By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, O N September 18, 2012 Members of the Chamber of Commerce saw a different Jane McKenna last Friday morning when she met with business leaders to talk about what she has been doing at Queen’s Park on their behalf.
McKenna, Burlington’s MPP, is very partisan; it’s in her nature. Nothing wrong with that – she is a politician with an agenda and she has certainly grown since she was first nominated as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Burlington. She knew next to nothing when she was nominated and her campaign committee, wisely, kept her in a bubble during the campaign.
The Jane McKenna we saw during the election campaign wore the right Tory blue pin stripe suit and was taught to be earnest and direct with people. The Jane MC Kenna we saw at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast had a grip on the numbers that mattered and was capable of being as angry as an opposition MPP is supposed to be.
But the Jane McKenna you see today is not the ‘didn’t know very much” that we saw six months ago. McKenna has a very impressive grip on the numbers part of what’s going on at Queen’s Park. It sounded as if she could give you a number on just about anything that was going on in the province. How much had been spent on the cancellation of the hydro plant in Mississauga or how much had been spent on the cancellation of the hydro plant in Oakville as well? McKenna has those numbers at her fingertips. Well not the Oakville numbers – and that has her getting ready to go after the Minister of Energy.
She did err a little on the size of the deficit – she threw out a $15 billion deficit number – when it is close to $13 billion. McKenna argues that “we are broke”. How broke? She maintains we are spending $1.8 million more a day than we are taking in and that 20% of the money we spend is borrowed money”. “It is bad” said McKenna and for a room filled with business people who know what it is to deal with a cash tight situation – McKenna was preaching to the converted.
McKenna wants to see an across the board pay cut to every civil servant. She has no problem with what the province is doing to the teachers – she wants the same thing done to everyone. I would assume that includes her own salary – which I’m pretty sure McKenna would say: Everyone means everyone.
The Ornge helicopter scandal has McKenna bursting with indignation
She railed at the 8.7% increase the MPAC people were given. (MPAC- Municipal Property Assessment Corporation – the people that determine the value of your home for tax purposes). Some 150 people attended the breakfast event at the Burlington Golf and Country Club where McKenna was described as heavily involved in the community. That was a bit of a stretch. What we appear to be seeing is a resume upgrade, which, if repeated often enough, will become truth.
Jane McKenna ran in one municipal election. She did so at the request of a colleague and came in dead last. She did run her own advertising sales agency and consulted for others on minor projects.
She did not intend to be a candidate for the Progressive Conservative nomination. She was, at the time, the campaign manager for a person who was asked by the party to step aside as a candidate for the nomination. Sometime after that candidate stepped aside, the PC association approached Jane McKenna, asked her to consider being the candidate and she took advantage of the opportunity. If you know Keith Strong – you know how that conversation went.
What we appear to be seeing is a Member of the provincial Legislature becoming exceptionally political – we don’t see this kind of political posturing from Mike Wallace the Conservative member of the House of Commons for Burlington.
Jane McKenna yuks it up with guests at the Joseph Brant hospital annual meeting. A few months earlier she couldn’t get in the place to attend a meeting with the Liberal Health Minister who was delivering cheques.
McKenna is creating a political persona of a politician that has a deep understanding of what the government is doing and where they are making their mistakes. It will all be very political. Is this something McKenna has decided to do on her own or is this something her handlers are creating? Whichever, anyone who thought she would be a knock off in the next provincial election is in for a surprise. We won’t see the fumbling that we saw at the Central High School debate. McKenna is now much more confident and while she may not fully understand the issues and their longer term implications – she can and will throw numbers at you until your dizzy.
She nailed Chris Bentley, Minister of Energy for his failure to provide information to a Legislative committee last May. Secret documents on the cost of scrapping the Oakville power plant — located in a Liberal riding, — must be released, the Speaker of Ontario’s legislature ruled Thursday, the day before McKenna talked to the Chamber crowd. Basically the Liberal Energy Minister was on the verge of a rare contempt of parliament censure for refusing to release the documents.
McKenna will pounce all over the Minister on this one – and she’s right. The Liberals pulled a fast one during the provincial election – and got away with it.
They tried the same thing in Kitchener-Waterloo where they caused a by-election to be held after offering a nice plum to Elizabeth Witmer, the sitting member, who was not very happy with PC leader Tim Hudak and was quite prepared to leave the Legislature.
Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty and his political advisers thought they could win the seat. A win in Kitchener-Waterloo along with the all but guaranteed win in Vaughan and the Liberals would have the majority they didn’t win during the provincial election. The New Democrats spoiled that plan and they won the seat.
McKenna told the Chamber breakfast that her party didn’t have a platform during the by-election. That’s a pretty bold admission; refreshing.
McKenna does have PC leader Tim Hudak’s ear and she has some clout, partially because of her energy and drive. McKenna told the breakfast meeting that when she got to Queen’s Park she was “shocked. The process didn’t work. The Ornge hospital helicopter disaster and the $300 million loans the Health Minister didn’t know about” “The shutting down of the two power plants. Where does it stop? I knew absolutely nothing about this stuff before I got to Queen’s Park”, she said.
McKenna wants much more transparency and accountability, which is easy to call for when you are in opposition. How will McKenna handle things if she is part of a government and learns that that is the way government does things – you say nothing unless you have to and then you put out a press release late on the Friday afternoon of a long weekend.
Is McKenna going to be the fresh face of provincial politics? Not in the next three years and if she is part of a government it will not be one led by Tim Hudak. Is McKenna leadership material? Not yet and a little too early to tell if she has real leadership within her.
McKenna talks about being big on “transparency”. “Everything we do is on line” she told her office. Sure, if you know the name of the document and you are aware it is actually on a web site. McKenna doesn’t send out press releases from her office. She will answer direct questions if you can get some face time with her.
When the city of Burlington used some “political protocol” nonsense to keep McKenna away from an event that had the Liberal member Ted McMeekin, the closest Cabinet Minister to Burlington, talking about the money the province put up for the Community Garden project – McKenna talked to Our Burlington and at the time didn’t fully understand why she was being “uninvited”. We did a small piece on the stupid position the city had taken.
McKenna, like her or not, is Burlington’s representative at Queen’s Park. She got shut out of meeting when the Minister of Health was at the hospital talking about the funding JBMH eventually got from the province.
McKenna, has real “cahonies” when it comes to being brash and bold. The woman knows no shame (that is meant as a compliment) when it comes to going after what she wants.
Politics is all about power. With a majority in the Legislature a political party can do almost anything it wants. The Tories aren’t in power but then neither are the Liberals. The New Democrats were offering the people in Kitchener-Waterloo what they wanted and they ran a better campaign and won the seat.
Jane McKenna is growing as a politician. A little less stridency, more reflection and over time she could become a Charlotte Whitton – all the Tories that matter in this town will remember her – and nod approvingly.
Can McKenna make that transition. It will be a challenge.
Ha ha. Is the lack of comments indicitave of no one knowing who Jane McKenna is, or no one reading this blog?
Editors note: 6353 pages read on the 17th – haven’t done the analytics since then.
Pepper – I appreciate your article but it goes a bit too far. McKenna has certainly learned more about her role but that was to be expected. She is still out of her element. The number you referenced are spoon-fed to MPP’s – in Jane’s case by PCRS (P.C. Research Services). Therefore I fully expect her to know the figures. The ability to recollect does not make one a good politician. Tim will have a hard time making government, and if he did I doubt Jane will be in cabinet. In fact, when you looka t the numbers locally – and any honest tory will admit to this – had the NDP not had such a high turnout its very likely that the LIBS would have won burlington for the first time since WW2. That was certainly not a strong showing and speaks volumes for Jane and her appeal to the wider community. Futhermore, you reference her acting as another candidates campaign manager. Ask yourself what experience she has running political campaigns. I would venture to guess next to none given how she came dead last in the municipal election. Her political resume is not impressive in the least, and being able to write your name on a ballot does not make you a political strategist. This is not manifested destiny where calling yourself something makes it so. People didnt give her a second look. She appears to be a political climber, applying for roles like sitting on the Board of Jo Brant (of which she was not selected). The best thing she has going for herself is that she is running in a very blue riding – I doubt she could win in a less blue-entrenched area.
Will she win again? Perhaps – and its likely given the demographics of Burlington. But please dont place her on a pedestel because she hasnt earned it.