By Jim Thomson
August 11th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Editor’s note: Jim Thomson is not an easy man to work with. While the City banned him from attending Council meetings. Thomson often makes serious points when he writes. The following is a notice he sent to Mayor Meed Ward and City Solicitor Blake Hurley.
Please remove these posts from your personal website.
You do not speak for the city or as mayor on your personal site.
You should not be using official logo’s of the City to imply that you do.
Official communication should be from the CoB or maybe even the Mayor’s office.
I am told that your Tweets, Facebook and Instagram also use an official logo of the city in your private accounts.
Please take down any and all posts where this is the case.
You appear to have trouble separating the Mayor from Marianne.
Thomson is absolutely right. The City Solicitor should have brought this to her attention.
This is a tweet that relates to Marianne Meed Ward’s personal life. She should not be attaching her job as Mayor of the City to this kind of email.
Another tweet from Meed Ward’s personal x account.
Shown below are the two accounts the Meed Ward has: One which should be used when she is addressing people as Mayor, the other when she is addressing people as Marianne Meed Ward, private citizen.
It is a fine point, but an important one.
I was at the Farmers’ Market at the Burlington Centre early this morning to get my weekly produce and was surprised to see that a tent had been erected for Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. She was not there but a city vehicle and staff member (presumably the ‘tent guy’) was parked beside. Now this was early – about 7:30 – and the business was already brisk. But I pondered – “what exactly does our Mayor have to sell? Well, apart from herself and her vision for Burlington – little else. So, what’s the harm. Well, the tent is at least reusable and will be seen at the coming Food for Feedback event (another one that warms the cocktails of my heart). But it is still an expense plus the S&W of the staff member brought out early to erect the edifice. But more importantly, if you are aware of how vendors at the Farmers’ Market get their stalls, there is a waiting list. Friday is the best day and those that do not have a stall then get the runner up prize of one on Wednesday. And our mayor considers herself and her message to be so important that she will take a space on the best day, then show up whenever. I imagine that she calls it “citizen engagement” and pats herself on her broad back. I call it thoughtless and totally arrogant entitlement.
She must think highly of herself to think people actually want to talk to her. Or listen to false information that continuously flows from her mouth.
MMW used her Ward 2 news when she sat on the PARC.
To inform the Central group of the progress of the PARC. A few of the delegates went to the HDSB and were told it would be dealt with. It never was, and she continued using her powers as City Councillor to the last night.
Someone of influence needs to lead a major campaign to ensure MMW does NOT get re-elected.
The time has come for action not just constant complaining because without action nothing will change and the same problems, issues and response’s will continue from the Mayor and her office.
Let’s make sure she does not get re-elected next election.
At least 3 councillors are quite adept at using social media to promote themselves, wherever they are, doing everything from soup to nuts, to enhance their personal profile. Which leads to the incumbent advantage. The only hope anyone has of becoming known as a successful candidate might just hinge on using AI.
Well Jim is totally correct. The problem is that MMW has been manipulating ‘the system’ for years. Arguably, she was the first Councillor to recognize the tremendous force of social media and took to it – in all its forms – like Trump to Big Macs. Indeed, in 2014 (might have been 2018) when the then Clerk of the City, Angela Morgan, ruled that MMW could not use any of the City social media contact and mailing lists for the purposes of campaigning, the Ward 2 Councillor quite rightly responded that she wasn’t. She had developed extensive mailing lists and network contacts on her own, personal social media accounts. And she was perfectly free to use those – she owned them. She knows the difference and she is well aware, I believe, of what she is doing.
The last Clerk before this one did this all the time and even carried Bentivegna’ election propaganda. We objected profusely no change.
When it comes to his job responsibilities around MMW, Hurley is a feckless enforcer of the legal obligations of his position, and as a lawyer supposed to enforce procedural rules through the Clerk. Wonder why our third Clerk has just silently departed after only 1 1/2 years
He does what she tells him from my experience.
The Clerk alone is responsible for enforcement of the procedural rules.
The City Solicitor has no role to play other than to ensure that the Procedure Bylaw conforms to the Municipal Act. Why the Clerk is reporting to the Solicitor is one of the many unique features of governance in the City of Burlington.
Would this Solicitor role of ensuring the Procedure Bylaw conforms to the Municipal Act include ensuring that it is enforced as it is written?
No, the Clerk Roles and Duties of the clerk are defined in section 7 of the Procedure bylaw specifically
Section 7.1 (b) provide procedural advice to the Chair and to members on agenda business and on preparing motions;
Also Section 2.3 The Clerk will be responsible for interpreting the rules of procedure under this bylaw.
There is no role for the Solicitor defined in the procedure bylaw.
To me, what you are saying means that if the Clerk does not enforce, for example, the City Code of Good Governance procedure, under order of the Municipal Act, even when it is written as a “shall”, which means “must do”, the Clerk can still decide arbitrarily, with no notice, not to enforce it in their interpretation, with no transparency or repercussions?
And even if this Code of Governance procedure applies to the Integrity Commissioner, can the Clerk arbitrarily decide not to enforce it, and the Solicitor choose to ignore this highly legal enforcement matter, while the Solicitor chooses to ignore related acts of the Clerk that reports to him?
And even if the Clerk reports to the City Solicitor, who has some legal oversight and responsibility as you say in Burlington, are you saying the Solicitor still has no role in enforcement or control of the Clerk, despite having the Clerk report to you, and is involved in some legal matters.?
This implies this chain of command is corrupt, having no transparency and accountability. Does this also imply that the Municipal Act Code of Good Governance, Code of Conduct, and the Integrity Commissioner and other functions , are also similarly corruptible?
I couldn’t agree more Jim!
I have thought this myself for a long time.
Business and Personal should be totally seperate accounts for all media including her LinkedIn account, and one account should not connect with the other.
I’m surprised that this was not addressed with her years ago.
Thank you for pointing this out and bringing it to everyone’s attention.