By Pepper Parr
December 4th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
In a recent newsletter Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns set out for her constituents the job she has undertaken for this first year of her second term as a city Councillor.
It is both impressive and daunting and, one might ask, possible?
Lisa Kearns is :
Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement & Partnerships: Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns
The portfolio will include:
• Reviewing our current community engagement models, including our advisory committee structure, with a view to community capacity building.
• Liaising with our partner agencies/boards/committees on governance, and ensuring strong connections with the city, and council
• Co-sponsor with the Deputy Mayor for Recreation & Community Services on community funding opportunities at the City and Region and private sponsorship opportunities for city projects.
City level appointments:
Deputy Mayor, Jan – April 2023
Chair, Budget
Vice Chair, Environment Infrastructure & Community Services
Downtown Parking Advisory Committee
Audit Standing Committee
Art Gallery of Burlington
Burlington Downtown Business Association
Burlington Sound of Music Festival
Burlington Public Library
We emphasize the budget chair – the city is facing a very challenging year financially as a result of changes the provincial government has made in park land dedication and development charges issues. Kearns certainly has the smarts to handle the job – she has the sharpest mind on the current council, but like the rest of us all she has is 24 hours in any one day.
Yet to be determined is the role she will play at the Regional level.
Add in – the two children.
Can one person do all this ?
Should one person even attempt to do all this?
And if the answer to both is yes – the third questions is: Effectively?
And let us not forget all those photo ops that are seen as so necessary for Councillor Kearns.
Òoooooohhhh calling someone a “hater” Mary for expressing their opinion without the slightest hint of hate in the comment. Then claiming the author of the comment would act the same as in his opinion a councillor would in his opinion act is clearly a contradictory post to the one where you claim everyone has a right to their opinion. Again you are using your right to comment to directly attack another person enjoying their right to give his opinion on a Gazette post. And, your language is getting stronger. with your language in these personal attacks getting stronger. In our opinion you are close to crossing the line of what is acceptable. Did u forget “tis the season to be jolly falallallalla!”
Marsden,
Yes we all have a right to our opinions. I am not denying Demoe his. I am calling out how he uses un-needed and unkind words to describe Councilor Kearns.
You are showing you are out of touch with the younger generations. In their parlance a “hater” is not literally someone who exhibits hate but someone who is maybe derogatory towards someone or who uses an unkind adjective to describe someone or who puts somebody down for no good reason. Demoe has been unkind and derogatory towards Councilor Kearns, without, in my opinion, any good reason other than she trounced him in the election.
Specifically to Demoe’s most recent comment he is saying Councilor Kearns cannot possibly do the jobs Because they are beyond her capability, and is only taking on the various roles to look good; then after a year the Councilor will revert to coasting. All pretty demeaning and unkind words.
By implication from Demoe’s comments he is saying nobody, not even himself, could successfully take on those roles. Good to know his lack of capability.
So no hate expressed towards Demoe. Contempt maybe.
You are also right about the season. I see no “goodwill toward all men (and women)” from Demoe. Do you?
Marsden, are you going to rebuke him for his unchristian words and attitude towards Councilor Kearns?
Demoe was expressing his opinion which you say we all have a right to do. You used a word containing hate to describe Demoe expressing his opinion- crystal clear.
You seem to have a problem reading. To repeat, in today’s parlance a hater is not literally someone who hates another; but someone who is simply mean or unkind to someone else. The meaning of words change with the times. Being cool does not mean you are chilly. Gay does not mean what it did 50 years ago. Got it?
All you are doing though is deflecting from the real issue. That issue is Demoe’s use of unnecessary unkind and mean words towards Councilor Kearns in expressing his opinion. The exact same wrong that you accuse me of. Yes, he is entitled to his opinions as you and I are. But he is not entitled to be rude when expressing it.
You are quick to reprimand me, but you ignore his rudeness. Just jump to his defence.
Same old double standard Marsden
Not sure how you are defining today’s use of the word ‘hater’…I got news for you, the word’s meaning has not changed. My comment has nothing to do with liking or not liking someone from a personal standpoint. Let me share what I’m all about…I call things out for what they really are. Yes, I got beat this election, but that is reflective across the region. People’s homes have gone up significantly and many of the voters that turned out (27%) are likely home owners wanting nothing to change. If you received any of my campaign info, I care a lot for those who are struggling to pay rent or people who want to own homes but will never based on current situation. I also said I would champion many of these initiatives…and I meant it. That would mean going against Ward…she’s just one vote. You see Kearns as a competent councilor…is she?? What has she done?? You notice, when she was running for office, she will not be specific on what she plans to do this term in office and that’s because they (most council) don’t want anything to change. The challenge with this, most people in Burlington are not aware of problems many are facing. If politicians like Ward and Kearns had their way, there would be an exodus of people leaving who would not be able to afford to live here…and that would impact the services many are dependent on. But these two and others on council cannot see things from the 1000ft view…that does make one incompetent if they don’t have vision and see things from different lenses. Fortunately, we have the province that does see the writing on the wall and challenges we will be facing if things are not dealt with immediately. Having said all this…I believe Ward is aware that she could never keep her promises to people…keeping high rises out of downtown, stopping boundary expansion…she knows she can’t, but she just needs to convince her base she can…then to save face, she will get on CHCH or Cogeco and criticize the province. In 4 years…we need a series of debates that emphasize crossfire. I remember Penny Hersh suggesting debates and now me learning from this campaign, they are critical. This way an incumbent can be put on the hot seat and have to defend their position and let everyone know exactly what they stand for…that’s where crossfire comes in.
Mary, so let me understand this…you attack me and then after I respond to my position on things, you want to get that last word in and then say let’s move on. You don’t get to do that. Regarding a younger generation redefining a word…the word hater means exactly that. I interact with all age groups, through my professional life data/business intelligence to playing on pub soccer/hockey teams to being involved with the local rep hockey. So don’t educate us on how a younger generation defines a word based on your interaction with nieces. Besides, go on how everyone who reads the Gazzette interprets a word.
We don’t have a politician named Ward.
Her name is Meed-Ward which you are very aware of and showing a lack of respect is not supporting your argument
There is no hyphen. Check out the candidate list for Mayor,
Or her website.
Thanks Jim we did not dare raise the issue or the fact that Mary calls us, Marsden which is the same as us calling her Hill without a Ms.or the Mayor Ward.
LOL
There is a huge difference. Bob’s, I’m pretty sure, was an innocent error. Whereas, Dimoe’s likely was deliberate and made out of contempt. I say that because his error has previously been brought to his attention by myself and others.
I use Marsden because I read from the content the comments are predominantly likely written by the former mayoral candidate. An example would be when the writer refers to Dave in the comment.
For many years there have been issues with the way the City Advisory Committees have been chosen. One of the promises made by the current mayor during her first mayoral election campaign was to overhaul this system.
A committee was struck, money and time spent and the report suggesting major changes was pulled from the agenda by the mayor when it came to council voting on it. In the end there was no way the city was ready to step away and not have control over these advisory committees.
The idea that any councillor should oversee these committees reminds those of us who wanted a more independent, thought driven system without city control will not happen.
After sitting on the Mayor’s Senior Advisory Committee ( the name was changed to Burlington Seniors Advisory Committee) for 3 years I decided to leave because it was a waste of my time. We had no budget. We were chastised for putting together a senior forum at the Burlington Seniors Centre which ended up costing about $500.00.
More recent committees have worked on providing free bus transportation for seniors and after many years finally succeeded in getting some free transportation at specific times/days for seniors.
Unless things have changed no committee member can sit on a committee until the names go to Council for approval.
It will be interesting to see if indeed there will be any change in the “structure of the advisory committees”.
What has been asked for is total independence – Doubt this will ever happen.
Agree Penny
Kearns is being strategic. If she is on all these boards, she can control who gets on the committees for them. It’s also paving better advantages to getting elected again 4 years from now. She will not have the time to dedicate appropriate attention to any one of these, but she can now use them for her portfolio of activities as a councilor. Once some time goes by, Kearns will go back to coasting for next 3 years before setting up to campaign again…or maybe she will be acclaimed…not!!
In their parlance, today’s kids would refer to you as a “hater”. Councilor Kearns I’m sure will do a great job. As will Councilors Stolte and Sharman who have equally daunting workloads.
Good to know residents would not be able to count on you to step up like these councilors have and that you would coast from day one.