By Pepper Parr
July 4th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Chamber of Commerce held a breakfast on June 29th to honour and recognize the recipients of the Burlington Chamber Scholarship Fund.
The recipients were graduating students chosen from each Burlington high school and all were highly deserving of the honour.
The photograph provided had all the high school recipients seated in the front row with the politicians (Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna, MPP Natalie Pierre, MPP Effie Triantafiloulos, MP Karina Gould and MP Pam Damoff) standing behind them.
No mention of who the students were or the high school they represented.
The Chamber of Commerce was doing its best to curry favour with politicians. Did they get their priorities mixed up? Obviously not from their perspective.
The disappointing part of this photo op exercise is that the politicians had nothing to do with the scholarship program; they were invited to attend and like lemmings showed up to get their picture taken.
In no particular order: Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna, MPP Natalie Pierre, MPP Effie Triantafiloulos, MP Karina Gould and MP Pam Damoff. The people at either end of the back row were not identified.Neither was the gent in the pink jacket; he is the Chair of the Chamber Randall Smallbone
I’m glad that the Chamber recognized the accomplishments of these students whose hard work and perseverance enabled them to achieve success.
But why did the Chamber invite this pedestrian group of politicians to make the presentations? They are not active members of the Chamber, nor did they play a role in the students’ education. Surely, there are more prominent members of our community in volunteer organizations, business and the professions who would be more inspiring. Let’s be realistic–these politicians are there only for the photo-op.
Wow it seems like you hit a nerve Pepper! Hahaha! Bizarre reaction by our usually invisible MPP and by Mr. Smallbone.
Does the word “Pathetic” fit the bull, oops my bad “bill”?
Let’s get the facts right about the event. The elected officials were there to give the students a certificate of achievement. You can see each student holding their certificates. It wasn’t a photo opportunity. The students had the opportunity to meet the elected officials over breakfast.
Hi Blair – Our records show my office returned your call on the morning of May 31. I don’t see any subsequent calls or emails from you in our system. Feel welcome to call or email if we can provide additional assistance. We are here to help.
Hi Natalie:
Quite correct. I spoke with the Manager of your Constituency Office, Julie I believe, and explained my issue. She told me that you could not become involved and unsuccessfully attempted to find some information for me. I asked for you to return my call and was told that you were in the Legislature. I said I realized that but if memory served Fridays were constituency days, that you would be in Burlington on June 2nd and I would appreciate a call. I was told that you had many things to do in the office on that day and would be very busy. I politely suggested that one of those things should be returning my call. I was informed by Julie that she would put in the request. I am still waiting.
Editor’s Note: The comments section is an important part of what the Gazette is about. However, we think it very unusual for an MPP to use the comments section to communicate with a constituent.
Over to you Blair, per “Feel welcome to call or email if we can provide additional assistance. We are here to help”
Is it possible, in a remarkable stroke of irony, that Councillor Bentivegna has been appointed the Deputy Mayor of Academic Achievement? On a more serious, but equally sarcastic note, it is wonderful to see that our local MPP, Natalie Pierre both exists and is capable of appearing in the sunlight. I am still waiting for a return call from Ms. Pierre in response to a highly personal matter that involves provincial health policy. I understand that she has little influence in this area but, as my representative, does she not owe me the benefit and natural respect of listening to my issue? Parenthetically, Jane McKenna, with whom I have seldom agreed politically, heard of my problems and has helped me to the extent that she could. In this regard, I would also like to recognize Neil Lumsden.