By Pepper Parr
August 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
There are currents swirling beneath the Pier, and there are currents of discontent swirling around the Council Chamber.
Beneath that placid layer of water that flows around the Pier, there are currents that carry sand from as far away as the Scarborough Bluffs.
There are current swirling around the politics of the city as well.
There are several (that’s more than three) people actively considering a run for public office in 2026.
They are driven for the most part by the level of taxation and by a Council that they feel is poorly led.
One individual – not giving names at this point – described the problem this way:
“Long term I believe that is the future evolution of our democracy in Canada. You see, party politics is about favours and pet projects often-times. I do think – as I said in our meeting – that our Representative Democracy is meant to elect representatives, not leaders.
“True, some of those Councillors/MPs/MPPs may later on be asked to lead as committee chairs, ministers or more, but the average elected person is meant to represent the wishes of the majority, while helping as he can the minorities.”
The sense many people have of members of the current council is that they don’t represent the views of the people they serve. They have views of their own that they put first. The suspicion is that the Council members don’t even know what their constituents want – to a large extent because they don’t listen to what citizens have to say.
Delegations don’t feel they are heard.
Burlington has just one city wide citizens group – Focus Burlington – that tackles financial issues. BRAG Burlington Residents’ Action Group came and went very quickly – no one could agree on all that much.
ECoB was a huge success in getting great turn outs at the all candiate meetings – but once the election had taken place – that organization wasn’t able to extend its reach into the wards.
What the ECoB experience taught us is that if there is an issue that is clear – people will show up.
At that time, it was clear that people didn’t want Rick Goldring as Mayor for a second term – they wanted Marianne Meed Ward who was a good council member and they believed she could put an end to the kind of growth they saw coming from the Goldring Council.
Meed Ward became Mayor and brought five new members of Council with her.
This gap between what the people want and what gets “done” is widening and eroding trust in local government. And trust, once broken, is nearly impossible to rebuild.
Note that when citizens speak up and see little to no adjustment from City Hall, apathy sets in. And apathy is a win for those who benefit from the status quo. And the beneficiaries currently are MMW and her “rubber stamps”. The frustration in Burlington is about being ignored. Right now, citizens speak, City Hall nods, and then the same bad decisions roll on. If residents want real change, we can’t settle for polite objections that get filed away. Burlington needs to find a way, a group, a person who can make enough noise that decision makers can’t tune out — pressure that resonates, that forces them to fix the mess now rather than using their time to polish campaign slogans for the next election. City Hall needs to hear the citizens loud enough that they stop planning for re-election and start planning for Burlington.”
Whomever thought that our “representative democracy” was meant to elect leaders was clearly a newbie to political theory and should go back to school. I hope that you will eventually identify the individual so that when they run for office, I can vote for their opponent.
I am a member of FocusBurlington but still wonder where it has been since its inception three months ago? Where is the mighty voice speaking loudly to citizen concerns. I count less than 10 new articles written and posted since its beginning – almost all dealing with the issue of City budget and unnecessary expenditures. This is not only the single trick pony of the BRAG past, it has now become the very, very tired and hobbled warhorse of the FocusBurlington present. People get it – they are truly interested. It’s a “wallet issue” after all and the times are tough. But is there not a better approach to this than the forensic chirping at individual expenditures that’s been the theme of the past 2 years? Have one of the “chirps” been addressed? The President of BRAG posed a series of questions to Council last year, received a series of evasive responses and …? Disappointingly, he’s doing the same thing again.
FocusBurlington needs to raise its game and look at what fundamental restructuring is needed to move the City away from a revenue generation model that is 95% tax-based. You know, let’s deal with the “bigger picture”. And this must involve the planning, reporting, feedback and justification/approval processes required. FB should start at first principles and review best practices for all aspects of governance surrounding not only expenditures but the entire fiscal stewardship structure. It needs to look at the changes required to make COB a more “open” government; one that must listen to citizens’ voice because of the structural changes made; one that understands the dynamics of stewardship simply because they have no choice. I would like to hear FocusBurlington’s ideas about how this can be done – not another series of whines about timing, false engagement and frivolous spending. All true but what are you going to do about it?
Editor’s note: Ettlewood is a pen name
MMW must go! We need a majority of the Councillors replaced.
A council that actually cares about the people of Burlington.
Not themselves and the photo ops that we continuously see.