By Pepper Parr
October 26, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a week ago today that Canadians made a choice – and now we have a new government and most Canadians feel better about themselves. Not all – but there is a different mood about the land.
Burlington now has three woman representing different parts of the city in the House of Commons: Lisa Raitt in Milton, Karina Gould in Burlington and Pam Damoff in Oakville North Burlington; quite an achievement on the part of the citizens.
Karina Gould, member of parliament for Burlington
Gould and Damoff can only grow as parliamentarians. Lisa Raitt has a major situation on her hands. She won but the Liberal candidate came close – and given the diverse nature of the Milton population Raitt can expect a much tougher fight for the riding next time out.
While Raitt is not bilingual expect her to take a run at the Conservative leadership and to hire a good tutor and get herself to the point where she has some facility with the language.
Gould will begin her duties as a Member of Parliament and probably be seen for the first time in a fully public capacity at the Burlington war memorial on November 11th.
She is currently hiring the team that will run her offices in Burlington and Ottawa.
Damoff represents a riding that is split between two communities Burlington and Oakville; Oakville has an MP of its own – so besides representing people who call and ask for help – which community does Damoff focus on?
Oakville and Burlington are all represented by Liberals – so they won’t be competing for the available oxygen but you get re-elected if you serve the community – Damoff will need to find a way to create and then maintain a profile.
Pam Damoff, member of Parliament for Oakville North Burlington.
She is a very likable woman; great smile and exceptional at putting people at ease. She will have to decide which community she wants to represent and the figure out how to best do that.
All three Burlington members of Parliament need watching; it was not easy to track what Raitt was up to – Cabinet Ministers have extensive staff who tend to take on the role of protecting their minister – strong ministers are confident enough to use their staff to help them get their story out.
It will be interesting to see how Raitt organizes she staff she will now have to do her job.
The one upside of all this for Burlington is that Vince Rossi, president of the Air Park in north Burlington, will no longer have a friend in Ottawa to help him through his struggles with development of the air field he operates. Lisa Raitt was the Minister of Transportation and was believed to be in the habit of taking Rossi’s telephone calls.
Former Minister of Transportation in the Harper government Lisa Raitt, second from the right, attended several Air Park social event – part of the job for any minister – she will now serve as a back bencher in the House of Commons
When the election financial returns are filed we will get a look at how much the Rossi organizations contributed to the Raitt election campaign.
Rossi is due in court before the end of the year when his lawyers will argue a constitutional issue.
That’s 3 women at the Federal level and 2 more at the provincial level – Eleanor McMahon and Indira Naidoo-Harris. Hopefully a change for the better without all that male posturing and self importance.
I hope Ms. Raitt can show what she is made of without PM Harper muzzling his entire cabinet.