By Pepper Parr
July 30th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Politics can be a cruel mistress.
A number of months ago Andrea Grebenc thought she had grown to the point where she decided she would like to try something bigger in the world of politics.
She was chair of the Halton District School Board. The Burlington Provincial Liberal Association was going to have to nominate a candidate soon and Grebenc thought she could do that job.
The process to the actual nomination of a candidate for the Liberals was messy – sloppy is perhaps a better word.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns was coy about seeking the Liberal nomination. She announced; shortly afterwards Andrea Grebenc announced she was also running for the nomination. Kearns withdrew.
The Liberals invited ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns to seek the nomination. After a month or so of saying maybe yes – maybe no publicly, she finally came out and said she would seek the nomination.
A few days later Grebenc announced her intention to see the nomination.
Within 48 hours Kearns withdrew.
By that time there was a third candidate seeking the nomination.
Mariam Manaa announced she would seek the nomination. Ms Manaa, a young Muslim woman had been recruiting new members for the Burlington Provincial Liberal Party since January.
Grebenc chose to wait until May 27th to file her papers. The Provincial Liberals set June 6 as the date for the nomination meeting.
Andrea Grebenc, chair of the Halton District School Board – lost the nomination contest.
Grebenc explained to the Gazette at the time that she was working regularly with Jane McKenna, the MPP for Burlington and felt that it would be rather awkward to be working with McKenna and at the same time preparing to run against her.
Thus the wait until May 27th.
With just 10 days to sign up new members there wasn’t much of a chance to overcome the new membership lead that Ms Manaa had.
“I can tell you that the Manaa supporters were very loyal. I called many of them – they weren’t budging.”
Ms Manaa is the Liberal candidate – she won fair and square – the problem was that the rules didn’t allow those who had been Liberal supporters with Party experience to make a choice.
Anybody could become an instant Liberal. All you had to do was live in the city and be able to prove it.
The process turned out to be a race to see who could recruit new members – Manaa recruited more than anyone else and won.
The nomination process was unfair to both Grebenc and Manaa – they were limited to a 10 minute speech with nothing in the way of debate between the two women.
Mariam Manaa – Liberal candidate .
Manaa has some very credible experience in the community. Her work for the Member of Parliament was much appreciated by the Minister and the community that she was able to help.
We were indeed in the middle of a pandemic and there were stiff restrictions. But not so many that a debate could not have taken place and streamed live.
Neither candidate was given a chance to show their stuff.
The blame for this rests in the hands of the Burlington Provincial Liberal party executive. They failed the party; they failed the candidates, and they failed the people of Burlington.
Hopefully Ms Manaa will create an election team and keep her distance from the Burlington Provincial Liberal Association – they have proven to be incompetent.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Thank you for this analysis, Pepper. As a relatively new member to the party (since 2020), I was disappointed and thought it very strange that no debate was allowed between candidates.
However, I would note that the decision to make memberships free and open to anyone & everyone was made by party HQ in Toronto – so the local association in Burlington was saddled with this decision and had no say in the matter.
I don’t think the Burlington Liberal Party failed Burlington at all. They picked the best candidate!!