IF NOT ME... WHO?
IF NOT NOW... WHEN?

Welcome to the on-line site of The Free Press Advocate, the only newspaper dedicated to reviving informed consent and a forum for political dissent for those denied a voice in how they are governed.

Across the land, those thrust into municipal amalgamation against their will are all lamenting that taxes are up, services are down and are asking where their money went.

For the first time, tens of thousands of readers across Ontario and beyond will literally be on the same page at the same time. Divide and conquer will no longer work.

For the first time, anyone who feels lost, betrayed, alienated, ignored, abused, cheated or denied their sense of community, their chosen lifestyle and their rights will have one voice and one forum to express their discontent through their letters and accounts. At the same time, we will report on events and abuses as we find them, alternately informing and amusing our readers.

The Free Press Advocate exists for anyone who felt helpless to fight back - or just didn't know how best to do it. Anyone can play. The more the merrier.

Finally, we will boast a grassroots movement with a single voice to caution politicians and their senior managers at city hall, Queen's Park and even Parliament Hill that they ignore us at their peril. We have had enough!

This isn't just a rural battle; we're just the first to fight back. The issues affecting us also affect suburban and urban residents; we must remind them that what affects us will impact on them, that we're all in this together and that none of this mess stops at a politically contrived ward boundary or city limit. We are all equally plagued, our voice stilled, by the double whammy of municipal amalgamation and media convergence. People demand to be informed, have the right to know what's being done for them and to them. We'll do our best to tell them.

But we need your help. Good people doing nothing is more dangerous than even the most blatant abuses by power-mad autocrats. For our own good, for the sake of our children and the future of generations yet unborn, ask yourselves: "If not us, who? If not now, when?"

With your help, they may finally hear us. They would do well to heed us.

Up the rebels!

Doug Clark
Editor