Municipal Election 2014 Mayoral Candidate Demands Purchase in Exchange for Comment A mayoral candidate has told RTH he will not respond to requests for comment unless we buy products from his company. By Ryan McGreal

Published September 08, 2014

Last week, RTH published an article about mayoral candidate Brad Clark's new position on the City's light rail transit plan. RTH contacted all the mayoral candidates to ask for their comments on Clark's press release and included all the comments we received.

One mayoral candidate, Ricky Tavares, did not respond until after the article was published. However, his response was rather bizarre:

I would accept your offer and invitation on the condition that you go to one of my seed vendor locations listed on my website of [website] and purchase 10 packs of seeds. Please submit to me a proof of purchase notary RECEIPT after purchasing my seeds at anyone of these locations listed on [website]. Thank you.

RTH responded:

Are you saying you will only answer a policy question related to your mayoral campaign if I buy seeds from you? Surely you understand how bizarre and inappropriate that request is.

Tavares replied again:

YOU MUST SUPPORT MY HAMILTON STORE VENDORS AND THEIR EMPLOYEES. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SUPPORT OUR RETAIL STORES AND OUR LOCAL [website] JOBS then please do not bother me. My workers and thier [sic] jobs are the most important thing in my life right now and I am dedicated to that. My [website] business currently helps employ and feed over 50 Hamilton employees. They need me. I must protect them.

Raise the Hammer has always tried to avoid sorting electoral aspirants into "mainstream" and "fringe" categories. We try to give every candidate a chance to share their policy ideas and comment on issues.

We don't believe media and civic organizations should marginalize candidates who are not considered "serious" enough - for example, the Mayoral Candidates Breakfast Forum hosted by Hamilton Business Leaders, which has only invited Brad Clark, Fred Eisenberger and Brian McHattie.

That said, some candidates do a fine job of marginalizing themselves.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

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