Rookie MPP completes her first session at Queen's Park; McMahon delivers for the city on flood relief.

By Pepper Parr

December 24, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON

Six months into the job as MPP for Burlington and Eleanor McMahon can look back at a good first session as a provincial politician.

The government passed nine piece of legislation during its first session. There were just three bills passed in the previous session of the Legislature. The government brought back 20 bills that were on the Order Paper before the election was called.

McMahon was everywhere during the early days after the August 4th flood.

We asked McMahon: “What’s it like?” How did you feel when you first walked in the Legislature and took your seat”?

“There are 13 million people in Ontario” explained McMahon. “And just 107 in the Legislature – that fact just overwhelmed me. I am one of those 107 and the 13 million expect me to make good decisions for them.”

It is a demanding job and at the same time a rewarding job explained McMahon. People bring their problems to this office she said. They frequently don’t understand the rules and all too often there are very real hardship cases.

The Burlington office is an all-female operation. The three staff; Meaghan Eisenberg, Executive Assistant and Sydney Grieve, Constituency Assistant. We neglected to pick up the name of the third staff member.

McMahon is located in the Brant Plaza – and she wants out. She thinks a store front operation better serves the public – it gives her more of a profile as well. Finding something suitable and affordable is a concern.

Bill 10, the Child Care Modernization Act is one that gave McMahon a lot of satisfaction. “It meant” she said, “that parents would have more assurance that their children were safe with the people they hire to provide daycare.

McMahon is bilingual which involves her in the Francophone caucus – not something any one in Burlington past took part in.

She serves as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and is a Member, Standing Committee on General Government and a Member, Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly

There is some legislation on the Order Paper that is of interest to several people in Burlington – Bill 52, Protection of Public Participation Act, 2014. It is an Act to An Act to amend the Courts of Justice Act, the Libel and Slander Act and the Statutory Powers Procedure Act in order to protect expression on matters of public interest.

Pulling in the dollars for flood relief had McMahon out at dozens of photo ops.

Two Burlingtonians, and the Burlington Gazette have been sued by the Burlington Executive Air Park for what they wrote about the air park’s use of un-inspected landfill at the 200 acre property between Bell School Line and Appleby Line.

The purposes of this legislation is to:

(a) to encourage individuals to express themselves on matters of public interest;
(b) to promote broad participation in debates on matters of public interest;
(c) to discourage the use of litigation as a means of unduly limiting expression on matters of public interest; and
(d) to reduce the risk that participation by the public in debates on matters of public interest will be hampered by fear of legal action.

McMahon wasn’t up on that particular piece of legislation – it has only had First Reading.
The Ontario Disaster Relief fund legislation isn’t being reviewed –

McMahon thinks it needs an overhaul. She became fully aware of what the legislation called for and played a leading role in ensuring that Burlington got to benefit from the legislation.

ODRAP required a community to raise funds locally and then ask the government to match the funds raised in the community in two dollars from the government for every dollar raised by the public.

Burlington raised $905,000 locally and will get $1,810,000 from the provincial government making $2.715.000 available to people in Burlington who suffered significant financial loss when their homes were flooded.

The provincial government at first said no to the Burlington’ request – it was pressure from McMahon and Ron Foxcroft that brought about a change in the thinking of Minister Ted McMeekin.

McMahon was everywhere during the early days of the flood. There wasn’t an event she didn’t show up at offering support, understanding and an open mind. She was tireless in fighting for her community.
Question Period is her least favourite period of time in the legislature. Her strength appears to be in Committee where a reasoned, carefully thought through approach is supposed to prevail. The cut and thrust of

Question Period doesn’t fit with the McMahon character or temperament.

It helps that she is a member of the governing party. Her predecessor didn’t have that going for her and it had an impact on her effectiveness.

McMahon has taken to the job and its complexities quite quickly and is doing well within the community. She argues that majority government works much better than minority government – she will certainly get some blow back on that position.

While it is far too early to tell if McMahon will look as good in four years’ time as she does today – Burlington’s Tory roots run very deep – she is certainly working the riding.

We have never seen anyone work a room the way Eleanor McMahon does; she just oozes empathy.

There have been consistent rumours floating around city hall that Council member Paul Sharman plans to seek the Progressive Conservative nomination for the Burlington seat. That will certainly be an interesting race – if there was ever two diametrically different people – it has to be McMahon and Sharman.

The Gazette got two tips that Sharman was making himself known within the Progressive Conservative Party. The Gazette asked Sharman to comment on the rumours – he did not confirm or deny the rumours.