By Staff
April 17th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan at one of the few Council meetings he attended in person.
Rory Nisan, the candidate for ward 3 in the October municipal election who was returned to office did not contribute any of his own money to his campaign (aside from buying signs).
He received 36 donations over $100. Only 16 of those donors reside in Ward 3. Of those 16, 10 are in rural area, only 6 reside in “urban” Ward 3.
Six live in ward 6 – 4 in Millcroft
Six live outside Burlington (including one erroneously listed as a Burlington address but which is in fact Toronto).
Four donors who donated to him in 2018 donated again in 2022 (one from outside Burlington).
One might ask if Nisan actually prioritizes his Ward 3 residents or is he spending more time and energy on those outside Ward 3? If so, why?
Rory Nisan retrieving a package from the back seat of his car at a house in ward 2 that he purchased in June of 2022, before he was re-elected in ward 3. Building permits were obtained in December of 2022.
We will watch with interest to see what he does or doesn’t do for Ward 3 this term. He does still live there, right?
The Chair of the Heritage Committee donated $300 (Rory sat on Heritage Committee last term but isn’t on it now).
Nick Leblovic, Committee of Adjustment member donated $$250 to the campaign. This is only relevant with respect to the Integrity Commission complaint regarding Leblovic which council now must consider. Will Nisan recuse himself due to this conflict?
Rory had a fundraising dinner on June 23, 2022, $250/ticket – 8 tickets sold. After expenses, this brought in just under $1000. Dinner touted a “special guest”. Anyone know who the special guest was?
Karl Wulf donated food and beverages the day after this event, at a cost of $748.46. He is the Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Millennial Advisory Committee and understood to be a local realtor. This amount may have been a portion of the $983.30 expense listed under “Food and Beverage” for the June 23 fundraiser.
Wow. The analysis of the campaign funding is interesting but the shocker here is the caption under the photograph. If Councillor Nisan moves into his new house in Ward 2 then that will leave Ward 3 without a resident Councillor. As important, I think, is the fact that he bought the house when the 2022 campaign had barely started and yet, to my knowledge, no public mention of his intent to move was made during the campaign. Although living outside the ward that one represents is not prohibited by the election rules, it is generally not seen as a positive thing.
By way of disclosure, I worked on the 2022 campaign of Jennifer Hounslow in Ward 3. Had there been any mention of Mr. Nisan’s intent to move out of the ward I’m quite sure we would have known about it – and made it an issue.