By Pepper Parr
January 17th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
When you are the Leader of the opposition of a provincial government there is a role to play – you are there to oppose what the government has done and to suggest and advocate for different levels of change.
And it works – governments understand that public pressure is a bit of a compass point out the direction you might want to go in – in some situations you go in whatever direction that is being suggested if you want to continue being the government.
Andrea Horwath in the provincial legislature: She fought the good fight.
Andrea Horwath did a decent job of opposing – some thought that was all she was ever going to be able to do. She had come to realize that she was not going to form the government and while she won her seat in the Legislature she decided to resign.
Shortly after Horwath announced she was going to run for Mayor of Hamilton. She did and she won. Then a new set of problems came her way.
The “crazies on the left” were furious – their new Mayor was not putting the boots to the Premier the way they thought she should. She was being “torched” by her own people who clearly didn’t understand what a Mayor has to do – which is to build relationships and encourage the provincial government to support the things her city needs.
To her credit Horwath has picked up on what the job is and is reported to be doing quite well.
There are going to be some major announcements soon on a number of issues that will surprise many people. Horwath has a number of very well placed people advising her; they do not appear to be “special interest” types who are lobbying more than they are advising.
Andrea Horwath: Good leaders find good advisors.
Good leaders learn to find and trust the people who can advise; then takes that advice and uses her judgment, experience and wisdom to make the necessary decisions and begin to bring around the rest of her council members. And in Hamilton that is not a slam dunk. We suspect Andrea Horwath is fully enjoying this new role she gets to play.
It will take some time for Andrea Horwath to be fully comfortable with the Chain of Office she now wears which is more than Burlington can say about its Mayor.
Some time ago when an event took place at the Eva Rothwell Centre in North Hamilton, Andrea used the occasion to tell the small crowd that “this was the kind of event where the real Hamilton; people caring about people” came out. That is the kind of city Horwath is going to work at creating. The crazies on the left will figure that out eventually.
The Eva Rothwell event was close to a love in as people got to talk about the things they had done to make the city a better place.
It will be interesting to see how she handles things when Metrolinx starts knocking down houses for the new transit system and the need for huge amounts of cash to fix a crumbled sewer system.
Editor’s note: The writer is very uninformed. Sewers are a Regional responsibility. He presents no evidence of Metrolinx wanting to knock down homes which they would have to buy first.