City Hall
We hope to use this page to provide an ongoing perspective on city governance. We acknowledge that we are not unbiased, but we believe our contribution will be valuable. We’re building a list of specific concerns at the bottom of this page.
If you have news, ideas for the page, suggestions, criticisms, or other comments, please contact us through the form at the bottom of this page.
If you have thoughts you would like to share with an individual councillor, use this link.
To send an email to all councillors, go here.
If you’d like to join the discussion, use the comments box in the posts below.

RECENT POSTS
This is what happened at Tuesday’s explosive meeting
Stratford Council’s meeting Tuesday night was abruptly cancelled by Mayor Ritsma, causing anger and frustration for the approximately 100 people in attendance. The public meeting was scheduled to consider the controversial application of Juliana Development, Inc. for...
This would be funny, if you didn’t care about democracy
Sharon Collingwood: The latest on the City ban of residents You probably know a lot of the story by now… our own Mike Sullivan has been banned from all City buildings in Stratford, and he can only communicate with City employees through the City’s lawyer in London....
All God’s children got a place in the choir
Sharon Collingwood: We need all voices in a democratic society I met Mike Sullivan in the Fall of 2020. I liked him right away; he’s a plain-spoken man, with a wry sense of humour, and has lots of interesting stories of his time as a member of Parliament in York...
The Krug project is HUGE.
On the positive side, this is a project that takes into account the cultural history of the Krug factory (Trinity Street). They have given serious consideration to how the project will conform to the architecture of Stratford. The developer intends to retrofit the...
Citizens of Stratford Unlawfully Barred from City Council
Stratford, ON—‘Get Concerned Stratford’, the community group behind the fight against the secret Xinyi glass factory, has learned that the City of Stratford has unlawfully banned a number of residents from attending City Hall, going to any city building, like...

The Closed Meetings Investigations final report is here
Final tallies - 141 closed meetings between Sept 2018 and May 2023, 57 months. Almost 2.5 per month. At the 126 meetings with votes, there were 408 votes. Of those, 276 (67.6%) were properly conducted, 132 (32.4%) were illegal. Council acted illegally nearly one...
Xinyi planner disciplined
On Friday we attended the Ontario Professional Planners Insitute disciplinary hearing for Chris Pidgeon, planner for the City of Stratford's Xinyi project in 2018-21. The hearing was a result of Get Concerned Stratford's complaint of 2021; in an agreed...
Two meetings in Stratford on the housing crisis: see the recordings
Climate Momentum and The Perth County Sustainability Hub put on two very well-attended meetings in Stratford this week. The first meeting was an afternoon Climate Momentum social. These are held regularly at The Parlour, usually in the late afternoon. It's a good way...
The Official Plan is very important for you and your family
Do you think we need better public transportation? Do you have an opinion on the quality of the City’s bike paths? Do you have something to say about affordable housing? Accessibility issues? Are you concerned that we must now pay taxes to service 175...
Update on investigation of City Council
Get Concerned Stratford continues to ask for documentsand minutes from the city. Some of the requests go back three years.Here’s what’s outstanding. A generic request for any files related to Xinyi was met with a bill for $8800 before they would begin looking. We...