By Pepper Parr
August 28th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
We ran a piece on Burlington Conservative candidate Emily Brown that generated a lot of blow back from several of our readers.
Burlington Conservative candidate Emily Brown
As publisher I asked Ryan O’Dowd to send me a list of all the contacts he had with Ms Brown and her responses to his email and telephone calls.
That list is set out below:
On August 17th I received the contact information for Emily Brown. I received it at the same time I received Karina Gould’s contact information and I sent emails to both candidates on August 17th, 20 minutes apart from each other. Here is the email I sent Emily:
“Good morning, Emily,
Ryan O’Dowd with the Burlington Gazette here, I’m hoping we can meet for an interview sometime this week to discuss your platform and the key issues of the election.
I look forward to speaking with you, let me know the time and date that works best.
Thanks for your time,
Ryan”
On August 18th I followed up by phone. I called Emily Brown three times and did not receive an answer.
On August 19th I spoke to Emily Brown and she could not commit to a time period(I tried to arrange an interview that afternoon) but she asked for interview questions to be emailed to her and said she would provide her availability, she did not.
I sent her the following shortly after the phone call:
“Good morning, Emily,
Ryan here with the Burlington Gazette, we spoke on the phone this morning. I’m hoping I can drop by the office for a brief chat this afternoon if that works for you.
I look forward to speaking with you.
Thanks,
Ryan”
I called to follow up on August 24th, she answered on my second attempt.
Brown said she could not take an interview all week as they were discussing strategy at her office. I asked her about the following week and she made no firm commitment.
I said I would follow up with her next week and fully intend to but at this point we needed to begin covering Emily Brown so my publisher made the decision to go ahead with what we had.
We will talk to Emily Brown whenever she chooses to make herself available. Our belief is that informed people can make informed decisions; our role is to inform people.
As credentialed media we adhere to the view of the National Newsmedia Council that a strong democracy is possible when those who strive to lead are transparent and held accountable.
David. It appears that you have missed my point with respect to FPTP. It was Justin Trudeau, not I who promised that the 2015 election would be the last FPTP election (see you tube). Justin Trudeau subsequently broke that promise in quick order. For the record, I attended Karina Gould’s workshop on the subject during the short period of time that she was Minister of Democratic Reform. For the record I was also one of approximately 700 Canadians who took the time to submit a position paper to the Government of Canada to retain FPTP.
It appears you like to label or pigeon-hole people with whom you don’t agree. I can clearly go on record that in the past I have supported the election of the NDP in Ontario. I have also supported the Green Party and the election of Trudeau Sr. and the Chretien and Martin governments. I will continue to support any government or party that I believe has the best interests of Canadians in mind. At this time, I believe the Conservative Party has the most to offer Canadians.
No one wanted this election other than Justin Trudeau. No one wanted an election during a pandemic. And I believe Mr. Trudeau needs to be held to account for bad policy decisions,plus the 5 years of foot dragging on Afghanistan, foot dragging on clean drinking water, sueing the speaker, ethics violations and many more reasons, if you would care to remove the blinders.
Barker continues to double-down on his lack of understanding basic fiscal policy. In his last post, he denies his own comment, ‘ “Balancing the budget is not the same as reducing the deficit”???? What? You can’t balance the budget without reducing/eliminating the deficit.’ MISREPRESENTATION.” Barker fails to understand that a balanced budget occurs when government revenues are equal to government expenditures. He then goes on to compound his mistake by saying, ” To reduce the deficit a budget surplus is required. Got it now?” A surplus budget occurs when government revenues exceed expenditures–this is not a balanced budget. With such basic confusion on fiscal terminology, coupled with Trudeau’s famous “Budgets balance themselves”, it is any wonder that Canada is in a very serious fiscal crisis.
Then Barker engages in the classic Liberal move–deflects to another topic by bringing up the protest in Bolton and trying desperately to tie it to the Conservative party, a tactic which seems to have emanated from the Liberals quite quickly. Of course, one might wonder why Trudeau scheduled such a well-publicized event to discuss his wedge issue on vaccinations in a very safe Conservative riding (Dufferin-Caledon) which has only ever voted Conservative. Curious?And yes Barker was correct that four Conservative campaign volunteers were at the protest; however, he goes on to embellish the narrative by claiming they were pushing vaccine misinformation and expletives. No evidence that they did that although the majority of the crowd were anti-vaxxers.
But now that you’ve raised it, let’s explore the “vaccine wedge issue”. Trudeau’s efforts have revealed almost total hypocrisy on his part with respect to safety during the Covid pandemic. First, he was so concerned about safety, he called a vanity election during the 4th wave of highly contagious delta variant. Then he has shut down Dr.Tam’s daily briefings on this ongoing pandemic–some concern for Canadians’ safety. Then he claimed that all his candidates were fully vaccinated, we have since learned that’s not true. He has allowed Elections Canada to use unvaccinated people at polling booths. And lastly, on the same day as the protest, he appeared at a Mississauga Restaurant, ignored Ontario law on the number of people allowed in the restaurant and failed to socially distance. Some regard for safety? Vintage Trudeau–rules for thee but not for me.
Have I missed something on Emily Brown’s website regarding her experience? I have seen many people comment here on how she has “A LOT” of experience. Is this based on her age and that she has been an adult longer than Karina? What specific experience does she have that makes her a good candidtate to be our elected official?
This is serious question.
Greg don’t expect a serious response from the blinkered PCs here.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilysandfordbrown/
You might try her Linkedin profile.
She has a very impressive resume.
Much more informative than her website.
At least as much as any other first time candidate
Ask Karina where the 2 billion trees are that were promised during the last election campaign?
A friend who had the opportunity to speak to Emily Brown when she knocked on her door emailed me the following.
“To sum up, after reading Emily’s flyer: I am pretty good at summing up the essence/getting to the heart of the matter so feel free to forward/share with others if you wish.
1. If you plan on voting PC in Burlington, you can relax now, knowing that you have put your faith in a strong candidate.
2. If you are undecided, read Emily’s platform and contact her for information in areas of concern/interest to you. Emily will get back to you.
3. If you plan on voting other than PC, be aware that Emily is a very strong candidate.”
The gun loving kills it for me, not to mention the social conservatives the party seems to cater to. Someone directed me to her fb page. Reads like a bizarre ode to guns complete with weird posed photos. Expect the red hats to show up any day. How awful that we have zero good choices. I vote None of the Above!
Lynn wow!!! You do realize that the shooting is a sport? I’m guessing that you don’t watch the Olympics? Geez!
So legal sport-shooting offends you ?
I’m offended by many of her posts as are others considering she’s now deleted some of them, but ahh, screenshots. Can’t post them on here but they are going around twitter. The one where she flippantly jokes about those with drug addictions and says get them addicted to ammo instead is particularly odious. People are asking Sheridan College where she is a teacher how Sheridan families who have suffered from drug addiction and overdose feel about that. We wonder why someone from Alberta with little connection to Burlington is our candidate. Oh there’s plenty I’m offended by with this candidate. Burlington Gazette I hope you’ll look into all this despite her refusal to talk to you.
Yvonne/Mary Jenkins what do you include in “sport-shooting”? Targets? Animals?
In today’s violent society where there is no threat of foreign invasion, we all get our food from stored, there is absolutely no need for guns to be in the hands of private citizens (other than maybe farmers). My opinion. Yours is different which is ok.
Worst website ever…. https://emilybrown.ca/
Design firm needs to hire some high school kids and take some lessons in how to communicate
– inconsistent fonts
– hodgepodge of font colours
– no continuity of content. Goes from platform, to how to vote, to other Conservative MPs questioning MP Gould, back to platform, then to a video of the Conservative’s backing her (duh, I hope so…)
Terrible website.
The website should be your most important way to communicate. If you can’t get that right, what are you doing in the race?
Much better website than all the lies spewing from Karina Gould’s website
Then I hope you like guns, a LOT. I don’t and don’t support a candidate whose fb page reads like an ode to guns and the gun lobby. Who poses with guns like regular people pose with their kids? People should take a gander at her page. The social conservatives to which the party caters while pretending otherwise perhaps love her. Another reason I’d never support this party. Sure isn’t the Conservative party of old.
Why not switch the channel and ask Karina Gould why she and Trudeau broke promise after promise, starting day with this will be the last FTP election lie, had multiple ethical violations, sued the speaker, failed to get clean water to indigenous communities (for which Trudeau thanked Grassy Narrows indigenous protesters for their donation donation). Need I go on. But it gets worse. Calls an election only Trudeau wants.
If that isn’t enough, Trudeau and Co. ignored 5 years’ worth of pleas to get Afghan interpreters and their families out of Afghanistan. What the Afghan’s got instead was delay, red-tape, and instructions to wear red as they made their own way to Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.
https://globalnews.ca/video/5104987/thank-you-for-your-donation-trudeau-to-first-nation-protesters-at-liberal-fundraiser
Just on the Afghan evacuation thing, should the govt have short circuit edges the vetting process yo can be sure the PCs and their supporters, yeah probably you, would have been shouting blue murder that our security was being compromised. Further, the Canadian govt, like the Germans, British, Australians and of course the Americans were caught flat footed by the shocking capitulation of the Afghan govt. If you want to point a finger at who is responsible for the mess at MKIA point it at the cowardly Afghan govt.
If you are in favour of a proportional representation system for elections and scrapping first passed the post, why would you vote for the PC party which is dead set against a change?
David. It appears you like to label or pigeon-hole people with whom you don’t agree. You also seem to have missed my point with respect to FPTP. It was Justin Trudeau, not I who promised that the 2015 election would be the last FPTP election (see you tube). Justin Trudeau subsequently broke that promise in quick order. For the record, I attended Karina Gould’s workshop on the subject during the short period of time that she was Minister of Democratic Reform. Also for the record I was also one of approximately 700 Canadians who took the time to submit a position paper to retain FPTP.
I can clearly go on record that in the past I once supported the election of the NDP in Ontario. I have also supported the Green Party and the election of Trudeau Sr. and the Chretien and Martin governments. I will continue to support any government or party that I believe has the best interests of Canadians in mind. At this time, I believe the Conservative Party has the most to offer Canadians.
No one wanted this election other than Justin Trudeau. No one wanted an election during a pandemic. And I believe Mr. Trudeau needs to be held to account for bad policy decisions, plus the 5 years of foot dragging on Afghanistan, foot dragging on clean drinking water, suing the speaker, multiple ethics violations and more.
Shilling for Carina Gould is NOT in Burlington’s best interest. Emily Brown brings a LOT of experience, knowledge and dedication to the table, and Burlington would be well served by Ms. Brown. Your editorial standards seem to be biased and in a manner not consistent with the best interests of your readership. I can see why Emily doesn’t want to grant an interview, as it appears that no matter what she does or says, you will present a hack job. Shame!
The Liberal election intentions have been known for months….
Nothing Sneaky about it!
Emily Brown has to learn that politicians must be able to answer questions without time to fudge and edit their answers, this is not academia. It’s a tough job for tough people who still have compassion and good moral conduct. Karina Gould has this in spades…we are lucky to have her as our voice in Ottawa.
Well said
I often have a difference of opinion with the publisher and for that matter with a number of conservative commentators like Hersh & Wooster. So much so that I have had my posting privileges suspended on a few occasions. I would not necessarily disagree with those who commented on the original article that the piece was a bit of a hit job. Having said that, Emily Brown is following McKenna’s Provincial election playbook where she never took questions off the cuff from media or the public. If you do not speak, you will not say something you might later regret.
Should the Gazette have written the same article about Gould those same outraged PC loving readers/commentators would have been cheering from the rooftops as to the integrity of the publisher.
Just a note on the political bias of the Gazette from my perspective. Sure Tom Muir would appear to be very much a Liberal. But the Publisher ? That’s funny. The Publisher is always on the attack at our liberal mayor; as are those same silly commentators on the original Brown article.
Wooster
To an earlier Gazette article about the PPC you commented:-
:I want political leadership that I can trust and will provide competent economic and fiscal performance”.
I responded to you:-
“So, Wooster, which party in your estimation has a leader that meets your criteria of providing ‘political leadership that I can trust and will provide competent economic and fiscal performance’?
In light of the shameful, deceptive “invoice” fundraising letter sent out in Ontario by the not so spic & span PC party, I assume it is a non-starter for you?”
Not surprisingly, just like Ms Brown, you ignored the pointed questions asked of you.
Come on Wooster, be brave and answer the questions just like you say you would want Gould to do.
Hmmmm goose and gander comes to mind.
Barker, your rant is predictable from a Liberal ideologue. My concerns about this article have to do with the failure of the writer to actually interview Emily Brown before writing the article. Now the writer and Pepper have explained that they have tried to arrange an interview with Emily Brown, without success, fair enough. But I have also indicated to them that perhaps they should cut Emily some slack; she was nominated shortly before the election was called and has had a great deal of organization and hard work to do to bring the campaign up to speed–thankfully, she has been very successful doing this. Should she do an interview–YES, she should and I think she will–she certainly owes it to the voters in Burlington.
So far, Erin O’Toole’s platform provides a roadmap back to fiscal sanity. We are in such a deep deficit position that it will take a measured and gradual approach to eliminating the deficit in 10 years. The heavy lifting will be done through economic growth. The PBO earlier this year forecast that under the Liberals, deficits would exist for 50 more years–is this acceptable. Already the Liberal debt bomb has created growing interest payments–payments that will soon outstrip current health transfers to the provinces, faster if interest rates rise to combat government-induced inflation. Is this acceptable.
BTW, nice try at trying to muddy the water by tying Doug Ford’s clumsy fundraising misstep to the federal party–but it’s what I would expect for a Liberal.
Wooster! “Rant”, really? Do you know the meaning of the word. I guess you do not. So here you go:-
Cambridge English Dictionary
to speak, write or shout in a loud, uncontrolled, or angry way, often saying confused or silly things. (Sounds a bit like you LOL)
Merriam-Webster
to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner. (Yeah, really does sound like you LOL)
None of those adjectives can possibly describe my comments to you on this topic.
(in a calm, considered, quiet voice) Ms Brown has the big blue PC machine behind her. She is not in person organizing the campaign. She has staff and volunteers doing that for her. Her focus is, or should be, on meeting constituents, explaining policy positions (local and national) and answering questions on the fly. Sure all politicians ignore the question asked of them and pivot to parrot off from their pre-written script. But Brown is not even doing that (à la McKenna).
Erin O’Toole has made promises about balancing the budget in 10 years. He has not detailed how he will achieve that. He has three options. 1. Cut social program spending. 2 increase government revenue through higher taxes. 3 a combination of 1 & 2.
Balancing the budget is not the same as reducing the deficit. You complain about the enormous deficit, and yes it is enormous. But it has not been incurred to underwrite silly ideological programs. It has been incurred to fund programs to support those Canadians severely affected by the shutdowns ordered to fight COVID.
Governments all over the world (USA, UK, EU’s 27 countries, Australia etc) and all Canadian Provincial governments, including Ontario’s PC govt at the head of the line, have all incurred massive deficits to protect their citizens. You make the incurred deficit sound like it is something unique to Canada. It is not. To balance the budget during the continuing pandemic will require not just cutting back on that support, but taking it away completely. Being fixated on a balanced budget as if we are back in normal times is reflective of the PCs uncaring dogma. Even Kenney had to bend and provide social support.
When the time is right (that’s when we are truly past the pandemic) that is the time to end the support COVID programs and balance the budget and to reduce the deficit. We are still in the pandemic.
Barker, so glad you included definitions of the word, “rant”. If the shoe fits, wear it. And you even included a myopic self-denial.
Thanks for letting me know that Ms. Brown had no work to do–the Big Blue Machine did everything for her. Of course, your simplistic view ignores several key elements–that she is in fact meeting constituents in her door-to-door campaign and answering questions as she does so. And it ignores the fact that she has had to work very hard in that endeavour given the fact that Gould has been in campaign mode for several months.
Sadly, with respect to the deficit, you were unable to comprehend the Conservative approach to gradual deficit reduction. It does not mean necessarily higher taxes (although you are forgiven as a Liberal, I know you like to raise taxes) nor does it mean cutting social spending (again as a Liberal, you like to deflect to that fear tactic when attacking Conservatives; too bad O’Toole has actually advocated increasing such spending). My original statement was that achieving a budget balance can be achieved through economic growth (did you ignore this, or as a Liberal, fail to understand it?). As private-sector economic growth increases, tax revenues increase without raising the tax rates and at the same time, government expenditures tend to flatline as more people go back to work. As you may be aware, or have ignored, businesses are having a very hard time hiring people slowing our economic recovery as YOUR government pays them to stay home!!!!
“Balancing the budget is not the same as reducing the deficit”???? What? You can’t balance the budget without reducing/eliminating the deficit. You should send that line to Trudeau; he can add it to his other great fiscal insight, “The budget will balance itself”.
I love how you try to deflect to governments the world over also incurring massive deficits. but Canada’s record of borrowing during 2020 was the worst of 35 high income countries at 19.9% of GDP–worse even that the USA at 18.7%, Great Britain 16.5%, almost double that of Australia 10.1%.
You misleading refer to the Conservatives balancing the budget during the pandemic. Now that would be true if you expect the pandemic to last until 2032–but the Conservatives in their economic platform, have set out a ten year program to balance the budget. No cuts to social programs have been contemplated, but clearly, even the Liberals will have to wind down some of the pandemic assistance as the recovery picks up steam. In the short run, the Conservatives will provide support to the economy and to individuals but the focus will be on increasing employment during the recovery as it should be. Jobs are the best form of income assistance!
Very sad, Barker, that you have chosen to misrepresent my comments and the Conservative recovery plan, but then misinformation and fear are the currency of the party you support.
‘ “Balancing the budget is not the same as reducing the deficit”???? What? You can’t balance the budget without reducing/eliminating the deficit.’ MISREPRESENTATION
I did not say “You can’t balance the budget without reducing/eliminating the deficit.”
Balancing the budget in itself does not reduce the deficit. Balance implies income equals expenditure. To reduce the deficit a budget surplus is required. Got it now?
‘I love how you try to deflect to governments the world over also incurring massive deficits. but Canada’s record of borrowing during 2020 was the worst of 35 high income countries at 19.9% of GDP–worse even that the USA at 18.7%, Great Britain 16.5%, almost double that of Australia 10.1%.’
No deflection here. Just truthful facts. I note you ignored that both PC Ontario and Alberta have also incurred huge debt during this pandemic.
WOW a whopping 1% of GDP more that the USA & roughly 3% more than the UK demonstrating clearly the Canadian ideal of providing a social safety net in practice. Yes, Canada is a more socialist and kinder society than those other two and we are proud of it.
Sure economic growth hopefully will provide the ability to pay down the debt. But you kid yourself if you don’t think social program cuts will be in the PC plan. Not just stopping the COVID support programs, which need to come to an end, but there will be cuts to regular social programs too. Same song sheet as Ford in 2018. “No Cuts”. As soon as in power he introduced cuts to social programs. You are naïve or plain dumb to think differently.
‘In the short run, the Conservatives will provide support to the economy and to individuals…’ How long a time period is the short run? Does the PC party know when the pandemic will end. No, of course not. If the PC party wins the election it as government will have to continue the COVID support programs for the duration, will it not? Or are you saying as government the PCs will in short order shut down the support programs?
‘Very sad, Barker, that you have chosen to misrepresent my comments and the Conservative recovery plan, but then misinformation and fear are the currency of the party you support” I would just say “Ditto. Back at you” perhaps you have not seen the images and reports of the PC party volunteers pushing anti vaccination misinformation, conspiracy theories and shouting expletives at the PM and Liberal candidates. Perhaps you would expand upon your comment and set out instances of Liberal misinformation in this election campaign.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-conservative-candidate-raises-concern-about-climate-lockdown-otoole/
Yes, you, your misrepresentations, and your dogma are so sad
I truly enjoy reading the Wooster / Barker exchanges.
Keep on keeping on gentlemen.
Debate tip for Wooster: don’t use the Liberal “paintbrush”. The broad strokes undermine your position.
Emily was right not to speak to fake news like the Burlington Gazette. This rag has a long infamous history of not reporting; misleading readers; taking interview comments out of context; conflating different things together to suit an agenda; and pretending to be non-partisan and impartial. Nobody should be compelled to speak to anyone in a free country. And publicly gaslighting someone for refusing to be interviewed is just unethical.
Mr Zach,
The Burlington Gazette, and the people associated with it, are NOT fake news.
They are the only people holding our counsel to account. Everybody else soft-pedals. The Gazette holds a light to council.
That is the Council give them a hard time. Of which the city should be ashamed of. Having a PR person speak to a reporter is very disingenuous.
The sneaky Liberals call an election in a month with no warning, during covid. I suspect what comes out of Emily Browns mouth will be well thought out, transparent and the truth. Karina appears to be a nice person but I think she will be in over her head. Emily seems to be a little more street smart, has more life experiences and appears that she will drive the boat like a captain. Not let it float around going nowhere. Time for the Liberal train to pull over.
Well said Alfred
What you “had” is disgraceful. This is not journalism, it is an American style attack ad.
TheAug 26, 2021 article, on Emily Brown the Gazzette quoted …”Twitter exchanges, Brown claimed “she is the gun lobby” and unequivocally stated gun control does not impact criminals.
“I have been a sport shooter for over 47 years. I AM the gun lobby. I know how ineffective gun control, bans, more legislation will be. Stand down.” Brown tweeted in a dispute on November 13th, 2020.” I wonder what is the referrence to “STAND DOWN” ?
G Giroux
I have no use for Twitter, unlike many politicians who use platform for inflaming issues.
The use of ‘Stand down’, is not a Canadian ideal.
A huge majority of Canadians despise the attempted Americanization of Canadian politics.
Know your audience Brown.
Destined to lose.
Pepper and Ryan,
Thanks for the update. Try to remember that Emily was only nominated a few weeks before the election call and that she was spotting her opponent, Karina Gould, a big lead in organizing her office, planning the campaign, and in campaigning itself. The workload is likely enormous. So it might seem that she should just drop everything and talk to you but time is a precious commodity in a short campaign. That said, I hope she does find time to sit down with you and discuss the election.