 By Pepper Parr
May 29th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
This is nothing to brag about.
 Burlington Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) is in the process of dissolving the not-for-profit corporation.
For some reason, the people of Burlington do not appear able to create a community organization that manages to bring about changes.
Oakville has more than a dozen community organizations that Mayor Burton brags about, even though they are frequently a pebble in his shoe.
ECoB Engaged Citizens of Burlington was created to try and hold the Goldring Council to account.
What they managed to do was hold all candidate meetings in all six wards, which resulted in five new members for a seven-member council.
 And then ECoB fell apart – they weren’t able to get to the point where there was strong representation at the ward level.
The BRAG situation seems to be due to philosophical differences -it had a very small four-member board that didn’t meet as much as it perhaps should have.
Some in leadership roles were not prepared to have to cope with some of the limitations that go with corporate titles.
The President of BRAG personally paid for the incorporation. Donations to BRAG were returned to the donors.
We understand that at a contentious Board meeting, two members of the Board were opposed to the dissolution of the corporation – they were apparently told that if they could not vote for a dissolution, then they would have to take over the board. The two chose not to take on that task.
A new organization has been formed by the two members who decided that a dissolution was the only solution. We are advised that the BRAG membership has yet to be advised of these changes.
The biggest issue is reported to be the creation of a policy document that was never created. Members wanted the organization to determine what they were setting out to do.
BRAG tended to focus on taxation matters and holding the civic administration fiscally accountable. We have not used the names of the people involved other than those who released statements. The fear is that this would become a he said she said back and forth.
Bad enough that the city is losing the one community organization that it had. In a statement given to the Gazette earlier today we are told:
“Community groups come and go. People volunteer their time for a cause that interests them. Sometimes, personalities get in the way; some members of the group are passionate about the group going in one direction, while other members may have different ideas. Burlington is certainly large enough to support many community groups.
“The folks at BRAG have arrived at a difficult decision and have decided to dissolve the organization.
 Stephen White  Eric Stern “Eric Stern and Stephen White have chosen to start a new group to carry on some of the work that BRAG was doing. The new group is named Focus Burlington. There are many steps to forming a community group, and Focus Burlington is working through those steps.
“The website is up and running at www.focusburlington.ca
“A not-for-profit corporation is being set up.
“The BRAG website will shut down on June 6th, 2025.
“BRAG accomplished many things, the most important of which was to let the people who work at City Hall, staff and council, know that some residents care about how the city shares information and where our tax dollars go. Burlington’s capital and operating budgets represent half a billion dollars, a huge amount of money, and taxpayers have every right to ask for value for their money.
“Focus Burlington has four main focus areas: Budgets, Development, Safety and Traffic.
“We expect city staff to present their 2026 Financial Needs and Multi-Year forecast in the near future, giving us a glimpse of the 2026 budget. The Focus Burlington budget team / formerly the BRAG budget team, is getting ready for a deep dive into the 2026 City of Burlington Budget.
“Stay tuned.”
Lynn Crosby speaking for what is left of BRAG said:
 Lynn Crosby “We at BRAG are writing to announce to you, our valued supporters, that it has been decided that BRAG will be winding down our operations. Our BRAG website will shut down on June 6, 2025.
“We have accomplished a lot in just over one year, and our dedication to holding elected officials to account; informing the public of what is happening at city hall; demanding true citizen engagement; speaking out for transparency, fiscal prudence and democratic principles, has not wavered. Some of us think that there may be other ways in which we can effect change, some want to take a breather from city politics, particularly in light of what is happening in the larger world around us in these unprecedented and worrying times.
“The next municipal election is in late October 2026 – which means the campaigning begins in less than one year. We believe that Burlington needs new faces around the council table and we each will continue to work towards advocating for change, in whatever ways we are able.
“We would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting BRAG. We had a large number of residents working hard behind the scenes with us: providing advice, doing research, studying those massive budget documents line by line, watching council meetings, and helping to spread awareness to other residents. We wish you all the best, and I’m sure our paths will cross again as we continue to work towards better things for Burlington as we approach the election, despite feeling the same election fatigue as you probably do!.”
How will it work out? BRAG certainly sent a strong signal to City Council. How much of their message actually got through is something that will become evident when Council gets into the debate on the 2026 budget.
This is going to be seen as the ‘election budget’; will it make a difference?
 By Pepper Parr
May 14th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The back patting is over – now they get down to work.
Prime Minister Carney pulls his Cabinet together today, hands out the marching orders so they can deliver on the promises.
Here is the team:
Add to the above the ten Secretaries of State who have limited, but nevertheless important roles.
This is very much a Carney government – his fingerprints are on every page. He has made it very clear that he will do everything he can to change the direction the Canadian economy will take and deal with the American president as best he can – as best anyone can.
Here is Mark Carney’s new 28-person cabinet – focused on revamping Canada’s relationship with the U.S., reducing the cost of living and addressing public safety:
Shafqat Ali (Brampton—Chinguacousy Park), President of the Treasury Board
Rebecca Alty (Northwest Territories), Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
Anita Anand (Oakville East), Minister of Foreign Affairs
Gary Anandasangaree (Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park), Minister of Public Safety
François-Philippe Champagne (Saint-Maurice—Champlain), Minister of Finance and National Revenue
Rebecca Chartrand (Churchill–Keewatinook Aski), Minister of Arctic Affairs and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Julie Dabrusin (Toronto—Danforth), Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Sean Fraser (Central Nova), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Chrystia Freeland (University–Rosedale), Minister of Transport and Internal Trade
Steven Guilbeault (Laurier—Sainte-Marie), Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages)
Mandy Gull-Masty (Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou), Minister of Indigenous Services
Patty Hajdu (Thunder Bay—Superior North), Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Tim Hodgson (Markham–Thornhill), Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville), Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions
Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour), President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy
Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert), Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement
Heath MacDonald (Malpeque), Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Steven MacKinnon (Gatineau), Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
David McGuinty (Ottawa South), Minister of National Defence
Jill McKnight (Delta), Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
Lena Metlege Diab (Halifax West), Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Marjorie Michel (Papineau), Minister of Health
Eleanor Olszewski (Edmonton Centre), Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada
Gregor Robertson (Vancouver Fraserview–South Burnaby), Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible Pacific Economic Development Canada
Maninder Sidhu (Brampton East), Minister of International Trade
Evan Solomon (Toronto Centre), Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Joanne Thompson (St. John’s East), Minister of Fisheries
Rechie Valdez (Mississauga—Streetsville), Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism)
 By David Rodier.
May 10th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
I was hoping to manage the Liberal media bus again for the 2025 Carney election campaign. It’s really a sweet gig if you don’t mind the odd moments of terror. You get to see Canada in all its beautiful glory, meet old friends, make new friends – and get a front-row seat to history. There are also a lot of laughs along the way.
I also welcomed a change of pace from my duties as a public affairs consultant as we prepared our clients last year for what seemed like an inevitable Pierre Poilievre coronation. We analyzed his National Post Memo to corporate Canada: Fire your lobbyist with the intensity of Talmudic scholars studying ancient scrolls. With the Liberals languishing in the polls as late as January, it was a dispiriting task.
I served as Justin Trudeau’s media bus “wagon master” in 2015 and shared those duties in 2019 with the indomitable Terry Guillon. I wrote about the experience and my moment of terror in my 2019 chronicle Confessions of a campaign wagon master.
But I would not see the open road in the April 28 election. With fewer media organizations hopping on the bus, it was decided that Guillon would work alone. I was grounded. Instead, I would support the tour and communications teams as an adviser at Liberal campaign headquarters. I was told I would be an adult in the room. They said our team was good but very young and my experience would be helpful, especially to keep people calm when things went bad.
 What became evident very early in the campaign was the Mark Carney was enjoying himself. I can do that, I said. Prime Minister Mark Carney was my fourth Liberal PM. I had certainly seen the good and bad over a lifetime as a campaign hand. When needed, I can project a semblance of calm while dying inside.
I joined the campaign a few days before the election was called and was never once required to be an adult in the room. I was so impressed by the talent coalesced around the Carney campaign. They were young for sure, but smart, focused and team-oriented. Carney had to build a campaign team on the fly while wrapping up the party’s leadership race and naming a new cabinet. What would normally have required months of preparation was undertaken in a matter of days. It was like hopping on a jet as it was rolling down the runway.
Technology and campaigns
The 2025 campaign made me reflect on the incredible changes I have seen over the last 30 years as the world and politics have gone from analog to digital. Technology – once a nice-to-have – is now the campaign’s brain and central nervous system.
In 1990, as a Jean Chrétien leadership campaign staffer, I had a primitive database and dot-matrix printer that I had to buy myself. With these tools, we tried to identify and reach Liberal youth by telephone, mailings, school kiosks and word of mouth. For the leadership convention, I was given a foot-long Motorola cell phone that had little reception or battery life.
Today’s computers are thousands of times more powerful and have fundamentally transformed how we manage campaigns. Smartphones connect us to voters and allow us to engage them directly and constantly in ways unimaginable a few decades ago.
Computer power was once used mainly for basic polling data, with our messaging limited to broadcast and printed forms. Campaigns now also use ads and other content on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Google and YouTube to target voters with tailored messages. We can track engagement and adjust strategies instantly. The effectiveness is immediately measurable.
Modern campaigns require a digital-savvy workforce. The teams are much larger, more specialized and younger.
The notion of time is also different now. Campaigns fly on 36- to 48-hour horizons compared to week-long plans in the olden days. That broader media cycle also includes mini-cycles like the Buttongate kerfuffle or candidate immolations that come and go in mere hours.
 A rally that would once have taken several days to organize is now put together in an astonishing 24 hours. Our campaign was a sophisticated on-time delivery system. A rally that would once have taken several days to organize is now put together in an astonishing 24 hours. Today, we invite party members with a quick email blast rather than working the volunteer phone banks for days in the hope of drawing people out. Today, we can precisely calculate from the RSVPs how many people will fill the room.
The campaign pivot
The first half of the campaign was about pivots. Carney suspended his campaign to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs with credible policy, reassuring language and compelling campaign visuals. Many people moved a lot of parts to make it all align over a series of long stressful nights. Poilievre’s campaign did not make the same pivot, continuing to focus for days on the same domestic issues.
A campaign needs leadership with awareness and courage to pull off these pivots. At the same time, it’s not always clear how to balance old and new messages. The leader must know when to pick the right spot. It’s also risky when the normal planning of media events and the vetting of people and venues are compressed.
Our campaign frequently changed plans. After a lull for the debates, the final 10 days were a sprint to locations where polling data was promising. A leader’s visit can add one or two percentage points of support in that location if the visit is done well.
 A high-tech piece of equipment known as a white board featuring cutting-edge dry- erase markers and dollar-store sticky notes. It was here that campaign pivots would be plotted out. Deep in the bowels of the Ottawa campaign headquarters, our office managed the tour team board – a high-tech piece of equipment known as a white board featuring cutting-edge dry- erase markers and dollar-store sticky notes. It was here that campaign pivots would be plotted out.
The board was not meant to be shared because everyone was supposed to focus on delivering for the next day. But I would occasionally, surreptitiously, share images of the board with anyone who used flattery on me. Often, halfway through a pivot plan, further changes would come. More than once, I was accused of “jinxing the board” with my photos. Cake or doughnuts were often the only remedy for the shaming that ensued.
To pull a policy pivot in an area such as support for the steel industry or auto sector, our teams in communications, digital, tour and voter outreach came together to do a week’s work in 24 hours. Policy people worked collaboratively and virtually on a draft. The tour located, vetted and set up new announcement locations. The campaign linked up with local candidates and media, repositioned the campaign airplane and buses and found hotels for dozens of people.
Communications and policy people crafted messages for the media and digital content, and wrote speaking points. Senior leadership had to get the policy approved by the candidate and help prepare for the media availability. All products had to be in French and English.
The policy was then disseminated to Canadians through a multi-channel strategy. It started with the leader’s announcement and media availability live-streamed across social media and to the networks via the media pool. The campaign undertook a media blitz with press releases and infographics that could be shared on social media alongside short videos.
Email and text messaging were used to directly engage supporters while MPs were briefed so they could promote the policy through townhalls and local events. Paid ads, third-party supporters and rapid-response fact-checking helped reinforce messaging and counter criticism. A well co-ordinated rollout ensured maximum reach, strengthened the narrative and hopefully built sustained momentum.
U.S. Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth recently made Signal chats famous, but our campaigns have used them since 2019 for less confidential plans for everything from communications within teams to channels dedicated to daily activities. I was on the policy platform launch chat and I observed with wonder as my smarter colleagues doggedly shaped our platform and compared the fine details to those of other parties.
Digital and traditional media
Digital content is a core campaign pillar today. The 2015 election was famously the “selfie” campaign. We had one videographer on the road, streaming events from a fixed position. In 2019, we added a second handheld camera.
In 2025, a dedicated team followed the leader producing sophisticated Instagram feeds and shareables showing Carney in action. Our digital campaign was successful at introducing Carney to Canadians as a relatable, warm person. The Mike Myers spot and the Nardwuar vs. Carney video were huge digital hits.
 Soundcheck for Down with Webster, the band that played at the Liberal victory party at TD Place Arena in Ottawa. DAVID RODIER Traditional media made a bit of a comeback in 2025. Carney got worldwide attention with the video where he said the longstanding U.S.-Canada relationship is over. The media bus provided value to the Liberal campaign, giving us at least a dozen media travellers each week. As Get Fact’s Kevin Newman put it on LinkedIn: “Having experienced national political reporters around makes them advocate for airtime, and the media bosses want to see value for their investment in covering it.”
A consequential campaign
In his stump speeches, Carney called the 2025 election one of the most consequential of our lives. And it was. Over the past few years, Canada, like other Western democracies, has experienced a deepening crisis in trust in our major institutions.
The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer categorized Canada as “moderately polarized.” By 2025, it indicated a profound shift toward a grievance-based society marked by economic fears and a pervasive belief that systems are unfair. I feel relief that through Carney the political middle held.
Liberal voters saw the prime minister as an expert who spoke thoughtfully and was someone who acknowledged that things were hard, showing them the trade-offs and making an appeal for unity.
Carney was also propelled by an energetic and unified campaign team through two debates and at least 98 events. They were young, ethnically diverse, idealistic, progressive and came from across Canada. The digital whiz kids were supported by a bench of battle-hardened veterans who worked together to make it all happen. It was really a great mix.
While Trudeau departed under less-than-ideal circumstances in January, he did inspire many people to get engaged and join the Liberal cause in 2015. He left Carney with a legacy of MPs and talented staff who helped deliver the 2025 election victory.
Liberal MP Steven MacKinnon, who once worked for former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, recounts a line Brian Mulroney once told his boss: Just when you think the Liberal Party is dead, it gets up and kicks your ass.
And just when you go into a campaign to be an adult in the room, you walk away in awe of the next wave of Liberal campaign staffers and grateful to have been a part of it.
 David Rodier is a lawyer with over 30 years of experience advising senior leaders from the federal government, national nongovernmental organizations and business worlds. He is managing director, corporate communications, at . He has served in senior campaign roles for prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney.
 By Pepper Parr
May 9th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
One has to step back and think about how much has been done in the very short period of time .
From the date on which he won the election and became Prime Minister to the day he met with US President Donald Trump – ten days.
In that time, he set out what his government planned to do – this was AFTER being elected – these weren’t election promises –
In his first media event since being elected Prime Minister, Mark Carney:
“On Monday, Canadians elected a new government to stand up to President Trump and to build a strong economy. Canadians also sent a clear message that their cost of living must come down, and their communities need to be safe. As prime minister, I’ve heard these messages loud and clear, and I will act on them with focus and determination. The
“Canadians made their voices heard with a voter turnout rate that hasn’t been seen in the last 30 years. Nearly 20 million Canadians voted, and even more of them voted in early voting than ever before.
“The engagement of Canadians at rallies, on social media and around the dinner table was very high, and while different visions were put forth by various contenders, we disagreed agreeably, and the leader of every party quickly and graciously accepted the results. At a time when democracies around the world are under threat, Canadians can be proud that ours remain strong, as I’ve been clear since day one of my leadership campaign in January.
 I’m in government to do big things “I’m in politics to do big things. I will work relentlessly to fulfill that trust, as I stressed on election night, I am committed to working with others, governing as a team in cabinet and caucus, and working constructively across parties in Parliament, working in real partnership with provinces, territories and indigenous peoples, and bringing together labor, business and civil society to advance the nation building investments that will transform our economy.
“This will be an incredibly exciting time as we take control of our economic destiny to create a new Canadian economy that works for everyone. We will begin to set out that new path for Canada with a new cabinet to be sworn in on the week of the 12th of May and the recall of parliament on May 26.
 The last time a monarch opened Parliament in Canada was 1977, when Queen Elizabeth II delivered the speech from the throne with Prince Philip as part of her Silver Jubilee tour. “We will have the privilege of welcoming His Majesty King Charles III, who will deliver Canada’s Speech from the Throne on May 27. This is an historic honor which matches the weight of our times.
“I’ve stressed repeatedly, that our old relationship with the United States, based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future, and where we in Canada will move on.
“Earlier this week, I had a very constructive call with President Trump, and we agreed to meet next. Our focus will be on both immediate trade pressures and the broader future economic and security relationship between our two sovereign nations.
“My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada. We will take all the time necessary, but not more in order to do so. In parallel, we will strengthen our relationships with reliable trading partners and allies. Canada has what the world needs, and we uphold the values the world respects.
“We will remove federal barriers to internal trade to help unleash the full potential with provinces, territories, indigenous groups, to identify projects that are in the national interest, projects that will connect Canada, deepen our ties with the world and grow our economy for generations.
 Prime Minister Mark Carney: That means bringing down costs for Canadians and helping them get ahead. So we will put more money in Canadians pockets with a middle class tax cut that will take effect by Canada Day. “We’ll make the Canadian government a catalyst for these projects, not an impediment, and we’ll always be guided by our conviction that our economy is only strong when it serves everyone.
“That means bringing down costs for Canadians and helping them get ahead. So we will put more money in Canadians pockets with a middle class tax cut that will take effect by Canada Day, saving two income families up to $825 a year, we will protect the programs that saves families thousands of dollars a year – that includes PharmaCare and $10 a day daycare. The dental care plan is serving 8 million Canadians, saving the average family over $800 per visit.
“To lower costs for first time homebuyers, we will cut GST on new homes at or under $1 million allowing them to save up to $50,000 and we will lower the GST on homes between a million and a million and a half. These tax measures will provide immediate relief, but they won’t be sufficient to make housing affordable again.
“We have to address failures in the housing market head on, unleashing the power of public private cooperation at a scale not seen in generations. We will slash development charges in half for all multi unit housing. That’s about $40,000 off the cost of a two bedroom apartment in Toronto, and we will create an entirely new Canadian housing industry in modular and pre fabricated housing using Canadian technology, Canadian skilled workers and Canadian lumber.
 Housing starts have been weak, particularly in Ontario, where the province has yet to meet any of the housing starts it set. “We will build houses faster at lower costs, with a smaller environmental footprint in construction and greater efficiency once families move in. To kick start these efforts, we will create a new entity, Build Canada Homes and provide $25 billion in financing to private developers who will construct two times as many homes each year and create a new construction industry.
“We will focus on keeping Canada secure as a sovereign nation and Canadians safe in their communities. We’ll build a stronger Canadian Armed Forces to protect Canadians, defend our sovereignty and support our allies.
“We will strengthen our border security with 1000 more CBSA officers, as well as scores of drones and scanners to fight the traffic of guns and drugs. We’ll strengthen Canadian law enforcement by hiring 1000 more RCMP officers and giving law enforcement more tools to fight crime. We will toughen the Criminal Code and bail laws for those threatening the safety of Canadians, including making bail harder to get those charged with stealing cars, with home invasion, human trafficking and smuggling.
“We will return our immigration to sustainable levels by capping the total number of temporary workers and international students at less than 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027; it’s a sharp drop from the recent high of 7.3%. This will help ease strains on housing, on public infrastructure and social services. At the same time, we will work to attract the best talent in the world to build our economy. Canada has what everyone wants.
 Canada has a very diverse population, seen from coast to coast to coast. Few nations have what we have, especially our neighbour to the south. “We’re a confident nation that celebrates our diversity, that believes in and practices free speech, that respects the rule of law, that has a vibrant democracy. We value innovators and builders. We trust science. We protect our immense natural heritage. For Canadians abroad thinking about returning to build their lives in our nation, there’s never been a better time to come home.
“We will be guided by fiscal a new fiscal discipline. The government’s operating budget has been growing by an unsustainable 9% every year. We will bring that down to 2%, less than half the average nominal growth rate of the economy.
“We will not cut any transfers to provinces, territories or individuals. Instead, we will balance our operating budget over the next three years by cutting waste, capping the public service, ending duplicative programs, and deploying technology to boost public sector productivity.
“We will use scarce taxpayer dollars to catalyze massive private investment. By working together, we can give ourselves far more than the Americans can ever take away.”
With that, Mark Carney ended his first media event as Prime Minister. He proved to have a sense of humour, and while his French is not yet what he wants it to be, he nevertheless used it frequently.
Realize that in setting out what he planned to do, Carney was setting a new agenda – and now he wanted to get on with it.
The day after the media event, Mark Carney flew to Washington and met with President Trump.
 By Pepper Parr
May 8th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Council is being asked to approve the final option on ward boundaries, or a modified version thereof, that will be adopted on May 20th.
Options were set out in a detailed report prepared by Ward & Associates Economists Ltd., the consultants hired by the city to do a required Council Composition and Ward Boundary Review.
The City Clerk will bring forward a by-law reflecting the approved ward boundary option to the May 20, 2025 meeting of Council.
Getting to this point was a long process with little in the way of significant public engagement – the public was invited and events were held in every word – few showed up.
The online survey didn’t fare much better. A total of 216 people responded to the survey, a level of participation the consultants described as “fairly high”.
people responding to some or all questions;
 Burlington’s city Council differs in a number of ways from the other three municipalities in the Region.
The makeup of the other Town Council is set out below. A municipality can describe itself as a Town or a City.
Interesting that Halton Hills, a municipality with a population of about one-third that of Burlington, has 11 members while Burlington has just seven.
The ward size and population in 2021 is set out below.
 With these fundamentals and the following questions put before them Council will debate and make a recommendation that will go to Council.
Next Steps
Before the Consultant Team can develop ward configurations for 2026 and beyond Council is being asked to consider two key questions:
1. Should all City Councillors also serve on Regional Council?
2. If Regional Councillors do not have to be local Councillors, should Regional Councillors still be elected by ward?
A flow chart outlines the different configurations of council based on the questions presented below:
The delegation that was in Holland commemorating the Liberation of that country in the closing months of WWII will be returning to Canada in the next day or so. One has to wonder if they will have more of an appreciation of just what a democracy is, and if that will impact the decision they make. Or will they forget the sacrifices and focus on their self interest?
The ward set up and the services the city provides Councillors to do their jobs exceeds, by a considerable measure, what other municipalities provide.
By Pepper Parr
May 2nd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
With the federal election out of the way – the political crowd will turn their attention to the next municipal election, October of 2026
The Gazette ran a readership survey recently – we sat on the results while the leadership mess at the federal level got resolved.
One of the questions we asked was:
 Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns has said she would run for Mayor in 2026 52% of the respondents said None of the above
 Could Ward 1 Councillor Galbraith be a contender for the office of Mayor in 2026? 27% of the respondents said Lisa Kearns was their choice
15% of the respondents said Kelvin Galbraith was their choice
Councillors Nisan and Stolte were named by 1 person each.
Some of the comments were pretty direct:
None of the above, I’d like a change
I know little about Kearns and Stolte.Paul has had lots of practice and has gotten Bateman and Skyway Arena for Ward 5 but I feel he is in bed with Developers.The other 3 are lightweight and look after their own careers rather than citizens.
Want the mayor to have previous council experience
Feel like we need new leadership and it also seems like it should come externally
Lisa was my councillor until a recent move. She was available and open to hearing about issues.
By Eric Stern
April 29th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Election Scrutineering 101
I’ve always voted and paid attention to our political process. For last night’s election, I decided to go a step further. I volunteered as a scrutineer for the Conservative Party.
Training involved a trip to Emily Brown’s campaign office and 15 minutes. One of the other volunteers commented that he was there to understand the election process. Donald Trump has thrown into question the integrity of elections. Scrutineering gave me a unique opportunity to look behind the curtain.
One of the first things I learned was what constitutes a spoiled ballot. I’ve always carefully marked my X, making sure the lines stayed inside the circle. Elections Canada wants to determine voter intent. You don’t have to use an X. As I saw during the counting, people filled in the circle, people drew in stars or squiggles. As long as the intent was clear, the vote was counted.
An optional activity, from 7:30 am to 9:00 am, was to wave signs at Appleby and Fairview.
 They called them waves – they were held at many of the main intersections in the city. Typically, I dread this type of activity, but I have to admit it was fun. People honked as they drove by, people waved, people stared straight ahead and did their best to ignore us, and about one car in fifty waved their swear finger at all of us. Are we losing our civility? Is it time to have a law that says political parties can only talk about their platform, not disparage the other candidates? Justin “he’s just not ready” comes to mind, but so does this ad:
After a quick trip to the polling station in the morning, to sign forms and show my ID, I returned to the station at 9:10 pm. The doors were locked at 9:30 pm, and the counting process started. Ballot boxes were immediately sealed. Tables were cleared, and scrutineers from the various parties moved to their assigned tables.
Once the Elections Canada officials were ready to count ballots, the ballot boxes were opened, and the counting began. Each ballot was held up for the scrutineers to review and placed in a pile for the intended candidate. One official held up the ballots, a second kept a tally. There was only one spoiled ballot, someone had clearly voted for both the Liberal and Conservative candidates. Will Carney partner with Poilievre to form the next government?
The race was so close, there would be two in a row for Karina, followed by three for Emily, then five for Karina, then four for Emily, and almost no votes for the other parties.
After all the ballots had been counted, approximately 150 per poll, the count was double-checked. Multiple teams of officials and scrutineers completed this process concurrently. By 11 pm, the count for the polling station was complete.
Everyone, officials and party representatives, was respectful, friendly, and dedicated to the integrity of the process.
The integrity of our elections relies on all of us. Please consider working for Elections Canada or volunteering as a scrutineer.
By Pepper Parr
April 29th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Emily Brown speaking to her supporters at the Hilton hotel. It was a campaign Emily Brown had to win and a campaign she was certain she would win.
It didn’t work out that way.
What we are seeing in Burlington is being replicated across the country.
 Losing is never easy. A lot of people who believed in Emily Brown will look for the reasons why the Conservatives lost. There are already people putting together their plans to win the nomination for the next federal election. The biggest problem for the Conservatives was their leader, who lost his own seat and may well lose the leadership of the Conservative party.
It will take some time for the disappointment to work itself out.
While it wasn’t an evening to celebrate, the Conservatives did gather at the Hilton hotel to make the best of the occasion.
The Liberals were confident going into the race; it was never an event where they felt it was going to get away from them.
 The Gould team had every reason to celebrate, and celebrate they did.
By Pepper Parr
April 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Another one of those a picture worth 1000 words.
 Gould was leading in every polling station when counting stopped at 1:30 in the morning.
By Staff
April 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Kady O’Malley at iPolitics had this to say this morning.
It’s election day in Canada.
Polls will open for 12 hours on Monday, staggered based on time zone. Most voters in Ontario and Quebec that live in the Eastern Time zone can vote from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Those living in B.C. and the Yukon will be able to vote from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
What’s at stake? A lot, to put it lightly.
 Whoever emerges as PM after the vote will lead negotiations on a new economic and security partnership with the U.S., for starters. They will also need to chart a new course for the country amid a global order upended by the Trump administration.
And then, you know, deal with an affordability crisis, headlined by sky-high home prices, as well wrestle with meaty issues like how many people should we admit to this country, how best to stem the numbers of people dying from opioid overdoses, whether we need to build nation-spanning oil pipelines – just to name a few.
It’s a tall order… That’s why at the onset of the campaign, we asked whether Canada itself was the ballot box issue in this year’s race.
It’s unclear if that’s what’s driving voters, but polls have shown that dealing with Trump occupied a lot of space earlier on in the race, only to fade in the final stages, which may help to explain how the Liberal lead narrowed near the end of the campaign.
Speaking of polls, final polls from Abacus, Leger, Ipsos, Mainstreet and Nanos all show the Liberals leading the Conservatives by single-digit margins, though it’s unclear if it would be enough for a majority government.
It could mean a long night of ballot watching.
By Pepper Parr
April 27th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
While it is a nationwide election, the battles take place in the constituency trenches.
Karina Gould is fighting her fourth election; Emily Brown her second.
Political parties aside, they are both decent, accomplished women.
Gould has more to show politically; including that terrible gaff when she asked that what was said in the House about the former Nazi in the House of Commons while Ukraine president Zelensky was being recognized be struck from the record.
Gould has delivered the bacon, that’s what she was elected to do.
Brown has worked very hard at the constituency level to keep the Conservatives in the public eye.
Should she lose this election it would be very hard to come back a third time.
Should Gould lose the election, there is little doubt that she will be a candidate in the next federal election.
Her decision to run for the leadership of the Liberal party was a brave move – at some point, she could well become the Prime Minister.
Voters across the country will be voting for the political party they would like to see win – this is a race between Pierre Poileivre and Mark Carney being decided in the 383 constituencies coast to coast to coast.
It is an existential election; Canada is going to go through a massive change in which countries it trades with; on how much it spends on defense and how the federal government that takes office decides to spend the tax dollars it will raise.
Our economy and our borders are at risk.
The new Prime Minister will have to deal with a President who is both reckless, unstable and unprepared to adhere to the Constitution he swore to protect.
Every Canadian will have determined their choice when they vote on Monday.
The 7.3 million voters who cast ballots during the Easter holiday, a record two million on Good Friday, is evidence enough that citizens are engaged.
If you haven’t voted – do so.
Thousands will vote for a political party they have not voted for in the past. That is democracy at its best.
 Karina Gould  Emily Brown The choice is: Emily Brown or Karina Gould.
Yes, there are other candidates, and the political parties they represent matter. They
Michael Bator, People’s Party of Canada
Michael Beauchemin, New Democratic Party
Emily Brown, Conservative Party of Canada
Karina Gould, Liberal Party of Canada
Paul Harper Parti Rhinocéros Party
Kyle Hutton Green Party
Ocean Marshall Libertarian Party of Canada
 By Pepper Parr
April 26th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
On Friday there was a noisy demonstration outside the Burlington Centre, the location of the Gould offices.
Gould was hosting former Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Foul language, foul signs and a bullhorn blaring away were reported to us by an individual who was at the site.
We reported what we learned.
Several hours later, we received a phone call from a trusted individual who was working as a volunteer on the Emily Brown campaign, saying that the demonstrators were not from the Brown campaign.
The Brown campaign was in the area doing their typical campaign work at the intersection of Guelph Line and Fairview at 5:30 pm
The Chretien event took place earlier in the day.
We reached out to the Brown campaign and did not get a response until much later in the day. The news cycle is a 24/7 operation.
 Emily Brown, Conservative candidate for the Burlington seat in the House of Commons. We are delighted to learn that the Brown campaign was not involved, and would have liked to have seen a statement from the Brown campaign expressing their concern that there are people abusing the election campaign process.
Emily Brown has worked hard as a candidate in two elections. Were she to be elected she would represent the interests of the city very well.
By Pepper Parr
April 26th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre is the title of a book written by Mark Bourrie and reviewed by Charlotte Gray for the Globe and Mail who points out that Ripper has one message: The Pierre Poilievre we see today is the same person as the teenager he was in Calgary’s Reform Party backrooms. Mark Bourrie describes that 1990s teenager as “the political equivalent of a hockey goon,” and argues that he hasn’t adjusted his behaviour or outlook since then.
 “However, to understand Canada’s “Trump-lite,” Bourrie argues, we need to acknowledge the global socioeconomic changes that have spawned a crop of right-wing dictators, and caused the deterioration of traditional journalism and public discourse. To borrow terms coined by New York Times columnist David Brooks, the public sphere is inhabited by “weavers,” who strive for social consensus, and “rippers,” who see politics as a war that gives their life meaning.
“Poilievre’s adolescent views and tactics, typical of a ripper, didn’t need to evolve as he clambered up the greasy pole. He had the good fortune to be in tune with the times – times that have produced anxious, angry voters likely to embrace a right-wing ripper. Doors kept opening for him, and he scrambled straight through them until the Conservative Leader could almost taste victory in the coming federal election.
“Bourrie’s portrait of Poilievre could hardly be more critical, describing him as the angriest person on Canada’s political stage and the nastiest leader of a major party in this country’s history.
“I’ve got nothing against him as a person,” Bourrie insists, but adds that “he’s an angry teenager in the body of a grown man. That makes him a stellar opposition politician. It’s a bad combination in a prime minister.”
“For 375 pages (plus a further 50 pages of eccentric end notes), Bourrie makes his case. He relied for evidence on a mountain of press clippings, a raft of political books and deep dives into the explosive growths of social media and fake news, which he explored in two previous books. He synthesized an enormous amount of information, wrote at an astonishing pace (150,000 words in nine months) and produced a narrative that mixes careful analysis, punchy prose, ironic quips and outrage at Poilievre’s success.
“The result, although uneven, is a gripping read. But does Bourrie prove his point?
“Much of the biographical material in Ripper is familiar, chronicled (with a positive spin) most recently in Andrew Lawton’s biography of Poilievre. Bourrie quickly provides the basic facts. Marlene Poilievre, a passionate Tory and devout Catholic, began taking her son to Conservative riding association meetings and anti-abortion rallies when he was only 14.
“Poilievre was soon absorbing economic views shaped by Milton Friedman and attending seminars conducted by the right-wing Fraser Institute.
“Enrolling at the University of Calgary in 1997, Poilievre polished his political skills as a debater who was soon giving short, pithy quotes to Calgary Herald reporters at Reform events. Lawton enthused about the sharp-elbowed rookie’s commitment, but Bourrie deplores Poilievre’s aggressive tone. The politician, he writes, was making “dire, overthe-top claims of a debilitating national problem” and using “harsh and cruel” language as he blamed opponents.
“Bourrie embeds these glimpses of the young politician in the larger story of Alberta’s postwar history, and the way that Western Canadian alienation was disrupting the Progressive Conservative Party.
“Similarly, when Bourrie tracks Poilievre’s shift to Ottawa in 1999, and his 2004 election (at 25, the youngest MP in the Commons) in the riding of Nepean-Carleton, the author enriches the Poilievre chronology with context, including the capital’s social culture and the Reform Party’s conquest of the Conservative Party.
 Poilievre showed little interest in the intellectual challenge of policy development. “Poilievre pulled ahead of his peers – “strange, nerdy, socially isolated young conservatives” in Bourrie’s words – because he knew what the media wanted: “good quote and great footage.” While Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin led the country, Poilievre was one of the opposition’s most effective critics of Liberal corruption.
“Increased media exposure fed on itself, as he went after daycare programs, gay marriage and bilingualism, and found catchy nicknames for his opponents (Martin was “the king of cronyism.”).
“When the Conservatives formed the government in 2006, Poilievre became prime minister Steven Harper’s attack dog in Question Period. His strategy, Bourrie writes, was to “smear the person trying to do the embarrassing.”
“Occasionally, he strayed from the Harper playbook. On the day that the prime minister issued an apology to Indigenous people for the residential-school system, Poilievre stole the headlines by publicly questioning whether Canadians were getting value for money from the $2-billion compensation paid to survivors. Harper made him apologize in the House.
“During these years, Conservatives raced ahead of other parties in new political techniques of data gathering and analysis, which exponentially improved their voter identification and fundraising capacities. Poilievre’s quick hits and nifty slogans were tailormade, in our rushed digital age, to appeal to voters pinpointed by technology as open to his message.
“He was finally rewarded with a cabinet role in 2013, as Canada’s first minister of democratic reform. His real job, according to Bourrie, was to “whack Elections Canada.” He introduced a Fair Elections Act that editorial writers at both the National Post and The Globe and Mail deplored as destructive.
“During the nine years of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, Poilievre (now Conservative finance critic) was relentlessly on the attack. Trudeau’s Liberals provided him with plenty of targets. Poilievre labelled the prime minister “a corrupt tin-pot dictator” and accused finance minister Bill Morneau of losing the “moral authority to hold your office.”
“When he finally ran for the leadership of his party, in 2022, his victory was decisive. Tellingly, Erin O’Toole, the man he replaced, warned, “This country needs a Conservative Party that is both an intellectual force and a governing force. … Seeking power without ideology is hubris.”
“But Poilievre showed little interest in the intellectual challenge of policy development. Instead, he stayed in the headlines with slogans and sneers, bashing the “radical, woke coalition” of Liberals and NDP and reserving special venom for Trudeau.
“His mastery of social media (he has one million followers on X), YouTube (more than half a million followers) and partisan Tory outlets has allowed him to create his own media environment. Instead of answering questions from the dwindling legacy media about his solutions to all the problems bedevilling this country.
 Poilievre: a viciously brilliant critic who has shown no potential, as yet, to become a weaver who could bring the country together. “Bourrie demonstrates how deftly Poilievre ensured that his manipulation of facts and his insistence that “Canada is broken” never received much scrutiny. His standing in opinion polls rose and rose.
“The author acknowledges that Poilievre has a more agreeable side, as an excellent constituency member and family man who has spoken up for children with autism. But Bourrie conclusively proves his point that the politician is an Olympic-class ripper, a viciously brilliant critic who has shown no potential, as yet, to become a weaver who could bring the country together.
“Ripper does more than paint a dark picture of the Conservative Leader. The author gives serious attention to the question: How did we get here? How did Canada – a country once celebrated for civility and compromise – elevate a politician who has surfed on division and disrespect?
“This past January, Poilievre’s expectations of an easy victory at the polls were shattered by the Liberal leadership race and Trump’s tariff threat. The skills that Poilievre has burnished over the past 30 years no longer seem to fit the moment. He is finally out of step with his times.
“Bourrie has produced a searing but convincing critique of the Conservative Leader’s shortcomings that will give pause to anyone outside the diehard Poilievre base. The politician’s insistence that “Canada is broken” has been cast aside in a wave of nationalism. Voters may decide that an angry ripper may not be what Canada needs right now.”
By Staff
April 26th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
There he was, 91 year old former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, stopping by the Karina Gould office at Burlington Centre for a photo op and chit chat with some 200 of her volunteers.
 Jean Chretien with Karina Gould  Chretien greeting a Gould supporter. A typical election campaign event explained Carol Victor except for the noisy group gathered outside with huge flags and a bullhorn blasting F…Carney ..disgusting behaviour similar to something we might witness in the US. This was reminiscent of the deplorable Ottawa Convoy mob during the pandemic.
We could hardly believe that this was happening in Burlington, let alone Canada, where the real enemy is South of the border and not within our own country. Never in an election, have I ever witnessed such poor behavior….definitely unCanadian to say the least.
Chretien displayed incredible wit and energy.
By Pepper Parr
April 25th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
If you thought Mark Carney became very interested in becoming the Prime Minister when it was evident that Justin Trudeau was in his way out the door – you have not be keeping up on the man and what he has been up to.
 Carney was talking to associates about becoming Prime Minister when he was being considered as the Governor of the Bank of England. At the time he was concerned that being the Governor of the British bank might not look all that good to Canadian electors.
Those who talk openly about Carney will say: “You probably couldn’t sit down and design a person who has a better set of tools to deal with economic anxiety,’ Liberal powerbroker Frank McKenna says of party leader Mark Carney.
 Hurricane Trump is an untamable force, but sensing where the wind is blowing and planning meticulously is the way Mr. Carney functions. Mr. Carney is so strategic in his approach to the world that for years he’s been a dedicated runner and careful eater, in part because he believes he needs to be in good physical shape to work at a certain level, with long hours and punishing travel. He has to be truly wrung out to abandon that and lay into some French fries or a bag of Doritos.
Hurricane Trump is an untamable force, but sensing where the wind is blowing and planning meticulously is the way Mr. Carney functions.
“If this were an ordinary election with ordinary issues, he would never be able to distinguish himself,” Liberal powerbroker Frank McKenna says. “But this is not an ordinary election. There really is one issue and one issue only, and it’s around economic anxiety.
Pretty much everyone who’s crossed paths with him comes away impressed by his intelligence, which has a distinct sifting quality: distilling, making connections, putting things in order.
He’s often charming and very funny. He can also be impatient, caustic or condescending when he feels like someone isn’t keeping up their end of the bargain; the phrase “doesn’t suffer fools” comes up a lot. When he was governor of the Bank of England, the Financial Times reported that staff called encountering this side of him “getting tasered.”
Some people see this as a function of how he absorbs information: asking question after question to peel an idea down to its foundations and figure out how it fits with what else he knows. It can read as a dominance move, leaving the person he’s questioning to feel like they’ve been stripped for parts, too.
And virtually everyone makes the same point about his career path: He gave up boatloads of cash when he left investment banking for the public sector.
It’s influence rather than money that drives him. Not power for power’s sake, but a seat at a table where he can make big calls that matter, because he believes he’s equipped to do so. Public policy offers that like nothing else can.
 Carney absorbs information: asking question after question to peel an idea down to its foundations and figure out how it fits with what else he knows. Mark Carney is one of four children: Mark, the third child, Brian, Brenda and Sean
Two to the boys went to Harvard, one to Notre Dame. Brenda went to the University of Alberta and then on to Vancouver where she earned a Masters degree in education.
The parents were educators, They saw education as a gift that opens doors.
At the age of 14 Mark wrote a Letter to the Editor of the local newspaper saying “While your paper does have the right of freedom of the press your personal views should be kept on the editorial pages.” In another letter. “Although your position may be the more popular one, that does not excuse your lack of responsible journalism.”
When Mr. Carney started at Harvard, he and Peter Chiarelli, another freshman from Ottawa, were assigned rooms on the same corridor. They had hockey, their home country and their middle-class upbringings in common, so they became fast friends.
Chiarelli, now an NHL executive with the St. Louis Blues, is a close friend who calls Carney cheap.
“His study notes were three different levels above everyone else’s study notes,” Mr. Chiarelli says. “It wasn’t a summary, it was substantive questions about what he was learning. So it was almost like he was answering the exam in his study notes.”
Chiarella describes Carney as disciplined and compartmentalized, a system for everything, and a bone-dry wit that snuck up on you.
After graduating from Harvard with an economics degree in 1988, Carney got a job with Goldman Sachs. He worked for the investment firm in London and Tokyo as an analyst in the credit risk department.
In 1991, he left for the University of Oxford to get his master’s and PhD, figuring that would be useful for the public policy career he eventually wanted.
 Mark Carney and his wife Diana Fox: She was a better hockey player than he was. He was co-captain of the Oxford Blues hockey team. Diana Fox, a player on the women’s team, caught his attention when she scored a hat trick over Cambridge. He and the British-born economist married in 1994, and would go on to have four children.
Margaret Meyer, official fellow in economics at Oxford’s Nuffield College, supervised Mr. Carney’s doctoral thesis, which examined how domestic competition might improve the national competitiveness of companies.
His was the longest thesis she ever supervised, and also one of the most quickly completed.
After Oxford, Goldman offered Mr. Carney a job in London, and he stayed at the investment bank for the next decade.
He returned to Canada to work at the Bank of Canada and was loaned to the Finance department to work on the G8 conference. He stayed at Finance until the spring of 2007, when Mr. Dodge the then Governor of the Bank of Canada, announced that he wouldn’t accept a second term as governor. Carney returned to the bank, then took over as Governor in early 2008.
In the fall of 2008, when the bottom fell out with the financial crisis, Carney’s arrival at the bank looked prescient. He had a wide network of financial market contacts, and they viewed him as someone who spoke their language when “the world was falling apart pretty fast,” as Dodge put it.
Carney uses the phrase: “Plan beats no plan.”
This means both that someone needs to take charge, and that picking a plan and running with it is better than dithering forever in search of the perfect plan while the crisis overtakes you. It’s something Mr. Carney learned at Goldman.
“At some point you have to make a decision – you’re never going to have perfect information,” he told The Globe and Mail when he was governor of the Bank of Canada. “People will make mistakes – that’s natural. The issue is not that things turn out wrong. The issue is you’ve made the effort and done the right preparation before you make the call.”
That has been the approach Mark Carney has taken to winning the current federal election.
His French language skills needed a lot of polishing. He polished.
 He learned how to politick on the job. He had little in the way of politicking skills – he got out on the stump and politicked.
The way he did his job while at Brookfield Assets has been a concern to many. The job was to get the best deal he could for the shareholders, and he did that quite well.
The Prime Minister chooses the members of his Cabinet – they serve at his pleasure. He will be a tough task master.
He will make mistakes, but based on what we have seen this man do so far in his career, he will serve the public well if he is elected.
Much of the content in this article was picked up from the Globe and Mail.
By Pepper Parr
April 24th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The library has taken up a lot of the news space.
Their participation in the CBC Ideas program this evening is worth listening to – your library is part of a national discussion on what democracy means and how libraries are part of communicating that story. CBC IDEAS at 8:00 pm this evening.
Now on to the federal election, the national leaders and the candidates at the local level.
 The Click on feature has been disabled. You can access that level of detail at 338Canada.com
Our decision to focus on just the Conservative party and the Liberal party will offend many. It is a matter of resources – we just don’t have the time to cover candidates from other political parties other than giving them a polite mention.
More than 7.3 million people voted during the four day weekend with two million voting on Good Friday; highest vote ever recorded in one day.
Citizens are clearly engaged and the race gets tighter each day.
We will publish a piece on both Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney and then publish a piece on Karina Gould and then Emily Brown.
The statement by President Trump early this morning on his view that Canada should become the 51st American state sharpens just what the election issue is about.
And then leave it to the people who make a point of voting to cast their ballots and wait for the results on the 28th
 By Ray Rivers
April 22nd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
“The Conservative leader says that only one per cent of single-use plastics find their way into the environment every year, with the rest being recycled.” (CBC News Posted: Apr 18, 2025)
That has to be a misquote. Nobody running for prime minister on behalf of a major political party could be that ignorant. The real numbers from both US and Canadian environmental agencies is that something like 90% or more plastic packaging ends up in landfills or the environment rather than being recycled.
 Half of single-use plastic waste produced by just 20 companies And over 80% of Canadians, according to recent polling, support the single use plastics ban, including something like 70% of Conservatives. But Poilievre must be appealing to that other 30% who make up the extreme right wing of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). And it appears he is following the lead of the US president who, only days ago, eliminated the US ban on plastic straws claiming…“I don’t think plastic is going to affect a shark very much, as they’re munching their way through the ocean”.
Poilievre had been hoping to be the one to ‘axe-the-carbon-tax’. But then Mr. Carney beat him to it. So Mr. Poilievre has dreamt up some numbers and is calling the plastic bag ban just another tax – a ‘food-tax’ – that he needs to axe. And here again he may not get the chance. While the ban is still in force, it is currently under court review over a technicality.
Mr. Poilievre shuns the label MAGA, though he had been endorsed by Elon Musk. Perhaps it’s his Canadian version of ‘drill-baby-drill’ that Musk, the EV maker, ironically admires. Or it might be the Tory leader’s threat to defund Canada’s national broadcaster, in line with Donald Trump’s promises to defund NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service. But seriously, the primary purpose of the CBC is to inform and enlighten Canadians, and to engender a shared national consciousness and identity. What could be more important for Canadians in this time of national crisis?
 Over 70% of Canadians want to see handguns banned. And then there is the Tory leader’s stand on public safety. He has promised to keep repeat murders behind bars until it’s time to leave prison in a wooden box. And since that might be unconstitutional he would be the first PM to invoke the ‘notwithstanding clause’ to keep them there. But this tough love on crime is a peculiar position for someone who has opposed every single gun control measure in Parliament, and who is refusing to say if he’d relax handgun laws. Being soft on gun ownership may be politically astute south of border in MAGA country but over 70% of Canadians want to see handguns banned.
This is being touted as the most important election in recent memory, and voter turnout at the advance polls has broken all records. There has been a coalescence of the voting public towards the two traditional parties and that is prompting speculation that this might become permanent. Two centrist parties alternating turns at governing is what works best in our first-past-the-post electoral system. But will that be sustainable with one centrist party and the other a kind of MAGA Canadian?
 Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links
Plastic Ban – Plastics Poll – Handguns – Guns Poll – Electoral Coalescence – Record Turnout – MAGA –
 By Pepper Parr
April 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Is this a good time to look at what the political leadership in the country might look like once all the ballots have been cast and everyone sworn in and settled in the House of Commons seats?
 Jagmeet Singh Should Jagmeet Singh lose his seat in Burnaby South– who replaces him as leader of the New Democrats?
 Pierre Poilievre If Pierre Poilievre loses the election by a number larger than the pollsters are suggesting – what do the Conservatives do? Hold a Leadership review? And what if the Conservatives decide Poilievre has to go – who do they choose to replace him?
It looks like Carney is going to win the election, but what if he has a plurality of just one seat – who does he look to for support?
 Mark Carney And what does a week Liberal majority do to the strength that Carney said he needs to confront Donald Trump?
 By Tom Parkin
April 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Conservatives took about 220,000 more votes in both 2019 and 2021, but 36 and 41 fewer seats.
With now less than 10 days until the ballots are counted, a mood of defeat is settling over the Conservatives.
 Pierre Poilievre Their last hope was for Pierre Poilievre to score a big win in the debates to turn things around. He didn’t.
Fearing Trump comparisons, and therefore unable to unleash his inner attack dog, Poilievre was average. And he needed to be a lot better than average to move the needle.
The Conservatives are six points back in popular support, according to an average of recent polls. And they have historic weak vote efficiency. In both 2019 and 2021, Conservatives received about 220,000 more votes. But in 2019 they elected 36 fewer MPs than the Liberals; 41 fewer in 2021.
The Conservatives get big vote pile-ups in southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But they can only win the same riding once.
Also: use Progressive Vote Guide at ProgressiveVote.ca to review ridings where the NDP is a strategic or safe vote.
Because of their lagging popular support and vote efficiency handicap, Conservatives would need to grow by almost one point every day until April 28. A surge of that scale has never happened in a federal election and there’s no hint of one happening for Pierre Poilievre now.
Question shifts to look of PM Carney’s opposition
 Mark Carney responding ti Pierre Poilievre during the debate. As the question of who will become prime minister resolves, the emerging question is about the composition of the opposition Prime Minister Mark Carney will face.
The debate showed clear patterns about who and what each opposition party will fight for in the next parliament.
Poilievre pushed to pump oil and cut taxes. He pressed on a plan to use the notwithstanding clause to lengthen the jail terms of multiple-murderers.
Singh pressed Carney over threatened cuts to health transfers, support for workers affected by Trump tariffs, closing tax haven access, and his history of profiting from rent-busting.
 Yves-François Blanchet MP is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Bloc Québécois and member of Parliament for Beloeil—Chambly since 2019. BQ leader Blanchet asked why Carney refuses to disclose his investments, as done by other leaders, and perceived intrusions into provincial jurisdiction.
Where progressive opposition can win is key question
Carney jousted with Poilievre over who would pump more oil or cut more taxes, but pivoted away from direct questions about health transfers, rent-busting, tax dodging and no disclosure. He gave no clarity about where he will cut billions to both balance the budget and pay for his capital gains tax cut.
In the last 10 days, Carney may yet avoid transparency on these questions. Being not Trump, Poilievre or Trudeau looks like it will be enough.
That makes it even more important Canadians elect as many progressive MPs as possible who will pressure Mark Carney in the Commons after this election. Helping progressive voters see where they can make that happen is the singular challenge in the final 10 days.
 By Staff
April 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
A pile of stolen signs found on the Duncaster Trail.
The people who did this could have instead been distributing literature and helping to get out the vote.
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Burlington Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) is in the process of dissolving the not-for-profit corporation.
And then ECoB fell apart – they weren’t able to get to the point where there was strong representation at the ward level.
