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

SwP thumbnail graphicBy 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.

wev

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.

werv

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.

McKenna hand out

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.

Post front page

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 with birthday cake

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?

 

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

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

  • The fake front page of the Post was basically a lie–not a good way to begin a political career. As to your assessment:

    “…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.”

    Considering Hudak’s actual promise, your biased comment amounts to hyperbole and spoils an otherwise nicely done wrap up.

  • greg.fabian

    I had heard about the fake front page of The Burlington Post.

    Thanks for posting it here Pepper so that everyone can see.

    I find it very misleading and unfortunate for that to have been published as the front page and that the Post could be bought like that. Although there are many, one paragraph sticks out: “To stop Tim Hudak from firing 100,000 people – including 1,370 in Burlington alone – Burlington needs to elect Eleanor McMahon”.

    I have stated many times that Tim Hudak blew it by not managing the message properly. However, it also leaves a very bad impression that the candidate would twist the truth so much that it actually isn’t the truth anymore. There were not to be any mass firings, but contracting out and attrition would be the main sources of paring down the bloat in the public sector. And it was going to be management as well as front-line.

    And how did she arrive at 1,370 in Burlington? That’s just the proportion of Burlington’s population to Ontario’s multiplied by 100k. No analysis done by Eleanor McMahon, just grade 5 mathematics.

    Let’s hope that Eleanor McMahon will be more above the board in her work serving all the constituents of Burlington.

    And let’s hope the Post would scrutinize advertising better in the future so as not to mislead people in a very important matter such as an election.

    Pepper your comment above that Hudak would cut like crazy and a million jobs would appear suddenly is symptomatic of the message that wasn’t managed properly by the PC’s and that was completely misreprested by Liberals and NDP. The public sector paring down was to be over 4 years and the 1,000,000 jobs over 8 years. That’s not “cut like crazy” and “suddenly”.

    As for the election results I have for years and years been uncomfortable with our first past the post, riding format and how the popular vote does not translate directly into seats, and how a party with barely more than 1/3 of the popular vote can form a majority government.

    This is not sour grapes as I say this regardless of who wins or loses. (Fed. or Prov., PC or Lib or NDP)

    For example the 2011 election had Libs 37.7%, PC 35.4% and NDP 22.7% with 53,37,17 seats respectively.

    In 2014 the election had Libs 38.7%, PC 31.3% and NDP 23.8% with 58,28,21 seats respctively.

    So Libs are +1%, PC -4% and NDP +1% but the seats are +5, -9, and +4.

    (this is not taking into account the various by-elections held in the intervening period).

    I don’t know what way is better, but as of now it’s the best we have.

  • Zaffi

    I am flattered. The birthday cake I made for Eleanor made it into a news article.
    I am enjoying reading all the positive articles you have been publishing about our newest MPPs in the region.

  • Tony Pullin

    I certainly have no problem with someone considering themselves to be inherently “liberal” or “conservative” or whatever. The comment by your reader which was re-posted here was well constructed and worth repeating. I was disappointed to see the “advertorial” on the front page of the post and in my opinion, not a good way for Ms. McMahon to get started.
    As far as digressing into reasons why a certain candidate/party won, while another lost, there is really only one explanation in this case –
    collective organized greed.