By Pepper Parr
November 20th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Municipal World, a trade magazine that caters to the municipal sector with news and a job board
Best Mayor 2025
A team made up of its editorial staff chose Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward as Best Mayor – 2025
Susan Gardner: CEO, Nicholas Smither: Publisher, Greg Crone: Executive Editor, Sean Meyer: Senior Content Editor, Kim Costa: Executive Coordinator and Richard Daniel Hughes: Municipal Recruiting Specialist”
Award wasn’t enough to get Burlington Mayor on the cover.
Meed Ward was chosen by the magazine’s staff for the 2025 Mayor of the Year award in recognition of her leadership and advocacy for protecting democracy and fostering respectful debate.
It is important to note that this is an award given by a third-party organization and separate from municipal elections, where eligible residents of Burlington vote to elect their mayor. The next Burlington municipal election is scheduled for October 2026″
Municipal World published a review written by James Ridge, the City Manager, Meed Ward fired the day after she was sworn into office in 2018. To date she has gone through three City Managers.
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hehe ….. “surely you jest”
this article/process and announcement reads like a joke ….. except they’re serious.
suggesting this is a serious award is like saying a “selfie” is a “professional portrait” !!!!!!
Where is the detailed data (e.g., year-over-year municipal performance metrics, public satisfaction, city financials) to transparently support why MMW stood out versus other mayors.
This is more about what the magazine’s editors like than about broad municipal leadership excellence.
Further, in my opinion, anyone amplifying this manufactured award is complicit in lowering the bar for journalism.”
Obviously the people who voted for her, have never met her.
It’s positive to see Burlington recognized, and the Mayor’s long record of public service is worthy of note. At the same time, awards like this are an invitation to reflect on how we, including council can strengthen civic engagement locally.
My hope is that this recognition becomes an opportunity to renew the commitment of genuine two-way engagement, accessibility, and open dialogue within our community. Burlington works best when residents feel heard, and I trust this award can help refocus attention on that shared goal.
but if it is anything like some of the other ‘best of’ releases, organizations submit themselves for consideration and in some cases pay a fee to do so. Perhaps other municipalities were too busy attending to real challenges facing their community other than the popularity of their mayors to participate in fluff
Clearly, you can fool some of the people all of the time.
Based on what ? virtue signalling.
wow what a fluff piece of journalism
“Meed Ward was selected for her work on the Elect Respect campaign, which aims to promote equity and respect for elected officials”. Posted in Burlington Today on November 14, 2025. Article below:
https://www.burlingtontoday.com/local-news/marianne-meed-ward-named-mayor-of-the-year-11486578
And not for her overall performance as the Mayor of Burlington.
Well, in response to all those sceptics out there – be fair, she has been plying her “trade” for quite some time.