Let’s take a last look at that provincial election before we forget what really happened.

By Pepper Parr

June 18, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON

A more than 70 year run came to an end when Burlington elected Liberal Eleanor McMahon as their MPP.  It was a solid win and  part of a Liberal red sweep through much of the region.

Halton went Liberal after 19 years of Tory blue.

It was clear that the people of the province in general weren’t  buying the Progressive Conservative line that the province had to cut like crazy to get the deficit in line and that 1 million jobs were going to suddenly appear.

The province decided to opt for hope and the belief that Kathleen Wynne could work through the problems.  This despite the mistakes that can fairly be described a gargantuan under Dalton McGuinty’s leadership.

The Liberals found a candidate with both depth and an ability to connect with people.

Wynne managed to convince the voters that there was a lot of waste but that there would not be that kind of waste on her watch.  She asked the people of the province to trust her and enough of them to give Wynne a majority government decided to do just that.

One of our readers had this to say about the McMahon win:

Congratulations to Eleanor McMahon. Clearly, she ran an effective campaign and I’m sure she’s was a qualified candidate. I do, however, find it extremely disheartening that Burlington residents bought into Liberal scare tactics, and were so willing to reward eleven years of cronyism, scandal, reckless spending, debt accumulation, blatant lying, shameless pandering to unions, and incompetence with their vote. The party’s victory begs the question, exactly how bad does a government’s behaviour need to be before they get the boot?

I’m curious what Wynne’s excuse will be when the books aren’t balanced by 2017/18 as promised, but I have no doubt she’ll come up with something!

A few days before the election Ms. McMahon and the Burlington Liberals tweeted out something about how they’ll be investing in local businesses and entrepreneurs. I’m still waiting for an answer regarding the specifics of how that will work. I know the Ontario Liberals will be handing out BILLIONS to Cisco and tens of millions to Open Text, but I haven’t heard one word about how Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals will help Burlington businesses succeed. I’m quite certain they won’t let them succeed TOO much, as corporate taxes are almost certain to be raised, as will personal income taxes on reasonably successful entrepreneurs.

Good luck Ms. McMahon. Your government has its work cut out for it, and we’ll be watching.

Indeed all of the province will be watching – many wish there had been better watching when Dalton McGuinty was leading that party.

Did Eleanor McMahon win – or did Jane McKenna lose and how did these two woman come to be the candidate for their political party of choice.

We are told that Kathleen Wynne recruited McMahon directly; that they lunched in Burlington and Wynne asked McMahon to accept the nomination.

The political tradition of this province has been for the local political party association to find a candidate and present that name to the party for vetting.  The late John Boich spent many hours grooming Brian Heagle to become the Liberal candidate only to have Heagle decide that he was more of a blue blood than a Liberal and he went after the Tory nomination.  Poor Heagle found that his blood wasn’t good enough and he couldn’t get the nod he needed from the Burlington Progressive Conservative Association.

Karmel Sakran was selected by the Liberal riding association – not that it made a big enough difference.

Boich convinced Karmel Sakran to run for office and he put up a good fight against a Tory who brought zilch to her nomination.

Jane McKenna was close to the last Tory nominated in the province in 2011 and despite no experience, other than a run against Rick Craven for the Ward 1 seat on city council – where she did very poorly, she had no experience.

Turned out to take more than a good suit to convince the voters that you were able to do the job.

She would appear at local events but never once made a delegation to city council where Councillor Craven remarked on the fact that the city had never heard from its MPP.

When Rick Wilson was doing great work to have a plaque placed on the waterfront that corrected the history  surrounding  what actually took place on our waterfront during the War of 1812 he found that he “blown off” by McKenna’s office when he put a call in to them for some help.  At the time MP Mike Wallace was doing everything he could to get the plaque that is at Burlington Heights in Hamilton corrected but as Wallace said at the time: “it was a provincial matter and there wasn’t much I could do”.

The day the creation of the plaque was announced McKenna was on hand apologizing profusely to Wilson for the goof up at her office.  Part of McKenna’s problem as an MPP was her inability to integrate into the community politically – she just didn’t have the experience and local Tory’s began to distance themselves from her.

You rarely saw Wallace and McKenna standing very close to each other when they were both at the same event.

There were serious problems with the local PC party association where it is reported the executive went through at least two changes.  McKenna didn’t have good working relationships with her constituency executive.  She had difficulty as well getting in on events when Cabinet ministers were in town.

It was THE political coup of the provincial election when the Liberals managed to convince the Burlington Post to sell them a “mock” front page. Good for the revenue side of the business – but egg on the face editorially. The Post published a front page apology the following day. It happens.

On one occasion when the city was officially opening the Community Garden in behind the Seniors’ Centre on New Street, McKenna wanted to be on hand and wasn’t able to get an official invite from the city.  A polite call to the Mayor could have solved that problem.  The Gazette wrote about the difficulty and advised McKenna on how she could have a presence at the event.  At the time city hall talked the protocols they had to follow.  It is an unhappy day when the political representative for a large number, probably a majority, of the people in the city cannot be at a socially and politically significant event.  That was always McKenna’s dilemma.

The Burlington Progressive Conservative Association chose an unqualified person who was able to win the first time out because of the strength of the political base.  The member was expected to perform and deliver for the community and that just didn’t happen.

McMahon had a strong riding association that was able to get feet on the ground to do that vital door knocking – but the thinkers involved in the campaign all came from the Liberal party head office – Burlington was a seat they believed they could win.

McMahon has a fine pedigree and her connections at the federal level are superb.  She is on a first name basis with at least three former Prime Ministers and is a campaigner that connect with people easily.  There is a humility to the woman who has core values that are more than admirable.  There is nothing sleazy about the MPP for Burlington.  Blessed with good health and a pleasant smile McMahon has leaned not to take herself too seriously.

She will use the next six months to get the feel of the provincial legislature and earn her stripes.  By Spring of next year we will know if Eleanor McMahon is more than a pretty face.

Can she be the first in a 70 year line of Liberals for Burlington?  Is there a Liberal sweep for Burlington at the federal level as well?  Will the local Liberals manage to come up with a solid candidate on their own or will they have to rely on the party to sniff out a winner?