By Pepper Parr
October 20th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
There is a scramble going on in Burlington for the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination.
Jane McKenna is seen as the nominee, in name only, because she was the candidate, and the MPP but she has to earn the nomination just like anyone else.
And she is out there running hard. She is reported to have Mike Wallace managing her campaign.
Candidate Jane Michael and Bishop Crosby.
There is another Jane in the race for the nomination – Jane Michael, who is the current chair of the Catholic school board.
And now for the wrinkle.
There is apparently a web site that reported Michael has pulled out of the race. We checked in with Michael and she says she hasn’t pulled out – she is getting the package of information that every candidate gets from the Progressive Conservative party and expects to be out knocking on doors and selling memberships.
There was a time when the Progressive Conservatives couldn’t find a candidate – that was back in 2011 when they almost drafted Jane McKenna after telling Rene Papin that he wasn’t quite what they had in mind and they weren’t ready to give Brian Heagle the embrace that he wanted.
Whoever posted this on the internet uses the initials that most of us understand to represent the school board – this didn’t come from the school board – so who put it up?
This race looks like it just might get nasty. There is some pretty mean spirited stuff being thrown around. This isn’t the way political nominations are earned.
Come 2018 – and it looks like there could actually be a horse race for that nomination – contested nominations usually result in better candidates.
McKenna has kept her hand in the political game and claims to have worked with Patrick Brown to “revitalize and refocus the PC Party. I still see so much work that needs to be done to get Ontario back on track.”
Two scrappy women fighting it out – it is going to be up to the Tory’s to figure out which one is best for the city. It shouldn’t be all that hard to do – just look at the track records.
The full story on that nomination meeting is interesting. You can read that in our July 2011 issue: McKenna gets the Tory nomination.
If a 19 year old teenager can defeat the sitting party President in Niagara West Glanbrook, then certainly Jane Michael can beat McKenna (the perpetual candidate).
Didn’t Jane McKenna also run for Council and lose? Reading this it seems her track record is more negative than positive.
Editor’s note: McKenna did run against Craven in Ward 1
Anybody but McKenna. She lost what was a safe Tory seat. Cam Jackson was able to hold the seat during the NDP sweep in 1990, and the Liberal sweep in 2003. The 2014 Liberal win wasn’t as large as either of those so it should have stayed Blue. And with a stronger candidate it might well have.
According to Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. McKenna has a lost to the Liberal candidate. Why would she think that now she is the one to beat her?