Mayor goes public with her mask.

By Pepper Parr

July 9th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

The Mayor wasn’t all that keen on the idea of wearing a face mask.

She published her views in her A Better Burlington Newsletter.

She got trashed by well over 100 people.

The Mayor took another look at the issues and days later published a longer piece in the same Newsletter – this time setting out more reasons than you could imagine as to who was requiring masks and who wasn’t

Medical Officer of Health tells the Mayor that masks won’t hurt.

The Mayor then turned to the Medical Officer of Health for guidance.

Nothing wrong with wearing cloth masks, said the MOH

The Mayor then decided she would put a motion before Council – see what happens.

Problem was, Councillor Stolte had a motion of her own in the works; one she had developed with the help of the City Manager, the City Solicitor and dozens of other people.

The Mayor and the Councillor had a sit down – the Councillor won but to make nice they put out a motion sponsored by the two of them

That motion got debated today and passed at a Standing Committee meeting that heard some really weird delegations.

Every member of Council voted to put a temporary bylaw in place requiring people to wear a mask in public places.  And kicked in $10,000 to pay for masks for people who were short on the cash side.

What next?

The Mayor wearing a mask outside city hall, either early today or yesterday.

A photo op for the Mayor wearing a bright red mask with people from Burlington Together.

The Mayor finally sniffed the scent of change.

Is the picture a one off? Only time will tell.

The bylaw gets voted at Council on Monday.