By Pepper Parr
August 20th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Jane McKenna yuks it up with guests at the Joseph Brant hospital annual meeting. A few months earlier, before she was elected, she wasn’t allowed to take part in a meeting with the Liberal Minister who was at the hospital to deliver a cheque.
Several reports say that Burlington MPP Jane McKenna has forsaken Twitter.
Probably a smart move – it wasn’t working all that well for her anyway.
Question is – did she do it herself or was she told to stay quiet?
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Where are our MPP’S newsletters, Town Hall Meetings, Events, Annual Meetings? Does Ms McKenna not realize that she isn’t above communicating with the constituents that elected her? She has “fooled and lied” to the PC voters twice but we will not be fooled a third time.
She has plenty of time for photo ops but not for the residents of Burlington. Save your money Jane, you are going to need it next election.,
Twitter has become the preserve of Russian troll farms, egomaniacal Presidents and simplistic individuals who believe that intelligent discourse can be distilled into a 140-character tweet. At best it is an unregulated public forum that caters to the disillusioned, the marginalized, the intellectually disadvantaged, and persons who can’t carry on a civil discussion without resorting to condescending insults and shaming.
That being said, if our MPP chooses to connect with her constituents via another communications medium it is incumbent upon her to do just that. Where is her Town Hall meeting? Where is her newsletter? Where is an article written and posted on the Burlington Gazette outlining her views and perspectives? Where is her outreach program?
If the Tories are relying upon Doug Ford’s coat-tails to carry them through and past the next election they are in for a rude awakening. This provincial government is squandering public support at an alarming rate through a series of gaffes and idiotic blunders, Bill 108 being part of this fiasco. When past PC supporters, myself included, start looking at Michael Schreiner and the Green Party as a viable alternative you have to realize something is seriously amiss.
Rather see MPP McKenna give up on Twitter than block people from posting comments something Liberal MP Pam Damoff is famous for
To paraphrase for MPP McKenna …. “If you can’t stand ths tweet stay out of the “twitchen” .. If a politician today cannot master the technology of communication, why is she in a job where communication is 90 percent of the job descriprtion? Come on Ms. McKenna even Donald Truml can do it.
MPP McKenna off Twitter, dies not hold any town hall type meetings. One wonders how she can ever get the pulse if her constituents. Jane McKenna “Missing In Inaction” will she be brought up on “cowardice in the face of constituents” charges? Or will obergrupenfuhrer Ford ban unrest?
If only the one person who should give up Twitter … did, then I would be excited.
I don’t blame anyone who gives up on Twitter. In many cases it allows for some very upsetting comments with no accountability. Good for MPP McKenna
Penny, I am no fan of twitter. So, while I agree with your comment about Twitter, particularly the lack of personal accountability and the extremely nasty things that are said with no recourse – I think that you might have missed the point. Ms. McKenna seems to be selectively choosing her social media and, from personal knowledge, is editing responses so that everything is favourable. Her Facebook page is a model of positive social engineering – only the “good news” gets posted. Her retreat from Twitter is thus more a function of her inability to “control” that medium and ensure that a positive message is always presented, than it is aversion to the medium itself. I think that you do her too much credit.