By Pepper Parr
October 9th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Typical suburban lawn sign – what is that splash of yellow?
The personal touch has always been what made the difference.
Doesn’t matter which sector you are in – city hall, supermarket, garage – even politics – especially politics.
We usually think in terms of the service we get from the people we interact with.
A dedicated Gazette reader spotted this on First Street, Burlington, between Guelph Line and Beaver Street.
The property owner was buying the Liberal candidate – but not the Liberal leader.
There are conditions attached to this vote.
He sees the note attached to the election sign is priceless. Sort of a sentiment, we all like Karina but have problems with Justin.
Not offended, but the Editor seem to have missed the point. Nothing to do with PoliSci classes. No matter who selects the leader of each party, or who runs for office, if I vote for a Liberal in my riding and the Liberals win more seats, then the Liberal leader is PM. I would prefer to vote separately. I believe in my lifetime I there have been several high quality NDP leaders who would have been excellent Prime Ministers, perhaps better than the leaders of the other parties, but the NDP were not a viable party according to the electorate. I don’t disagree that the system works, but in my opinion all things can be improved.
Two changes in the Canadian political system could solve many of the issues mentioned here. First, Canadians should be able to vote for the candidate of their choice in their riding and the Prime Minister of their choice, separately and not necessarily from the same party. Secondly, once elected, each Member of Parliament should be allowed to vote on each issue based on what the constituants the Member represents want. Presently, if a Member votes against the Party choice, he/she is tossed from the party. These will never happen, but it would likely result in better representation for the voters.
Editor’s note: At the risk of offending the commentator – someone missed a couple of PoliSci classes. We have a system of political parties that nominate candidates at the local level. Anyone can join any political party and take part. You can form a political party if you wish. The elected members of the political party choose who they want to lead them. Party discipline is used to keep every on the same path. On some issues a member of a political party can vote anyway they wish – on confidence issues members must vote the party line.
It has worked this way for centuries – works rather well for the most part,
Politics aside, as others have noted in their comments – Karina Gould is a good person. While I’m not a Liberal, Burlington can be proud of having a decent person represent them. If you look into the Conservative Candidate’s past – you can’t use ‘decent’ to describe her. It seems she has only done harm to people in Burlington. Multiple restaurant bankruptcies since the 90’s – suppliers and workers, would have been left unpaid each time – with at least 5 documented restaurant closures, and her own personal bankruptcy, a vanished home day-care – how many Burlington people have been harmed by Jane Michael? Her HCDSB days was wracked with controversy. Her home day care operation of 7 years ended abruptly last year. Strange, no mention is made of the day-care business – there are screen shots cached on the web by the way. She was sanctioned for violating the HCDSB Code of Ethics. The back story is all over media if you research. Jane Michael says she is a proud resident of Burlington for 30 years – could be true, but I believe there was a gap? How could you be proud of a record like that? The Liberal Party and mainstream media are being blamed for not vetting Trudeau in 2015. Remember, that PC Patrick Brown got burned with her forgetfulness on her PC application -what else did she forget? Maybe the Conservative Party and local media could have taken a better look at Jane Michael. As Roger is hearing from longtime Burlington conservatives, I’m also hearing that many cannot support Jane Michael and/or Andrew Scheer. I think the lawn sign, the article is based on great suggestion for those disgruntled with the candidate or Party leader. I think voting for the decent person, ethical, super educated, remember that Karina is just starting out, and with a 50-50 chance of being the Burlington’s MP, a Minister of note, maybe a fast track up the ladder – make you own choice. Also, worth thinking, JT could be on his way out after the smoke settles on the value of his antics. Betting on a seat-warming Conservative back bencher, with baggage that won’t die down, doesn’t cut it.
Karina Gould is probably a very nice person but in my opinion voting for her is still a vote for Trudeau. She will, after all, have to tow the party line as she has shown herself so willing to do in the past. Karina Gould will compliantly follow the supposed “glitter” of Trudeau into the awful sinister reality of Gerald Butts’ views for the future.
This “party” should be over because this is not the Liberal Party that I know or want; I don’t recognize it anymore.
I do not want Trudeau to have four more years to create even more division amongst Canadians. Nor do I want to give him the opportunity to damage Canada’s international reputation even further.
I do not believe that we are a “bunch people who just happen to live in some place” (paraphrase) and that apparently we are to believe that “Nationhood” is a dirty word.
I’ve no wish to be part of an experiment.
I am not OK with the UN’s Agenda 2030 and we have Gerald Butts leading the charge towards that nightmare with Trudeau as the poster child.
I want my country back, I want Canadians to be proud to be Canadians and not cynically pitted one against another under a supposed “elite”.
It occurs to me that “none of the above” is a sorry democratic option. When we have to make a choice on who is the lesser of evils it’s time for a pan Canadian head shake. Very sad that one has to hold their nose to vote.
Chris. You are entitled to your point of view and to express it too. You are not entitled to pass judgement on those who determine to vote Liberal and call for them to be shamed. If you love Canada how can you be so vitriolic in your condemnation . Your words are very un-Canadian. I guess I would be able to pick you out walking down the street, because you would be the only one with a glowing golden halo, having never made a mistake or hurt anyone. Trudeau has made mistakes, many of them, but he has owned them. The same cannot be said for the lying homophobic, chauvenistic leader of the Conservatives. You say you are going to vote. If you vote Conservative you should maybe apply your own judgement to yourself. If you vote for either the NDP or the Greens, whose platforms, in my view, are impractical and more than the country can afford, you need to seek help (kidding).
You are a complete hypocrit–on the one hand you say “you are not entitled to pass judgement on those who determine to vote Liberal” and then you say “if you vote for either the NDP or the Greens…you need to seek help”.
Trudeau has owned his mistakes?????? Give me a break—he has lied directly to Canadians, he has covered-up the Lavalin Scandal. When confronted with the Ethics Commissioner’s report into Lavalin, he said, “he accepted the report into his ethics violation but didn’t agree with it”. He accepted no responsibility for the shameful way Mark Norman was treated and likely would have railroaded him except he ran headlong into Marie Henein. Perhaps you are like Trudeau–“you just experience things differently”.
Karina is a good person however did not live up to her potential – she remained painfully silent on a number of significant issues – she failed to provide a Burlington voice to Ottawa – I and many others will not support Jane Michael as the Conservative candidate – she is just a taking head – one challenges if she can be anymore then a seat warmer – a no show at most of the debates – it is the lesser of 2 evils or option 3 park the vote to the GREENS or NDP – one thinks the Conservative vote here much like me will park the vote.
Im Canadian and I live in Canada; both of which I cherish….I don’t wish to be anything else. I will vote for the person that will make me proud of Canada and of being Canadian.
This house has always had a Conservative sign in past elections – so this is actually a sign from a loyal Conservative voter who wants to support Karina this time. Wonder what the reasons are to turn them against Conservatives. Maybe all that Burlington Conservative Candidate baggage we keep hearing about.
Yes June, I’ve heard concerns from other usual Conservative supporters that may be indicated by the sign switch you point out in your comment. Could it be fear of a double-barrelled rollback the clock on progress era by an Ontario PC and Federal Conservative alignment in this province?
We usually favour Liberals provincially and Conservatives federally (and vice versa) at the same time in Ontario. Call it hedging our bets or just hard to figure, but it is sort of a long-standing tradition here.
Of course I also hear of concerns with the Liberals from usual supporters, but generally they are looking to Green or NDP rather than Conservative options. Likely a bridge too far to cross to go Conservative.
As a voter who is not aligned with any party, I await the result on October 21st with admittedly much trepidation.
WHY doesn’t the Conservative candidate have her education listed on INSIDE Halton? I just read a shocking group of comments on REDDIT.com I find this very upsetting and everyone should read these articles before they vote.
I just read Reddit for both Michael and Gould. A social news platform with plenty of negatives about BOTH candidates. Not sure it added anything to my knowledge base—party platforms and leadership/integrity are bigger issues for me.
Anyone with a Red sign on their lawn is showing support for a lying, racist, bully. Vote for anyone else IF you love Canada. How can you support someone who doesn’t live up to the standards that they claim to live by? Blackface on multiple occasions, His own ethic’s commissioner said he was guilty in the SNC scandal, The groping in Kokanee. “he remembers it differently”…what will he do to embarrass the country next? We should all be united in taking out the trash. Real Liberals should be leaving him behind. Shame on Katrina Gould and anyone else supporting Justin Trudeau. I’m voting on Friday…not for the Liberals, that is certain.
Penny, Penny, Penny ?! (as Sheldon would say).✊
None of the leaders is necessarily the best person to carry out the job. Their respective parties believe their personas are the best to attract votes. Two very different things.
My view on those that critize is if you are not willing to get involved to make change you really don’t have the right to critize. The first step is to be sure to cast a vote. If you do not vote you definitely have no right to complain. In some European countries it is mandatory that every eligible person cast a vote. Canada should go that route, with an option to register a vote for “a plague on all your houses”.
Penny, the government, and by that I assume you mean the Liberal party presently, does not manage the information collected through the voting process. I believe that falls to a combination of Statistics Canada and Elections Canada, both of which are arm’s length Government of Canada corporations, independent of party political influence.
Karina is an excellent MP…perhaps you should check out her Conservative opponent’s background before voting for her.
Karina has worked hard on so many issues for the voters of Burlington…she has made herself visible and available and that in itself speaks volumes.
Once a Conservative always a conservative…even without knowing why is just irresponsible and we all know how that turned out in this province….Ford the fumbler on every front!
Don. As an FYI I was a life long Conservative party voter until 2015. Harper mirrored Thatcher in the UK. Great at the start but mean and vindictive at the end to those who disagreed with him. Scheer is a reincarnation of Harper and a doppleganger of Ford.
Can someone tell me how to post a”reply” to a specific comment. I cannot figure it out
Yes, I can. Move your cursor to & select the Reply of the specific text you wish to comment on. Then scroll down to Leave a Reply directly below & enter your comment.
I am convinced none of the commentators here are stupid, so they must be naive or I’ll informed.
Of course a vote for Gould Is a vote for Trudeau; it goes without saying. Just like a vote for Michael is a vote for Scheer, Dupuis for Singh, and Williams for May. That is a reflection of our parliamentary party system. That system, which mirrors that of the UK, is one where you belong to a party and if elected you and your party gets funding based upon the aggregate number of party members elected. That being the case as an MPP you are beholden to the party and must support the party’s platform and policies. So there is the “whip system” in place. The Chief Whip and his lieutenants, are charged with ensuring (whipping) their party’s MP toe the line. On rare occasions, in what is called a free vote, the party allows some or all its members to vote according to their conscience or to abstain. If there was a matter that specifically affected only Burlington, the party might allow Gould to vote as to her conscience against the party or to abstain.
Both Philpott and Raybould determined they could no longer toe the party line and support the leader so they resigned from the party. As an aside as said her previously, Trudeau should not have interfered or pressured Raybould. He should have very much earlier simply replaced her as AG as he is entitled to do).
So if you want someone in parliament who thinks first and foremost about the interests of Burlington, you need to vote for an “independent”. Good luck with that having a successful outcome.
The party system is a reflection of the situation faced by all in our everyday working lives. If you do not follow the manager’s direction or the company’s policies you will be fired, if you do not resign first. If you want to do whatever you want to do go and work for yourself. But hire an employee and you will expect that employee to follow your direction.
Don’t blame Karina. Don’t blame Trudeau. Blame the party system.
I was always told you vote the party not the candidate running in your area. It will be interesting to see how many people actually vote in this election. Unfortunately there is no mechanism in place in a Federal Election that allows people to “Decline to Vote” with the government having to keep track of the numbers. WHY? What are they afraid of finding out?
This needs to change.
I remember watching 60 Minutes when Trump was running against Hillary for the presidency and a group of citizens from middle America were asked questions on the race. The end result was “Is this the best America could come up with to be running for President of the United States?”
My questions is “Is this the best that Canadians could do with candidates running for Prime Minister”
What is the difference between Karina and Trudeau? Karina has voted with Trudeau every single time. She voted in favor of turfing JWR and Philpotts. She voted against taking action to return a convicted child rapist and murderer to prison as opposed to a healing lodge. They are two peas in a pod.
Unfortunately a vote FOR KARINA IS A VOTE FOR JUSTIN.
We all make mistakes, don’t we, right ?
Some mistakes we make are totally inconsequential. Others unfortunately do have negative ramifications.
An example of a mistake which is inconsequential is right here in this article. You end the article on the following note “we all like Karina but have problems with Justin”. You have absolutely no right to speak for us all. Sure state that as an opinion you hold. But don’t speak for me or for others. You made a mistake in doing that. A mistake which to be honest is inconsequential. But a mistake.
Trudeau has made many mistakes over not only the past 4 years but throughout his life, as we all have. Many of those mistakes, such as the brown/blackface episodes would for any non-public profile citizen be in my viewed as inconsequential. However, as PM, Trudeau has been held to a higher standard, and so he should, not just as respects his actions during his term as PM but also for actions in the long ago past. Soon we will be told about how he assaulted his nanny by throwing his baby rattle at her as an example infant.
Sure one can look at the SNC matter and critize him for his actions (in my view he should have replaced JWR a long time before he did; he should done so when it became clear she was not going to toe the party line. As PM he has the right to hire and fire all ministers at any time. His mistake was interfering rather than just replacing her).
But one thing we all teach our kids to do is to own up to a mistake and to apologize for the mistake.
Trudeau does just that. Maybe he has had to do it a bit too often. But he has done just that. He is not given enough credit for being honest and for taking responsibility in that way.
In my view his heart and thoughts are in the right place. The execution sometimes is not the best. But there is absolutely no doubt he does stand for all those principles that make this country CANADA; equality of and respect for race, creed, lifestyle etc., women’s choice as to abortion, refugee immigration, solving the Alberta oil to market problem in a consensus way etc.
Regrettably the same cannot be said of Scheer. He who lied on his resume, claiming to have been a licensed insurance broker. Then he compounded the lie on being found out by again lying in saying he had attained accreditation. He had not. In fact he had completed only 1 of 4 required courses.
He also hid his dual citizenship, all the while hypocritically calling out others for holding dual citizenship.
He says his government would not introduce legislation to roll back laws on abortion, but he is on record as saying he would allow his party’s MPs to bring forward a private member’s bill to do just that.
One of Boris Johnson’s constituents when this week asked how she felt about Boris called him “a slimey, smarmy toerag”.
Sneer meets that description perfectly.
Scheer never says sorry. Never apologises! So Trumpian ! He is slimey!
He did not apologise for padding risk resume.
His response to the dual citizenship matter was “well no one ever asked me”. Not “ yeah you’re right I should have declared it. And I should not have attached others as I did”.
Karina is standing as a Liberal. Liberals are led by Justin Trudeau. So de facto she supports Justin Trudeau. To think casting a vote for Karina is not casting a vote for Trudeau is naive.
I urge all to ignore the mud that has been thrown by both Liberals an Conservatives and vote on policy platforms. Oh yeah, right, Conservatives still have not published their full platform!
I WILL BE VOTING LIBERAL – for both Gould and Trudeau.
I am proud to vote for a party that embraces all of the principles; principles that define Canada and make this country the envy of the world !
Putting Trudeau’s violation of conflict of interest laws (twice actually) on the scales of justice equally as Sheer holding a dual Canadian/ US citizenship (while criticizing others who did) seems disproportionate. We all have different world views, for reasons not always 100% logical. You’re clearly a liberal and our votes on October 21st will clearly cancel one another.
Totally agree. Justin is a liability. If the Liberals lose it will be down to him.
Karina for Prime Minister!
Pepper is right–we all like Karina–she is friendly and personable; she plays this to the hilt as she is an excellent retail politician. In the past 4 months, she has had more photo-ops than Mr. Selfie himself and has done a good job creating the illusion she is there for Burlington. Unfortunately, when you examine her record, Karina is a total Trudeau sycophant. For four years, she has done little more than parrot Liberal talking points. While I understand the sentiments illustrated by this election sign, the reality for this voter is that you are voting for Justin Trudeau.
What is really unfortunate about today’s political landscape, is the local candidate doesn’t seem to have the power or will to stop the nonsense that takes place in the back rooms. A vote for Karina is a vote of Justin Trudeau, plain and simple. If you followed Karina in the house of commons, she towed the party line. We have no idea whether it was due to survival or if she really believed in what she was saying. I offered both her and Eleanor McMahon before her, my personal thoughts on this. We all know what happened to Eleanor. Few candidates have what it takes to take a real stand, as did Jody Wilson Raybould and Jane Philpott, two people I would vote for.
Joe, your last sentence is so very true! JWR and Jane Philpott were two of the ablest cabinet ministers in government, despite the sleazy Liberal strategy of trying to denigrate their character to undermine their credibility. Both women–highly educated and from professional backgrounds, were new to politics and likely too Trudeau at his word in the 2015 election that he was going to do politics differently. It is also true that reality quickly caught up to them–Trudeau is intellectually vacuous, an actor who pretended to be a feminist, and bereft of any sense of ethics. I doubt they had any respect for him. What I will always remember is that these two strong, capable women were willing to take a courageous stand that put integrity ahead of politics. Contrast that with Karina Gould whose record shows–particularly when she shamelessly voted to expel these women from the Liberal caucus, that Gould puts politics ahead of integrity!
Well-stated Joe!
Karina is a dutiful little hand puppet/retail politician who obediently tows the party line and comes to heel on command by her boss. The Liberals, despite their much vaunted support for diversity, really don’t believe in it when it comes to diversity of opinion. Justin cracks the whip and everyone falls into line on everything from abortion to the pipeline, gun control, or any number of issues. The only federal Liberal caucus member besides Philpott and Wilson Raybould with any guts is Nathaniel Erskine-Smith from Beaches-East York who has repeatedly not voted the party line. Unfortunately, the poor fellow is destined to spend his days gracing the backbenches until Justin eventually jettisons him from the caucus.
We have too many candidates running across all political parties who are essentially oppportunists. They didn’t come up through the ranks of their respective political parties. Some never even worked on an election campaign before. They don’t articulate community needs and interests, and in many cases, they’ve lived in their constituency for such a short time they have no grass-roots identification with the community or its residents. They don’t even have a strong understanding of their parties’ beliefs and values because they only recently took out membership before their nomination. More often than not they’ve been parachuted into ridings or anointed by HQ in Ottawa, and they get elected on their leader’s coat-tails rather than by virtue of their character, knowledge or professional background.
Sometimes, you get what you pay for….or what you vote for.