MPP calls members of Opposition 'Chicken Littles': arts community recognized her efforts.

graphic community 3By Staff

May 8th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

Last chance:

The Gazette, wanting to support local artistic efforts, is offering a prize for the best name that can be found for this sweet little bird.

The prize will be a $50 gift card or a donation of $50 to the Burlington Food Bank.

The contest ends at the close of Mother’s Day.

Send your suggestions to chickenjane@bgzt.ca

On April 21st, Jane McKenna rose in the Ontario Legislature and spoke to the current pandemic. She portrayed members of the opposition as “chicken littles” who needlessly and inaccurately exaggerated the seriousness and impacts of the pandemic for political advantage. For a politician who has demonstrated a remarkable degree of tone-deaf insensitivity in the past, her performance was a high (or low) mark.

McKenna in the legislature

MPP Jane McKenna in her best dark blue Conservative suit calling the Opposition “Chicken Little”

Sometimes, when faced with leaders who betray a complete lack of awareness and social conscience, it is best to turn indignation into humour, or farce or satire to better isolate and scorn the behaviour. The ‘Chicken Post’ is such an attempt. It responds to callous indifference by shining the light of humour. It “belittles” (pun intended) one who should have known and acted far better.

Those are the views of one, pen in hand, Burlingtonian.

Burlington MPP Jane McKenna stood up in the Legislature and laid out the fact about the Covid19 pandemic.  That is where we learned of the Chicken Little speech she gave.  It lasts just over a minute.  Scroll down the link and click on the video. Get there and Have a listen.

Others with a different artistic bent wanted to help the MPP visualize what she had the temerity to say in the Legislature. They doubled down on their artistic talents and sent a little chicken to Jane McKenna.

rubber chicken 1

A chicken on a respirator in need of a name.

This lovely piece of local art should be donated to the Historical Society once Ms McKenna has displayed it in her constituency office and had it photographed for use on her election signs come June of 2022.

The Gazette, wanting to support local artistic efforts, is offering a prize for the best name that can be found for this sweet little bird.

The prize will be a $50 gift card or a donation of $50 to the Burlington Food Bank.

The contest ends at the close of Mother’s Day.

Send your suggestions to chickenjane@bgzt.ca

 

 

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24 comments to MPP calls members of Opposition ‘Chicken Littles’: arts community recognized her efforts.

  • Susan Corrigan

    She’s with a developer so she will make out OK when she’s voted out. Now Kearns is cosying up with the same developer. Once she’s out they’ll be sucking up to the next person who can forward their development agenda.

  • Diane Knox

    Let us ALL stop the ” Blame Game” of our current “Elected by Us” Politicians of major Parties- Liberal, Conservative, NDP present and past both Provincial and Federal and even Municipal.

    Not ONE of our current Representatives was elected for a Pandemic. Of course for the last 30 years we have been on a clash of-‘ Cut the Spending’- Privatize HWY’s, LTC, Health Hospital Funding and Education-Lower the debt– And then to ‘Repair the Damage’ by spending to shore up the failures in all of the above– but to pay-Privatize Hydro.–Time for a Change– and More cuts–Education/Health–Then came COVID 2019

    This Virus has been a learning curve for the Medical, Scientific, R&D community World wide Community and we live in a Global World and yes for those Representatives in Canada

    Next time you cast Your ballot for any election whether it is for a party Leader, or a representative at any level Please vote for someone who listens, who stays engaged and does not just follow the Party line when a crisis happens. That person will make decisions for you and your well being for the next 4 years. Vote for Someone smart, and one who reflects your Values for now and the future.
    Voter Be Warned and be informed Your life on many levels depends on it i
    This is Democracy

  • Alan Harrington

    14 months into this pandemic and we’re WORSE off than we ever were.

    Pick on Jane, Doug, Justin, Andrea, WHO, or Anyone across the globe – and that doesn’t change the fact that NO ONE has the TRUE answer to this disaster.

    Aside from getting vaccinated.

    EXPERTS tell us: Mask Up, Wash Up, Stay Apart, as the pandemic RAGES + people die.

    They say “Listen To The Doctors” – yet people still: smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, drive too fast, downhill ski, run with scissors, swim after a meal, give birth & all manner of perilous stuff.

    Are Paid Sick Days the answer. Really? Three days off – then workers are back to where they were. Except a temp with COVID has filled in for them and infected all the other workers.

    Sure – name the rubber chicken “Intubated Poultry” if anyone believes Jane has the real answer to this pandemic and is just keeping it a secret? Not likely.

    Times are bad – so we need to keep on working together to get ourselves through it.

    • Well said Alan. I find this kind of rehtoric more like the worst of lead up to an election year. Glad there was none of this in WWII – none of us wuld have been here. This is politics at its worst!

  • JOSEF lANGLOIS

    then…a conversation from puk puk could be..

    puk puk puk puk puk puk puk???? …. JM response… “it seems many people do think the sky is falling”
    puk puk puk puk?? JM response… “do I think the sky is falling… not in the least.. check my facts…”

    puk puk puk puk puk puk puk puk…. puk…. puk …. puk puk puk?… JM response… “ask Doug Ford.. not in my job title….”

  • Sharon

    Jane McKenna is a absolute disgrace!!! How dare she plays down our current disaster in health care. She should go to a ICU and do a 12 hour shift,

  • perryb

    On my screen this article was followed by an ad for “ELIMINATE CLOGGED GUTTERS”. Coincidence? I think not!

  • Tom Muir

    I just watched the news and saw Ford in alarmist mode, overlooking that he sounded like he was overturning McKenna’s Little Chickens ignorance. He was coming back after 8 days of paid sick leave with a new view of pandemic reality fitting his politics. It’s really not about acorns hitting him in the head.

    He can’t stress this seriously enough – we will never get ahead of this virus without getting to the variants, and since we don’t have enough vaccines we might get a 4th wave, and therefore the land borders and the airports should be closed as people are coming here and bringing the variants.

    That all of these actions are federal purview, along with his sick leave policy proposal to use them, this is casting blame you know where. No chickens evident in this blame casting someone or something else for his piss poor choices in his own policies in his own purview, that he can control.

    So the sky is actually falling variants, for a while now, that we can really see, and not the original acorn and imagination. So Mr. Ford says we need to close the sky. That may be, but it’s beside the point.

    Now doesn’t this sound like what he has been told for weeks, and months even, about how bad the pandemic is, by all kinds of people of great concerns, labelled here, by MPP McKenna, as Chicken Littles?

    I wonder what the spinners will make out of this.

  • Fred Crockett

    Now friends, let’s be fair, if Jane didn’t spout insipid nonsense, no one would know who she was… Time for a change.

  • Donna Lavery

    We deserve an MPP who will engage with Constituents and that’s notJane McKenna. McKenna owes our Community an apology after her Chicken Little stunt in the Ontario Legislature.

  • Penny Hersh

    Carol, I agree with you, however, Karina Gould has been doing the same thing for Justin Trudeau.

    The Federal government is equally responsible for the mess that all Provinces are now dealing with – failure to procure vaccine in a timely manner. I truly hope that vaccination will be the “silver bullet” that politicians are predicting.

    Presently, science does not seem to really know if the vaccine will protect against the new variants.

    • David Barker

      Ms Hersh

      “The Federal government is equally responsible for the mess that all Provinces are now dealing with – failure to procure vaccine in a timely manner.”

      I tire of people blaming the federal government, as you do here, for a failure to get vaccines here “in a timely manner”.

      Canada does not have a domestic virus manufacturing capability (PCs sold that off decades ago). Canada early in the pandemic’s time frame placed very large orders with what were at that time all those manufacturers working to develop a vaccine. To underscore, when the orders were placed there were no vaccines. Just hope.

      Canada ordered enough vaccine to fully inoculate the population three times over and more vaccines per capita than any other country.

      Regrettably, due to problems at the production facilities of both Pfiser and Moderna and to vaccine nationalism, Canada’s orders were not delivered in the timeframes contracted.

      Then of course there has been the start stop start stop start to the deployment of both the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines due to questions over fatal side-effects

      So with all that in mind just what actions could the feds have taken that would have resulted in the vaccines being deployed earlier and in greater quantities? For the life of me I cannot see what leverage or options the fedshad available to them. But I guess you must have something in mind. Please share.

      • Bb

        It was Trudeau’s science advisor Teresa Tam who said a year ago that masks would cause more harm because we would touch our faces.
        It was the federal government a year ago who said closing the borders was racist and still have not done so.
        Federally who put their eggs into the basket of our first procurement of vaccines with China
        Federal who had the expired PPE and also the federal government who shipped our own supplies a year ago when they were so desperately needed here.

        Ford is not by any stretch guilt free but to try and say Trudeau is blameless is beyond laughable

        • David Barker

          Be is this Bob by another name.

          Clearly you are having trouble reading what is in print in front of you. Please would you point out where exactly I have in my comment here said Trudeau is blameless. I have never said that. He and his government have made many mistakes in relation to the pandemic. Not closing the borders is one such mistake.

          My comment here though focused solely, exclusively on Ms Hersh’s accusation that the federal government could have, should have taken some as yet unidentified action that would have magically opened a flood gate which would have allowed the vaccine supply to flow through uninterrupted. Still waiting for that action to be identified by Ms Hersh.

          As an aside, how come Ford bleets about the international borders whilst he leaves our Provincial borders wide open. NS has closed its borders to all !

      • Phillip Wooster

        David, nice spin on the procurement fiasco by the federal government. “Canada early in the pandemic time frame placed very large orders”–sorry, David, that’s false! Canada had put all its eggs in the Sinovax basket as the Trudeau government misplaced its trust in the Chinese; when that was cancelled, the federal government had to scramble and quickly signed agreements with a number of manufacturers hoping they would come through–this wasn’t a strategy, it was a desperate CYA operation. The Liberals were late to the game; they made no attempt to license the manufacture of these vaccines. While Canada likely didn’t have the capability to manufacture the MNRA vaccines, and I say “likely” because Providence Pharmaceuticals in Alberta had the know-how but were refused funding by the federal government; too bad they are not in Quebec! Canada certainly could have manufacture the Astrazeneca Vaccine.

        Your desire to totally blame the Conservatives for the loss of vaccine manufacturing capacity is laughable. Mulroney certainly sold Connaught Labs but the buyer continues to produce in Canada–but I note, that neither the Liberals under Chretien nor the Liberals under Trudeau did anything to restore the manufacturing capability. Do you realize that at the start of 2020, the UK possessed even less manufacturing capacity than Canada? But of course, the UK had one thing that Canada lacked–LEADERSHIP; the UK realizing that vaccines would be the only way out of this pandemic, quickly built up its capacity by the end of 2020. Why didn’t the Liberals–lack of leadership.

        As usual, David, you seek to absolve the Liberals from what has been a dismal performance. Currently in Ontario, we have about 3% of our population fully vaccinated–NO ENOUGH VACCINES.

        • David Barker

          Well, Wooster, first and last response to you.

          You are correct the feds did not place orders with Pfiser, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J until after it became clear the Chinese screwed Canada after having entered into a binding contract. Should that have worked out everyone would have wanted to be on that bandwagon.

          Even so, if you had done your homework, you would have discovered Canada’s orders with Pfiser, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J were placed prior to the EU (27 countries, 459 million population) placing its orders.

          As respects the manufacturing capability or rather lack thereof you say neither Chretien nor Trudeau did anything to re-establish the capability. Wooster you blow the credibility of your comments when you so obviously show your partisanship by failing to include Harper’s 12 years in power between those. I agree, Canada must learn lessons from this pandemic. We need to re-establish not just vaccine manufacturing capabilities, but also PPE manufacturing and other consumables that we find we are dependent upon others to supply us. These would be fabulous opportunities for Alberta to diversify its economy.

          So, to be clear, Wooster, I do not seek to absolve the federal government of anything. Agreed Canada needs more vaccines. Easy for you and me to say that. To shout that out. But like Hersh you do not suggest an action that could have been taken, could have been taken or still could be taken to solve the supply issue. Now’s your chance to tell us all.

        • Tom Muir

          I fear entering the arena with Phil and some others where everything is disputed, Trudeau and liberals are accused with assertions that we don’t know what the reality of, and facts get lost in the hyperbolic language.

          Some facts to argue about. Fill in blanks with facts please to argue. This timeline only goes to January 25 but can be extended with facts and not just opinion. Please no personal attacks and sarcasm.

          “From first cases to first vaccines: A timeline of COVID-19 in Canada”

          By Staff The Canadian Press Posted January 25, 2021 10:33 am

          https://webmail.bell.net/appsuite/#!&app=io.ox/mail/write:compose

          Nov. 26: Federal health officials say Canada has purchase agreements with seven COVID-19 vaccine producers.

          2:06 Government of Canada makes vaccine deals with 2 more companies Government of Canada makes vaccine deals with 2 more companies – Aug 31, 2020

          Nov. 27: Trudeau says most Canadians should receive the COVID-19 vaccine by September 2021. The prime minister says Canada’s vaccine distribution program would be led by former NATO commander Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin.

          Dec. 2: Johnson & Johnson begins the process of applying for emergency approval of its COVID-19 vaccine from Health Canada and the European Medicines Agency, while Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is given permission for emergency use in the U.K.

          Dec. 4: Canada records more than 400,000 cases of COVID-19, just 18 days after it hits the 300,000 mark.

          Dec. 7: Trudeau says Canada will receive up to 249,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in December.

          Read more: Canada in agreement to buy 20M more Pfizer vaccines: Trudeau

          Dec. 8: Partial results published in the medical journal Lancet suggest the COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is safe and about 70 per cent effective.

          Dec. 9: Health Canada approves national use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.

          Dec. 14: The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are administered to people in Quebec and Ontario.

          Dec. 20: Canada surpasses 500,000 total cases of COVID-19 as Nunavut reports its first two deaths. The federal government restricts travel from the U.K. for 72 hours in an effort to keep a contagious new strain out of Canada.

          Dec. 23: Health Canada says the COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna is safe for use in Canada.

          3:25 Canada to get even more COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna

          Dec. 23: Health Canada says the COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna is safe for use in Canada.

          3:25 Canada to get even more COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna Canada to get even more COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna – Dec 15, 2020

          Dec. 26: Ontario confirms its two first Canadian cases of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in the United Kingdom.

          Dec. 28: Canada surpasses 15,000 deaths related to COVID-19.

          Dec. 30: The federal government announces plans to require air travellers to test negative for COVID-19 before landing in Canada.

          Jan. 3, 2021: Canada surpasses 600,000 total cases of COVID-19.

          Jan. 8: A new variant of COVID-19 that first surfaced in South Africa is reported in Alberta. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick tighten their boundaries, requiring people entering the provinces to quarantine for 14 days.

          Jan. 11: Ontario’s death toll surpasses 5,000.

          Jan. 14: A stay-at-home order takes effect in Ontario days after the daily case tally nearly hit 4,000. Among the added measures is a requirement for people to wear a mask inside businesses and restrictions on the size of gatherings. All non-essential retail stores may only open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

          Jan. 15: Pfizer says it will temporarily cut vaccine delivery to Canada because of issues with its European production lines.

          Jan. 16: Canada surpasses 700,000 cases of COVID-19.

          Jan. 23: Health Canada confirms it’s approved a rapid COVID-19 test from Spartan Bioscience for use across the country. The company had previously recalled its rapid testing technology last spring over concerns expressed by the federal agency.

        • bill

          Well said Phillip!

        • David Barker

          Hey, Wooster. This comment is totally unrelated to this specific article but relevant to you usual PC biased commentaries and denigrating of PM Trudeau.

          Today the Ethics Commissioner totally cleared, exonerated the PM from any wrongdoing in relation to the WE (not so much) Scandal.

          I’m sure you would like to publicly acknowledge all the mud thrown by those like yourself (Bob, O’Toole, Poilivere, Bergen, Rempall) that you were all wrong and jumped to incorrect conclusions

  • Hans Jacobs

    Re: Jane’s “…members of the opposition…exaggerated the seriousness and impacts of the pandemic…” – Is it really possible to do that? She must live in a cave without television.

    IMO the biggest and most serious mistake that many of those in positions of power/authority/responsibility have made regarding COVID was underestimating it; e.g.:
    The W.H.O. (apparently ignorant of the definition of a pandemic and refusing to act prudently in the face of a health disaster) delayed declaring a pandemic for waaaay too long; Canada’s “top doctor” failed to understand how masks would help to prevent the spread; some medical professionals, incorrectly and incredibly, speculated that infectious “droplets” were the biggest threat and exhaled “aerosol” was not an important source of infection; the federal government failed to close the borders promptly to minimize importing infection and infected travelers continue to arrive at our airports; the provincial government failed to protect vulnerable long term care residents and – with a year to get ready – failed to prepare for effective distribution of vaccines, resulting in many unnecessary deaths and chaos.

    The combined incompetence is truly stunning.

  • Carol Victor

    I hope we all truly remember this on election day…..she has been totally on Doug Ford message..blame everyone else for the Conservative Party’s failing.