By Pepper Parr
July 1st, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Forget the politics for the moment.
It is really remarkable that a 30 year old woman sits as a member of cabinet in the federal government. And that she represents Burlington which has a strong, deep conservative history is also remarkable.
Karina Gould walks the streets of our city, is one of the most approachable people you will ever meet with a level of sincerity that rings true.
Politicians don’t rank all that high in the public mind – this one is different.
Admittedly she has served just the one term in office so far and many people would be hard pressed to tell you what she has done for the city. Her hands were part of the push that got major funding for the Joseph Brant Museum.
CBC did a short piece on three very young politicians that included Gould – worth watching. The link to the piece is set out below.
The three are part of the setting of the agenda for the next 50 years. CLICK for the news clip
https://watch.cbc.ca/the-national/-/the-national-for-june-30–2017/44b8224-00c9890cd9b
I watched the CBC feature. There were two other young people on the show with her. One was a black City Councillor from Halifax, and the other was a separatist MNA from Quebec. What struck me in listening to the comments of all three was that the Councillor and the MNA were very passionate and ideologically committed with a real sense of mandate and purpose. That was seriously lacking from Ms. Gould’s remarks.
Karina Gould may be a Cabinet Minister, but her mandate has been seriously compromised as a result of the Prime Minister’s scuttling of the Liberals’ half-baked democratic reform program. Sorry, but I don’t see a lot of gravitas, I don’t see a lot of life experience, and I don’t see a depth.
I did like Karina and voted for her in the last election over my usual support for the local Conservative candidate. But to say I am disillusioned would be an understatement–both in the government she supports (one that has broken virtually every election promise and has proven to be fiscally incompetent) and in her own attitude towards the Canadians she represents (last Friday an article penned by Karina appeared in the Post–I just about fell over reading it. Most prominent were the words, “I” and “my”). She has quickly morphed into just another politician.
I support Karina for what she will do for our community and Country. I won’t praise her for what she has done because I don’t think she has done anything yet.
I believe she can accomplish a lot if she is willing to do the heavy lifting and break from partisan politics from time to time. From what I can tell she has yet to do that. To date, she has been a young and energetic member of our Government that was made a cabinet minister with a joke portfolio (because of the will of the Government) and seems to always vote with the party.