By Staff
October 25th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
George Ward has a problem – and he is really, really ticked off with the way a Petition sent to Queen’s Park was handled.
The people behind the Save Lester B. Pearson high school – which is scheduled to be closed in June of 2018 – sent a Petition to the Legislature.
A petition is a request that the Legislative Assembly of Ontario take some specific action (or refrain from taking some action) to redress a public grievance. The action requested must be within the scope of jurisdiction of the Legislative Assembly, and the request must be clear, temperate, proper and respectful.
A petition must be addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
If all that is done properly – and they are sticklers about the form a Petition is presented in – then the Petition is read out during the time allocated for the Reading of Petitions.
One would have liked to see that Petition read into the record by the Member for Burlington.
Click to see how badly this was done.
The Pearson high school parents believe that the opening of Hayden high school and the changing of the feeder schools that served Pearson resulted in the need to close that school. They think they were short changed – to have their Petition bungled when it was read into the Legislative record just added insult to injury.
Ward wants to know “if the petition was scheduled to be read by this MPP from St. Catharines at the last minute because it was known that he is totally inept or because it is a plot to avoid announcing our petition on purpose.
Ward sketches out his thoughts on both scenarios.
Was the Member for St. Catharines totally inept?
The MPP from St. Catharines stumbles on his introduction and states “I see I am almost out of time” – why waste time with this statement?
It is fairly obvious that the MPP has not preread or prepared in any way to read the petition – evidenced by the stumbling, fumbling and reading while looking at the floor and being soft in his speech.
The MMP from St. Catharines also is the one to state at the end “I see that I am out of time” – why stop and sit down rather than carry on.
The Speaker of the House states “You can finish if you wish” to which the MPP from St. Catharines refuses.
Cheryl de Lught and Steve Armstrong, the Pearson high school members of the PAR Committee.
Or was it a plot to stop the Save LBP?
Why was such an inept MPP from St. Catharines chosen to present our petition?
Why did the MPP from St. Catharines not prepare himself and read the petition ahead of time?
Why was our petition not read until the end of the session and ran out of time?
Why did the MPP from St. Catharines end his presentation with “I see I am out of time” and sit down?
Why did the MPP from St. Catharines refuse to continue with the petition when the Speaker of the House granted him the time to do so?
Ward thinks he will get a better response if he takes his complaint to Patrick Brown – Leader of the Opposition for his comment and corrective action.
Jane McKenna has done more than Eleanor McMahon. Jane has met with us, Bateman group and listened to our concerns and has spoken to Patrick Brown. Patrick Brown has brought up school closures in the Legislature many times. More then Eleanor McMahon has done. Has Eleanor McMahon told us there is nothing she can do? In one meeting we had with her she asked us “What do you expect me to do?” We have to tell our MPP what we expect? Really?
Is Jane McKenna any better of an alternative?
Sadly, the answer is probably NO but since our current MPP has shown herself more focused on the destructive Liberal agenda at Queen’s Park and has done NOTHING for Burlington, she needs to go.
Yes!
Both MPP’s Pam Damoff and Eleanor McMahon represent families of present and future Pearson families. I am disgusted at these two for the lack of care each has regarding our students education.
Why would the MPP from St. Catherine care about what happens in Burlington? He should not be blamed for something that should have been presented by our MPP.
Glad to see the MPP’s having a good laugh at our expense. I would be surprised if I hadn’t gone through the last year of watching the people responsible “mailing it in” just like this guy. A comedy of errors but none of us are laughing. Can we request a re-do ?
Looks like someone wrote this article and consciously omitted the fact that a Cabinet Minister can not present a Petition to the House:
https://ontla.on.ca/lao/en/getting-involved/petitions/presentation-of-a-petition.html
The Ministry of Education has 24 sitting days to respond to the Petition, so George Ward will get a response.
It’s a mere formality to read it into the record; it does not affect the Government’s response in any way.
If there are bike lanes involved McMahon is involved. Cause they are really important????
Ever notice how Goldring’s advocacy for his cycling buddies really moved to the forefront following McMahon’s election.
Wow. So that’s it?! Just an empty suit going through the motions. Doesn’t look like he even glanced at it prior. The record will show the MPP read the petition submission but refused to continue due to time constraint. Why not Burlington’s MPP? Was she even there? Looking at the YouTube video it seemed the legislature was nearly empty. Not sure what good it would have done even if read to completion.
Just my opinion… but petitions aren’t really beneficial except to make the petitioners feel better.
Tells me that Eleanor McMahon could care less –
Kudos to George for putting forward his petition. Truly sad that it didn’t get a greater recognition.
Once again, where was our MPP Eleanor McMahon? Why didn’t she read the petition into the record? Her lack of involvement and support for parents and students at Bateman and Pearson is truly disturbing.
There are some smart Conservative MPPs who could have done a better job than Bradley in reading this into the record. Gila Martow from Thornhill, Julia Munro from York-Simcoe, Lisa MacLeod from Nepean-Carleton, Michael Harris from Kitchener-Conestoga, Steve Clark from Leeds-Grenville, or Todd Smith from Prince Edward-Hasting…anyone one of these folks are more engaged and “with it” than Bradley. Bradley needs to be “put out to pasture” in the next election….like the rest of Kathleen Wynne’s caucus.