By Pepper Parr
October 20th, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
There numerous errors in various version so this article for which we apologize. It was an amazing night – few thought the voters would change their country quite this much.
It was a rout for Mike Wallace – he handled it with dignity and grace. It was a win for Karina Gould, which she celebrated with jubilation.
Prime Minister checks out the product at Ecoysynthetix during one of his several visits to the city. Wallace is on the far right. Company CEO John van Leeuwen is on the left. The Prime Minister turned out to be Wallace’s biggest problem.
Mike Wallace chose to be with his workers in the room that they fought their campaign in – a room that had all the polling station listed on a wall with young boys scooting back and forth with pieces of paper with the poll results.
There was never a point where it was going to be a Wallace win – he did take some polls – but the Gould wins were consistent. Gould 102 ; Wallace 99 was not uncommon; but there were many more that went Gould 112, Wallace 56.
By ten minutes after 10:00 pm it was evident that Mike Wallace was going to be defeated.
His loss was for the same reason he won the first time. At that time Canadians had had enough of Jean Chretien and the sponsorship scandals and they ousted Paddy Torsney and elected Wallace who had run against Torsney the election before that.
Mike told his workers – and there were a lot of them in his large campaign office at Fairview and Appleby Line that he won last time with 45% of the vote and he thought he would do the same this time.
“It was the collapse of the NDP vote that lost this election for me” said Wallace. He added that he heard about his leader and the concerns the public had with Stephen Harper at all the doors he knocked on.
“I feel badly for David Laird but I feel badly for myself.
“I list 12 pounds in this election race. I have served the public for 23 years and lost this evening to a 28 year old.
“We put out more signs this election than last and we had a good campaign team.
Karina Gould won the Burlington seat and now heads to Ottawa as a 28 year old MP. Now the hard work for her begins.
“I am not saying this evening that I am going to run again – when Wallace made that statement he didn’t know how huge the Liberal sweep was.
Wallace now needs to find something else to do with his time; he served his city well – the good ones land on their feet.
Mike Wallace certainly brought the bacon home to Burlington. He has a daughter who plans to marry soon – he can fully enjoy himself and he and his wife can travel and enjoy themselves for awhile.
All the old Tory stalwarts were in the room – and so was Mayor Goldring who watched the early returns along with his wife Cheryl. When it was clear that Wallace was not going to win the Mayor slid over to the Gould party and hugged the winner.
Wallace said early in his comments that he didn’t think what was happening was possible – but it was and the room began to see the shift. “If there is a majority one woman said – they will be there for four years.”
“Terrible” said another – “shocking” added a third.
Wallace made the trip to the Gould office where the room at Emmas Back Porch was packed.
Unlike the Wallace team, Gould’s Liberals chose to gather at a restaurant where poll results were telephoned into them.
The Liberal office was manned by a few people, several from MPP Eleanor McMahon’s office along with the MPP. They appeared not to want the workers to take part in the traditional political practice of watching the results come in poll by poll and recognize where the strength of the organization was – where they had won and where they had lost.
Canadians have been doing this kind of thing for decades – quite why the Liberals made it a party at a restaurant was confusing. Pam Damoff in Oakville North Burlington did the same thing.
There is a lot more to talk about on this election – it will take a few days to fully appreciate and understand what the voters have done for themselves and their country.
WOW!
What a great turn of events. We got rid of the worst Prime Mister Canada ever had and a lackey who didn’t represent his constituents.
To those who think to the contrary, may I suggest a read of “The Dismantling of Canada’ by Brooke Jeffery . CHILLING what Harper did to our country.
Looking forward to getting back to having democracy in Canada and being able to hold our heads high on the world stage.
BRAVO Mr Trudeau and Ms Gould. Just in the nick of time.
Today the October 19th Election Results are on my mind.
Like a majority of Canadians I am not sorry to see the end of PM Harper. I agree with the overwhelming majority of Canadians who have said clearly they want change for the better. I am not optimistic that is what actually happened.
I am grateful to each of the 1701 people who voted for me and the Green party in Burlington. I wish I could thank each of you personally. Please do introduce yourself and tell me that you Voted Green in 2015. I’d like to meet you in person and say “Thank you!”. Please be my Facebook friend. Please share your ideas, stories and experiences with me. I want to know you.
During this election, I had amazing two volunteers. My agent Jim Feilders and my sign guy George Strickland. I am grateful to these wonderful people who gave their time to help give you a choice to vote Green. Thank you so much for helping me. If you see them, tell them that you appreciated having a choice to vote Green in this election and thank them for their hard work and personal sacrifice.
Congratulations to Karina Gould, Burlington’s next Member of Parliament. I am optimistic about your future. You ran the best election campaign of all the candidates, including me. You and your volunteers worked harder than anyone else. You won fairly and you deserve your seat in the House. After you recharge, I hope you will pay close attention to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, from November 30 to December 11. If you think I can help you, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am at your service.
I first met Mike Wallace when he volunteered and helped out at my first community clean up event during Earth Week 2010. He has served our community well as our Honorable Member of Parliament since 2006. Mike supports nearly every worthy cause and charity in the region. I respect that he always fought for what he believed was in Burlington’s and Canada’s best interests. We disagree with each other on many issues, but I like Mike personally and believe he would have continued to serve Burlington well even in opposition. I enjoy Mike’s sharp wit and sense of humor. Many people told me during my campaigning how much they like Mike. Too many people just didn’t like his leader for him to remain MP. Mike remains a popular local personality, who I believe is far too young and vibrant to retire. I hope he takes a well earned vacation and returns to serve Burlington in some capacity in the future.
I never met David Laird before this election. He is a funny intense personality with many good ideas, knowledge and experience. Unfortunately we were both drowned by a Red Tide. I am certain we will cross paths again in the future.
I never expected to win in this election. I consider myself a winner just by being the Green Party election choice for Burlington. I admit I didn’t know much about the Canada Elections Act or politics before the Green Party contacted me on September 3, 2015. But I do now. To win an election, a successful candidate needs the support of their community. I’ve made many great new connections across Burlington, Ontario and Canada. I hope to make more in the future. I feel I know more about the people of Burlington and also that the people of Burlington know more about me. I am honored that I was invited to the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of University Women (Burlington) and the Aldershot School “Meet the Candidates” events. These events were the highlights of this election for me. Thank you to these event organizers and volunteers. You played an important part of the democratic process.
I’d like to thank everyone who helped me, or said nice things about me during this election.
I’d like to thank Pepper Parr of the Burlington Gazette, Michael Gregory of the Burlington Post and other reporters who gave all candidates fair and equal coverage. The Green Party and I got unequal coverage from many larger news sources. I understand that some editors feel the Green Party is a fringe party, but they also have a responsibility to inform the people about their election choices. Some news sources were much fairer than others. I feel the lack of balance by some news sources and editorials may have interfered with or at least hindered the democratic process.
During this election, I asked people if they thought they should know their election choices before they voted. Everyone said yes. Then I asked if they knew who was running as the Green Party Candidate in Burlington. Only one person in a hundred knew they were talking to their Green Party choice, including people who claimed they liked the Green Party. We live in the age where information is readily available. This level of political disengagement is really disheartening and indefensible. I don’t know why people don’t bother to know all their election choices, but I feel its a big reason why we keep electing people we eventually learn to hate. We have no one to blame for our uninformed bad election choices but ourselves.
I’d like to address everyone who claims they like Green more than their other election choices, but strategically voted Red instead, as well as the people who wanted to vote Green, but never bothered to vote on Election Day.
The Green Party offered Canadians many excellent choices across Canada, including Gord Miller in Guelph, Jo-Ann Roberts in Victoria and Clair Martin in Vancouver North. We weren’t just defeated in all ridings but one. Many Green Party candidates were humiliated and disgraced.
I hoped this election would be an opportunity for the Green Party to grow and mature. Instead it appears more likely that many of the Green Party’s most talented people may pragmatically move on to something else which actually serves a purpose and has meaning beyond offering Canadians a choice they claim they want, but don’t make out of fear or apathy. If running for the Green Party is really an exercise in futility, and humiliation, then you can’t really expect that good qualified people will continue to offer you a choice to vote the way you claim you believe. Its even possible the Green Party could implode as a result of your strategic voting and apathy. Is this the change you truly believe in?
Locally the Green Party of Burlington has no Electoral District Association, one volunteer and a candidate. We have minimal funding and no core volunteers. Without much more community support, the Green Party will never elect anyone locally. If you feel that the Green Party should be a choice in the future, then help me help you. Contact me.
If I don’t get offers of help, then I will pragmatically accept that it is the will of the people who live in the most biologically diverse municipality in Canada to destroy Canada’s natural heritage locally. Lack of support for the Green Party of Burlington sends me a clear message that you don’t care about climate change or the great mass extinction event which threatens to make our planet uninhabitable (at least for people). I’m going to assume that you support burdening our children and future generations with a national debt they will never pay off. I will assume that you support Liberal, Conservative and NDP plans to pump diluted bitumen though a pipeline which crosses some of Burlington’s most environmentally sensitive areas and that a Kalamazoo River type of dilbit spill locally is an acceptable or even desirable risk even though it gives us us no benefits locally. I’m going to assume that your lack of support means that you support paving over our natural areas, continued urban sprawl and habitat loss, not cleaning up the tons of trash currently in our ravines nor doing anything about all the toxins constantly dumped into our drinking water.
This election is further proof that we are not good stewards of our planet and really don’t care about the looming disasters coming our way until they become too big to ignore.
But I did hear the voices of 1701 people who overcame fear and apathy to make a statement in support of the Earth’s biosphere on election day. You give me hope that at least a few people are aware that if we are to survive as a species over the long term, we have to start making better choices in the short term.
Thank you for supporting the Green Party of Burlington.
I agree with Frank, Shannon and BCarlton! We have a lost a mature and respected politician and have elected a young, inexperienced and unproven novice. There’s no way that Ms Gould will have any clout or influence, so bottom line is Burlington have now lost our voice at Federal level!
Congratulations to Ms. Gould and her team, and a big thank you to Mike Wallace who served his community well. While the Liberals are looking forward to spending billions on big infrastructure, I worry about the implication for municipalities of “investing” too much, too soon. Yes, we will get some lovely new things, but at what cost? Large capital spending projects often demand that some of the costs are shared with the province/region/municipality. Once things are built, the responsibility of maintaining them often shifts to the City. The pier and the Performing Arts Centre are examples. While some might think federal handouts will help Burlington, don’t be surprised if your property taxes take a hit in the years to come.
I’ve got my notebook ready to tally the number. Let’s see how many scandals this government will rack up. I wonder if they can beat Chretian’s government on scandals. Those cost the taxpayers plenty. How about on the provincial scene and Dalton McGuinty? He cost the taxpayers plenty. He had to resign just to take the heat off of him. What surprises me is how many voters seem to forget these financial atrocities by the Liberals, either provincially or federally. Hopefully, we won’t get screwed too much by this group and they can be fiscally responsible.
Well,the people have spoken. Hold onto your wallets it is going to be an interesting ride!