Lisa Kearns - who she is and what will she be up against should she defeat Mayor Meed Ward in the October 26th municipal election.

By Pepper Parr

March 24^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Lisa Kearns will have announced that she is throwing her hat into the race for the Office of Mayor by the time this gets to you.

Lisa Kearns was in pre-election mode during the Mayor’s State of the City address, during which she made no mention of Kearns.

Kearns advised the media that she would be making an announcement, but embargoed that notice until a few minutes before she is to speak from Civic Square today at 11:30.

Why the embargo – everybody who follows city news knew she was going to run for Mayor.

What the public will want to hear is what kind of Mayor does Kearns want to be:  A Rob MacIsaac or a Walter Mulkewich?

MacIsaac gave the city the Pier, the Performing Arts Centre and a number of other bold initiatives. Mulkewich kept taxes at close to zero throughout his terms of office, leaving the city with an infrastructure deficit the city is still paying for.

Budgets then are going to be a big, big issue – the 40% plus increase in taxes over the eight years the current council has been in place can’t be repeated.

Citizen engagement has to be revived, and the Procedural by-law has to be rewritten.

Kearns was the Council member who challenged Mayor Meed Ward on any clapping being done in the Council Chamber.  Turned out there was nothing specific in the Procedural by-law about clapping.

Among the challenges Kearns faces once the election officially starts on May 1^st is clearing up the last few remnants of the changes to the Official Plan.

Curt Benson: His appointment as the CAO comes to an end when a new Council is elected. That Council will then have to decide if they wish to reappoint him.

She has to decide who she will recruit as a Chief Administrative Officer.

She will have to pull together a team to serve with her in the 8th-floor City Hall office.

Questions: Will Kearns be the Mayor that finds herself serving a city where young people cannot buy a house?

There are several massive developments proposed.  When will they get to the shovels in the ground stage and will young people be able to afford them?

The seven tower development planned for Fairview close to the GO station is in some kind of limbo

Bronte Creek Meadows is about to get underway.

The Alinea King Road development is stalled.  She needs to work with both Planning and Legal to untie the knots for a site that will shift ground zero more to the west.

The Art Gallery crowd have convinced themselves that they need a new building – Kearns hasn’t said she wasn’t on for that idea.  She serves as the Council representative on the Art Gallery Board.

Lisa Kearns became a member of Council with an impressive background.  While in the private sector she served in senior capacities with large corporations.  She knows and understands numbers and can wade through the dense Staff reports and get to the meat of them quickly.

She has a wicked sense of humour and likes working with people.

She studied political science at Western University, where she took part in her first political campaign.

She earned the Certified Corporate Director (ICD.D) designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. This certification indicates completion of the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program and signifies a commitment to effective corporate governance. She also paid the very hefty fee, and was chosen as the valedictorian for her class.

Two children whom she has made a point of keeping out of the limelight.

It has never been a matter of confidence – it’s the concern that she is going to get it right.

The downside, and it is something she is going to have to work at, is the anxiety that creeps in from time to time.

One can, and should, imagine what Kearns will ask her Council colleagues to work with her on are the Directions Council gives the CAO.

What will Kearns do with the strong Mayor Powers? They call for her to prepare a budget.  Will she look for a way to give all the Council members the opportunity to take a meaningful part?

There will be at least one new member of Council; the Ward 2 seat will be open.

There are high hopes for a new candidate in Ward Six.

Will she begin working with her colleagues on creating a bigger Council? Mayor Rick Goldring loved the seven member make up – it hasn’t served the citizens of Burlington very well.

Will Kearns be able to do what Meed Ward has not been able to do – create a Council that is more unified.  At this point, we have a Mayor with close to control over Sharman, Galbraith and Bentivegna – four votes locked in on a seven-member council.

Paul Sharman hasn’t been rock solid about running in October.

She will not need Councillor Sharman as her numbers person – she understands the working of municipal finance as well as he does.

If Kearns becomes the Mayor of the city, Sharman won’t have the clout and influence he has with Meed Ward.  He wasn’t rock solid about running next October again.

He once told me that Kearns would be a good Mayor.

Interesting times ahead of us.

Kearns has the desire to be Mayor; does she have what it takes to pull it off?

First opportunity to see how she handles herself will be today – when she makes her announcement in Civic Square at around 11:30 am