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Recorded live at the AVICC convention in Victoria, this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks brings a remarkable guest to the mic. Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Meed Ward - Mayor of Burlington, Ontario and co-founder of ElectRespect - to talk about the growing crisis of harassment, abuse, and threats facing elected officials at every level of government.

Marianne has received death threats, been told by police not to attend her own public meetings, and watched colleagues leave elected life entirely because the personal cost was too high. Rather than stepping back, she helped launch a national movement. ElectRespect is now a cross-country campaign with hundreds of elected officials and over 60 municipalities signed on - the pledge is straightforward: commit to respectful democracy, lead by example, and ask the same of colleagues and constituents.

Listen for:

• The real-life incidents - including death threats linked to a local development application - that pushed Mayor Meed Ward to act

• Why the tools available to municipalities to deal with misconduct are dangerously limited

• How social media, bots, and post-COVID anonymity turbocharged political toxicity at the local level

• Why women, people of colour, Indigenous, and 2SLGBTQ officials face a distinctly more personal and threatening form of abuse

• What ElectRespect is actually asking people to do - and how any elected official or member of the public can sign the pledge today

• Why changing the culture has to start with politicians themselves

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