McMaster students are on a pro-LRT email blitz, but will it make a difference?

It has a video, and a website, and a push forthousands of undergraduate students to email Hamilton city council to encourage them to approve LRT.

The fact is we continue to receive calls andemailsfrom both sides, and I think that's probably going to hold true until the day it's constructed or not.- Coun. Chad Collins

But onecity councillor says McMaster Students Union's "Yes LRT" campaign isn't the first one he's experienced, and he doubts it will be the last.

The MSU launched an effort lastweek encouraging students to email all 16 council members. In particular, they want students to email the undecided councillors Tom Jackson, Doug Conley, Maria Pearson, Arlene VanderBeek and Robert Pasuta and the ones who say they don't want it namely Chad Collins, Donna Skelly, Terry Whitehead, Brenda Johnson and Judi Partridge to encourage them to reconsider.

Collins, a Ward 5 councillor, said it won't be the first influx of emails in his inboxabout this issue. But he doubts he'll read something that willchange his mind. He's been "very clear in my analysis" of the file, he said, and he campaigned against it in 2014.

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"I've already seen email campaigns in many shapes and forms over the last couple of weeks, or I would say the last couple of years," he said.

He applauds the students, he said. And the community involvement.

"The fact is we continue to receive calls and emails from both sides, and I think that's probably going to hold true until the day it's constructed or not."

LRT will help McMaster students get to the university from wherever they live in the city, said Blake Oliver, vice-president education. But even more, it'll encourage them to stick around.

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A recent MSU poll found 86 per cent of students want to live in a city with goodpublic transit, she said. But only 57 per cent thought Hamilton met that criteria.

"If we're hoping students will stay in Hamilton, there's a lot of work to be done," she said.

All manner of organizations are weighing in as city council prepares to vote on an environmental project report, which is an update to a 2011 environmental assessment. Report approval is necessary for the project to move ahead.

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Councillors deferred it in late March after a meeting that lasted more than 13 hours. They'll meet again on April 19, when delegations and deliberations are scheduled to go even longer.

This month, nine councillorspooled resources for a phone survey that showed 48 per cent of respondents were against the project, 40 per cent were in favour and 12 per cent were undecided. Critics pointed out that the poll was lean on the youth vote just4 per cent of the survey respondents were 18 to 34 years old.

McMaster University itself has urged the city to build LRT.