mike mccann's rep era

mike mccann on sexual assault allegations, grocery stores, and decentralization.

i should probably preface this. hi i’m mel. i have raging commitment issues and hate party politics so i wont pick a label. i also will not claim journalistic neutrality. i love pop culture and politics, so i explain politics using pop culture references. literally look at the title. i am a teenage girl who loves taylor swift. what do you want from me? i am anti-capitalist and anti-capitals. 

as barrie gears up for its municipal election in october (VOTE) the choice for mayor weighs heavy on many people's shoulders. arguably the most popular mayor to date, jeff lehman, is not seeking re-election after losing in the provincial election. for some people this is one of the first times they have to actually think about who they’re voting in as mayor. ward 10 city councillor mike mccann hopes to change that. on wednesday july 20th mccann announced his bid for mayor. i met with mccann to discuss municipal politics, his plans for barrie, and some of his controversies. i’ll give mccanns responses and then my takeaways (full interview audio available at the top!!)

now, your reputation or “rep era” is a pop culture term originating from pop culture icon taylor swift. while the term has changed and evolved over time, currently when someone is in their reputation era it means that they have been receiving backlash or “getting cancelled” for something controversial or questionable that they did or said. the point of a rep era is to prove that you were in the right and more successful than your haters anyways. while the term is very subjective and used loosely this definition seems to be the most agreed upon. mccann is currently in the midst of a civil lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct, including sexual assault. when asked to comment, mccann said “Any question concerning my civil case : It is in the courts hands and I will be defending myself vigorously in court”. 

the other situation which has landed mccann in hot water is the finances surrounding the “love barrie” sign. mccann was quoted saying that recognition of sponsors will take place in july or august. in regards to the lack of clarity mccann had this to say “you know the ambiguity or the negativity towards the fundraising is manufactured by either people who don’t understand the process or are looking to smear some mud on my face”. he then goes on to say “i just finished collecting the money this last week or the week before, it's a private organization that i had to open up to raise all the funds so people would be able to use it as a tax write off. i collected hst, i believe i got $100,000 sitting in the bank account, it’s been sitting there for months and months. i am just getting the sponsorship organized with the city of barrie. that’s been a process that has taken 10 times longer than i thought it would, then i will be disclosing the finances. there is no ambiguity, i am not a full time fundraiser and i can’t just snap my fingers. quite frankly i run multiple businesses and am preparing to run for mayor, getting the finances when one counsellor asks for them, i just don’t jump when he says how high.” the issue here is that it's not just one counsellor, it's residents of barrie and constituents who are also concerned. when someone questions you or points out an inconsistency you shouldn’t immediately feel attacked or personally victimised by regina george. you should recognize where this concern is coming from and address it as soon as possible. 

another major issue facing barrie and its residents is the downtown. what's going to happen to it and other future developments. mccann has set his plan as “cleaning up the downtown” what does that mean? getting rid of homeless people, and not by addressing the housing crisis. when asked about it mccann stated “there’s perception and then there’s reality. the reality is if you talk to the police chief, stats canada, barrie is one of the safest cities in canada. but the reality is when you talk to people, that’s just not the reality, people don’t feel safe in downtown barrie. whether they’re seeing things that are unfamiliar to them, whether something happened to them, or maybe there was something that happened to somebody else, the culture that we have downtown i believe needs to change” he then goes on to say that he can “back that up” with a personal survey he did. i took that survey. all the questions are yes or no and heavily loaded, including questions like “Would you like City Council to give more resources to police to be more present downtown?” and “Do you think there are too many social services concentrated in the downtown core?” (for more on the issues within the survey in question please check out this article) all of these questions line up with what mccan goes on to say; “unfortunately in canada we don’t have the power to get involved with the police, there is a real line between councillor or mayor and the barrie police” (3:37 smoke signals by phoebe bridgers) but when asked about ways to help the issues addressed in the survey for example the opioid crisis and safe consumption sites (scs) mccann says “i would be dead against having a safe consumption site in downtown barrie… i really believe that safe injection sites are really like bandaid solutions and i'm looking for real results.” (despite the fact that the government of canada has continuously back scs’s) he proceeds to say that he has a heavy heart for those affected and the homeless “but i want to take care of our own. there is only so much resources that we have here in the city of barrie, or any city, and if you attract more homeless people to our city well the money doesn’t increase. you only have so much resources and money so what happens is anyone that comes to barrie they’re actually getting less of a service because it's being spread to a wider base.” now according to mccann the reason that we have so many people in our downtown is because that's where the social services are. it's almost like the services were put where those who needed them had easy access to them. his solution is to decentralize the social services. to put it plainly he does not actually want to increase the social services or make them more accessible he wants to move them and make them harder to access so the opioid crisis and poverty can run rampant just not where we can see it. he literally framed the convenience of having most social services downtown as a negative thing because people are going there. i cannot make this up. at the end of this cursed survey there is an open section for additional comments. mine went a little something like this “police and removal of social services are not how you stop poverty. criminalizing poverty will not get you the results you want. do not ostracize addicts and the unhoused. also who thinks that drug use only exists downtown. i know of three kids who overdosed that year in the high school in your riding. addicts are not just homeless people. by limiting access to resources less people are likely to seek help and more people will suffer and potentially die. even those who are able to go out of their way to seek help are the rich white people in the suburbs. not the poverty stricken. the ramifications of those actions will harm more people than it will help. if your goal was to help the impoverished and homeless any of the things you suggested will do more harm than help

we then go on to discuss the services ward 10 lacks,  mccann takes no issue moving these services to where the people who need them are, i wonder why? although he agrees the services are needed, he explains the main reason there aren’t things like a grocery store in ward 10 is because there aren't enough people in the ward for a grocery store chain like loblaws to consider putting in a store. that’s all he really says on the subject, pretty much leaving it up in the air until all the new housing in ward 10 is complete and zehrs gets to keep its monopoly on the market for now. the grip that store has on the local economy is the same grip taylor swift has on me and neither of them look like they will be letting go anytime soon. 

mike mccann has something to prove. whether it's that he would make a great mayor, or he can be fiscally responsible, or maybe it's his innocence in a court of law. either way he proves someone wrong even if it's himself. running for mayor is a big step forward in mccann’s career even if he told me he doesn’t have any further ambitions. mccann asked me to write this with integrity and the only way i can do that is to write what i think, even if it means tearing him up a bit. that being said he did tell me that his favourite project he’s ever worked on was the new highschool and i will say even if he described it like a sports game he sounded very genuine and proud of that vote. 

at the end of the day mccann’s bid for mayor comes at a strange time politically. many elected officials have sexual assault charges against them but few announce their candidacy within 48 hours of denying the claims. mccann will have to do a lot to win this race and by judging off of how he responded to the allegations he is more than willing to do so. even if i disagree with his politics i give mccann credit for his passion and love for the city of barrie, as well as his ambition. as election season goes into full swing, i ask, in the words of taylor swift: “... are you ready for it?”