Saying goodbye to Toronto Civics 101 - 2009

On behalf of the staff team who planned, developed and ran the inaugural Toronto Civics 101 I'd like to thank all of you for your participation and for making our first attempt so successful.

We has some worries (would anyone apply?), some bumps along the way (how come the videos of each session couldn't be viewed by everyone?), excitement (meeting session participants and anticipating how you would react to each session) and some wistfulness when we said good by to all of you and to the last session.

We are sifting through all of the evaluations and will be posting summaries in the next few weeks here and on the City's website. Many of you have commented that you enjoyed the program, would like to continue to learn about the City and recommend a similar opportunity for other Torontonians - we'll be figuring out our plans for 2010 soon - and will be in touch with you over the coming months.

Guest Blogger - Toronto Civics 101 Final Session: Grassroots

~ Guest Bloggers can submit posts to this site - the opinions of the authors are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the postion of the City of Toronto, Civic Engagement Toronto or Toronto Civics 101. ~

The following post comes to us from Adil Dhalla:

Do you demand more from your government?

I do and I have often felt that by demanding more, I was doing my leaders somewhat of a service. Having high expectations, after all, may be considered foolish by some but it can also be a flattering indication of one's perceived potential. I know my city is consistently ranked among the world's best but like many, I have this prevailing feeling that we can be better. It’s for this reason why I originally applied for Civics 101 - to determine whether or not my expectations were flattering or in fact foolish. It turns out that they were indeed flattering but rather than finding myself demanding more from City Hall, I'm now demanding more from us.