By Pepper Parr
March 24th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
This story has been re-written. Additional information became available.
The smell of elections is in the air – or is that just the Spring weather?
The Provincial Liberals appear to have chosen their candidate: Lisa Kearns is reported to have been asked to be the candidate. No word on when that is going to become official.
She will be happier at Queen’s Park than she is at city hall. The Mayor is proving to be just a little too much for several members of Council.
Kearns could defeat Jane McKenna – big question is – can the Liberals form a provincial government?
The Gazette has been unable to interview Kearns – the last we got was: “Sorry. Not available this week.”
We got a notice that the federal Tories announced Cheryl Craig will be nominated for the federal election.
That was not correct. Either Cheryl Craig or someone on her behalf circulated an information sheet along with a constituency map saying she would be nominated. Officials from the federal Conservative party advise us that a nomination has not taken place.
The following came from Cheryl Craig or someone representing her.
“Craig, a Burlington resident for more than four decades, has “ a broad range of business, sports and social relationships developed by working in a variety of volunteer, appointed and elected positions.
A lifelong Conservative, Cheryl, successfully worked on many Federal, Municipal and Provincial election campaigns. She chaired former Halton Regional Chair, Joyce Savoline’s campaign to become our Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament.
Cheryl Craig has deep roots in Burlington, a successful business owner with great name recognition, substantial work, life and community experience and accomplishments, who is very comfortable and effective interacting with people from all walks of life.
Cheryl’s, numerous accomplishments directly improved the quality of life for many people in our city for which she has won many awards, including a Canada 125 Medal, for volunteer work.”
Cheryl Craig’s background is considerably more diverse.
Craig ran for Mayor in 1991; Walter Mulkewich took the Chain of Office. For a period of time she ran Cheryl Craig Careers – a job placement outfit. She was also pretty involved in the the BIA and Chamber of Chamber locally.
She was always active in the PCs, and there was a story way back about her seeking the nomination (provincial or federal?) and the PCs naming someone else – the old story of the higher-ups picking a favourite.
She also ran in the old Ward 6 (downtown – pretty well the current Ward 2) and was banned from running in the next municipal election because she didn’t file her financial statement after losing.
The Gazette got a call from Cory Hann who said he was with the Conservative party in Ottawa and that nominations for the Burlington constituency have yet to take place.
If Lisa Kearns runs in the next Provincial election she has my vote. Jane McKenna has done nothing for Burlington. She has disappeared during this pandemic. The Provincial PCs have ruined Ontario.
The Federal Liberals definitely have to go. Trudeau has cost this country trillions of dollars. Besides he has made us the laughing stock with the rest of the world,
Our federal riding of #Burlington remains ‘open’ and a Candidate has not been chosen yet. Visit our web for the latest on Candidate selection & so much more!
https://burlingtonconservativeassociation.ca/your-candidate/
The above is the official position of the Burlington Conservative Riding Association
Editor’s comment: You are amazing Mr. Whittaker. It would have been very helpful had you suggested we reach out to the Conservative Association on the Craig matter instead of carping as you have for the past few days.
It took a call from the Ottawa office of the Conservative party to get the information that was needed. Do make a point of letting us know when the nomination meeting is held. Brian Heagle isn’t available but we understand Blair Lancaster is not busy these days.
AssociTION IN bURLING TO GET SOME COMMENT ON THE cRAIG MATTER
I have chosen to reject membership in all political parties, since none of them reflect my fundamental beliefs. Cheryl Craig is a wonderful citizen, and I would have enthusiastically supported her provincial candidacy, but despite some of your regular commentators rearing back on their hind legs and having their 1950’s rants, we have a good federal representative in Karina Gould.
The issue is not local for us. Either Cheryl and Karina would represent us well.
Justin and his friends have some challenges, but the “hang the jaywalkers” Conservatives loathe and despise Erin O’Toole, and the real conservatives think that his strategy is simply incessant whining, with no policy whatsoever.
We will likely have two outstanding local candidates, with the populace conflicted on the national perspective.
The only possible Liberal candidate in the next federal election is KG. I share the perspective of many of the other commenters. She has had a lot of talk and fanfare and not a lot of action. She took a nice promotion to the position of Cabinet Minister and there are no results to show. I believe she is the wrong candidate to run, but she is the incumbent and we all know she will get on the ticket. I don’t think she has a hope of winning. I think in this first past the post system (thanks for fighting for us Minister Gould) if the federal conservatives run Roomba Vacuum they will get the seat.
Wow i see all the conservative supporters busy responding. Karina has been amazing to her constituents in burlington and has excellent helpful office staff. If you want to go after dangerous people doug ford top of my list for what he has done to conservation authorites and letting a wing nut run a university and that is the start. Do we want to elect federal cons party whose core members are still climate change deniers?
Agreed. The CPC is not a viable alternative. The party can’t seem to stop being dominated by the old Reform Party gang.
Trudeau should step down before the next election so that a competent person, like Chrystia Freeland, can take over – JT is waaay past his “best before” date.
What facts do you have and can share with us that support your “amazing” and “excellent” assessment of Karina Gould’s performance? Helpful staff hardly qualifies.
We are now fully into the era of style over subtsance. Lets not forget the lack of support by KG for small busesses owners when labelled by our PM as being “tax cheats”, his words not mine.
The shoddy record on Karina and the Liberals speaks for itself – it would fill a very bad novel.
Liberal rot comes from Mr. Fancy Socks and works it way down to the bottom.
Edited: The writer is rude, tends to run off at the mouth. Portions of his comment have been deleted. There was an error in the original story which is being revised.
With respect, Pepper, given the Liberals’ record of corruption and incompetence, sharp criticism is warranted and shouldn’t be considered rude. (in fairness, I have not seen the censored comments, perhaps they crossed the line). And Karina Gould as a Cabinet minister wears the Liberals’ tawdry record.
Karina Gould is a shrewd retail politician; if you read her posts on her FB site, she is a shameless self-promoter. Most of these posts don’t involve her level of government but in a blizzard of photography which puts the selfie-king in Ottawa to shame, she creates the illusion that she is an active participant or vital cog in many local initiatives. On a personal level she may be a nice person but beneath that facade lies a cold, calculating politician.
And I have to ask what has she accomplished for Burlington? Yes, she has brought some pork-barreling spending to this town, primarily before an election but despite her endless self-promotion I can’t think of a single significant accomplishment. She likes to proclaim that she “represents Burlington in Ottawa” but her record actually supports the view that she “represents Trudeau in Burlington”. And as such as a cabinet minister, she wears the Liberal record of corruption and incompetence that is ruining this country. Dan McTeague, former Liberal MP, in 2015, described Trudeau as “an unserious mind, given to selfies, socks, and sobbing, who surrounds himself with YES men and YES women”–no wonder Gould has survived the past 6 years.
Jane McKenna will win hands down Provincially . Liberal Mp Gould also needs to go
Karina Gould fits the Trudeau/ Liberal mold of “style over substance”. Did she overhaul our “first past the post” electoral system while she was responsible for Democratic Institutions? How about Canada helping itself to COVAX vaccine supplies while heading International Development? She is far from invincible in an upcoming election, in my opinion.
And what did Karina Gould do for the City of Burlington prior to becoming a Cabinet ‘Yes’ person?
– did NOT show up for the House of Commons vote to label China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims a genocide though now all over this with the World’s support.
– Voted in favour of the ‘WE Charity’ being awarded the contract to run the $912-million student volunteer program though she KNEW of one her cabinet colleague’s had a conflict of interest and the PM’s family & JT himself also being involved. Ethics commission is reviewing this.
– Voted with the Cabinet against Minister Wilson-Raybould and attorney general over the SNC Lavalin scandal thus against Canada’s rule of law and favouring Political interference with the AG. Also precipitating the lost of an ethical Ministry Dr. Jane Philpott.
I don’t like what the PC far right radicals are doing so it looks like Green to me. I wish for Dr. Philpott clones to take over the gov’t
cheers