By Pepper Parr
May 27th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
A picture is indeed worth more than 1000 words.
The seating plan for the House of Commons that met for the first time on Monday has former Cabinet Minister Karina Gould sitting about as far away from the Speaker as one could get.
Burlington North – Milton West MP and Secretary for Sport, Adam Koeverden is a lot closer.
The seating plan was no accident – the Prime Minister has made it very clear – no room for Gould in his inner circle.
The question that begs to be asked is – What did Gould do that got under Carney’s skin? Follow that up with the question: Is he that thin-skinned?
It is going to be interesting to see how well Koeverden grows as the politician people will go to with Burlington-related issues.
Gould brought a lot of federal funding into Burlington; she knew how Ottawa worked. At the moment, it isn’t working all that well for her.
There is a lot of spunk and a lot of spine to Karina Gould – her plans to become the Prime Minister at some point are just on hold.
Discover more from Burlington Gazette - Local News, Politics, Community
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I build my hockey dream team based on how well they play against my Oilers, ergo I was happy that Zac Hyman joined my team. Karina was front and centre doing PM Trudeau’s bidding as government leader and although I disagreed with many of her responses she gets an “A”. As to her platform to become leader, she listed too far to the left and I gave her a “C” on platform. My take is she annoyed our current PM during the campaign and he waived her off, just like he did Melanie Joly this week. When will the real Carney appear? He is peaking out from behind the curtain at the moment.
She still has a front row seat, just next to the exit.
The NDP party is in need of an additional MP/ potential leader, and Karina is left-leaning. Just a thought!
I’m afraid I have to admit that Pepper and both Penny and Ted have some valid insights on both Karina Gould and Mark Carney here. We’ll probably see soon how close to the truth they are.
At least she won her seat and therefore earned the right to be there, unlike Poilievre who proves the lie of the “fiscally prudent party” by spending $1M on a by-election in a safe seat in a province he hasn’t lived in for decades, while still living in the taxpayer-funded residence in Ottawa, and hilariously staging phony speeches at podiums with no audience or walking in a big circle away from the doors to hide the fact he’s not allowed to go inside them. Someone with integrity would have resigned and realized the party needs a leader that non-Reform voters might actually be able to stand.
It is no secret that I feel that Karina is for the long game. She was very impressive in the leadership campaign and got some great exposure…no mistake but great strategy for someone with great skill and integrity
Significant funding for Burlington, let’s work that through? So most recently, in January 14M over 10 years for transportation, or in simple terms buses, so 1.4M per year. Likely these will need to be electric buses which are about 1.7M each vs. Conventional buses of around 1M each. By the end of the 10 years the batteries will need to be replaced making the busses obsolete, not to mention inflation of EV buses if they are in fact still around. Therefore in year 10 the top up for EV busses will be much greater.
It’s sounds like this funding is going to cost us more, we know the liberals have lots of strings tied to funding, you don’t have much say in how the money is spent.
Given that the Liberals borrow and expand the money supply for new programs there is inflation, we’ve seen this in spades since 2020. So the expansion of new programs costs everyone more through inflation. Yes inflation is now down, thankfully to removal of the consumer carbon tax and drop in global oil prices. This also makes the economics of EV buses even worse.
So yes, she brought us funding, with strings attached, for something that will not make financial sense in the long term at the expense of inflation.
Adding to Penny’s comment, given her performance, a seat at the back seems, well, appropriate.
Editor’s note: It’s Ok to say you just don’t like or trust Liberals.
I think that Karina Gould was in the right place at the right time when first elected to Parliament. She fit Justin Trudeau’s agenda – young, a woman, and she followed the party line to a tee.
Karina is very smart, pleasant and helpful and has the ability to make everyone feel important. These are excellent traits. However, does this make the person an effective representative?
If you remember her first job was Minister of International Development . Then she was Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Member of the Board of Internal Economy, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (parental leave) and then again Leader of the Government in the House of Commons.
Unfortunately the promise by Justin Trudeau to look into changing the voting system fell to her as Minister of International Development. Unfortunately this did not come to pass.
Let’s not forget the fiasco of Canadians trying to get their passports renewed which was her portfolio.
As Minister of Families, Children and Social Development she helped put through the $10.00 a day care fee. This was very positive. Unfortunately there have been issues with daycare centres having to leave this initiative as they cannot remain solvent under this plan.
As Leader of the Government in the House of Commons she tried to get the Hunka fiasco (the Ukrainian who turned out to work for the Nazi’s in the second world war) who was honoured in Parliament stricken from the records.
I think that that her running for the Liberal Leadership was a huge misstep on her part. Chrystia Freeland who ran for the Liberal Leadership as well managed to stay in Cabinet.
For whatever reason, we will probably never know why Mark Carney decided “not to put her in his inner circle”.
Perhaps one of the reasons could be that in the leadership race she opted to continue with the Carbon Tax which most Canadians hated?
Politics is a “blood sport” and not for the faint of heart.
Karina too her credit tried to distance herself from Carney during the (non) leadership contest and I believe he is very thin skinned. He repeatedly shows it in his media interactions. Quite the temper too.
My betting is that he does not like competition in the room.
When I served as a juror on a lengthy murder trial some of the best advice I have ever received from the judge. Listen to the words of the accused and the witnesses but pay close attention to their demeanor. Carney would not succeed at poker.