires mass public support.
The Imagine Halifax initiatives were municipal initiatives, developed in the Imagine Halifax project, which originated the Imagine Halifax control terms. It influenced the openpolitics.ca list of all issues via this political platform, which remains licensed CC-by-nc-sa by IH.
It combined them into a simple appealing pitch, with more detailed platform proposals on each citizen initiative available on the Internet. It was a nonpartisan effort though it contained people from many factions in Halifax, including the gay, disabled, green, labour and black communities. Unusual for political initiatives in Canada, the effort did not simply allow one person to write the policies in each domain.
"Offering to carve up the policy space and hand exclusive control to critics" was described by project editor Craig Hubley as "simply a route to failure as the input of activists and environmental groups will be ignored. They do not carve up issues this way, and there's no reason to ask them to." The actual material seen by the public was only the most visible however of "four levels: the evidence and background material and detailing what "policy terms" can and can't be used in [policy] statements, the arguments that candidates advance in debates and quotes, the positions that every party and group takes from which [our group] takes the best, and the exact presentation of those positions in a simple one-page statement of directions." E.g. the actual 2004 statement from IH itself:
"Imagine Halifax - growing citizen initiative
Each Imagine Halifax citizen initiative is drawn from an ongoing project to develop a "green HRM" citizen platform independent of parties and candidates. Each such initiative (or "plank" in the overall citizens' platform) is paralleled by a lobbying effort to gain Council and citizen and activist support for specific policy measures. At present these include:
- No Highway __113__ - there *are* alternatives.
- __planning__ as far out as __2030__, i.e. the HRM 25 year plan presently being debated
- __4P__: Precautionary Principle and Polluter Pays
- __access__/__ability__
- __air__ and __water__ quality
- __coast__ and __wild__ region preservation - keeping our __heritage__
- __arts__ at the core of our __economic__ growth, rather than __sprawl__
- __autonomy__ to pursue goals like __peace__ and better __business__ based on sane __tax__ options
- __child__ welfare and the commitment for __homes__ for all
- __telework__ encouraged to cut commuting
- better __civics__, __politics__, training and __information technology__ and an upgraded __library__ system to support them
- __community centre__ that bond __neighbours__ especially __youth__ and __seniors__, into a __village__ that can draw on many perspectives
- __rural__ regions treated as hubs of their own not just feeders of commuter traffic
- __crisis__ response and better __energy__ options that don't fail in, or cause, a crisis themselves
- __equity__ especially in __health__ matters and __school__ funding
- __well-being__ as measured by a __Genuine Progress Indicator__
- __labour__ relations, e.g. the __No Sweat__ initiative and other moral choices to __purchase__ only what we can buy into;
- municipal __services__ controlled by the citizens
- __pesticide__ reductions
- __play__ and __recreation__, rather than simply more __police__, so our __youth__ interact with each other, not just with cops
- __Rainbow__ Relations that boost our economy
- __street__ reclaiming supported by better
- __transit__, __transport__,and __tax__ options, e.g. a municipal fuel tax
- __sewage__ and __stormwater__ handling that save rather than cost money
- other __waste__ treated as a resource or as a cost paid by its creator
(On October 9, 2004, IH added __telework__, __rural__, __library__, __leadership__, __school__ and __service__ initiatives based on responses of of candidates to our __survey__. After the election, __IRV__, __211__, __311__ and __audit__ issues emerged. It was also in the process of creating an overview of all __electoral reform__ questions, and special pages only on __harbour__ and __ferry__ issues)"
