Formidable advocate for stronger cycling safety measures to be a candidate for the Liberal provincial nomination.

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 21st, 2013

The Burlington Provincial Liberal Association announced Tuesday evening that they will meet on January 30th and nominate Eleanor McMahon as the official candidate of the Ontario Liberal Party in the electoral district of Burlington.

An accomplished speaker with a sense of humour that serves her very well.

The notice is not clear as to whether Ms McMahon is being anointed in the same fashion as Jane McKenna was made the candidate for the Progressive Conservatives or if there is going to be a meeting at which other candidates can be nominated.

Ms McMahon is no stranger to Burlington.  She is a passionate advocate for cycling safety and lobbied very hard for the Greg’s Law after the tragic death of her husband in 2006.

The nomination meeting is to take place at 7:00 pm at the Central Library in Centennial Hall.

Eleanor McMahon is a communications and marketing professional with over 20 years experience in   senior corporate communications and marketing roles in the private, public and non-for profit sectors which includes a stint on Parliament Hill where she was Press Secretary to the Right Honorable Jean Chrétien.

McMahon practices what she preaches – she is a regular bike rider.

Her career includes serving as Director, Public Affairs, Petro-Canada; as Vice President Communications and Marketing at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Vice President Marketing and Communications at United Way Ottawa.

Ms. McMahon is currently Principle of her own communications and marketing consultancy – McMahon Communications. But her real passion is as Founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition.

Following the death of her husband, OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart — killed tragically in a cycling collision in June 2006 — Ms. McMahon has been working to engineer legislative change in Ontario and is leading the development of a provincial, grassroots cycling advocacy organization in Ontario — the Share the Road Cycling Coalition. In November 2008, Greg’s Law was tabled in the Ontario legislature as part of a larger Road Safety Bill, Bill 126 and it passed on April 22nd, 2009.

Ms. McMahon is a frequent speaker on active transportation, most recently at the 2008 National Bike Summit in Washington, hosted by the League of American Bicyclists, the 2008 National Bike Rally in Maine and the Toronto Bike Summit (2009). She continues to visit a number of jurisdictions in the United States and Europe to study best practices in cycling accommodations, law enforcement approaches, legislative, and education and awareness programs and is currently working on organizing the Ontario Bike Summit in Waterloo Ontario.

Eleanor McMahon took in the book review event earlier in the week at which newspaper journalist Susan Delacourt talked about Shopping for Votes, and was seen to be avidly taking notes.  Little did we know that a nomination announcement was to follow the next day

McMahon has an extensive circle of friends and associates and will prove to be a formidable candidate – providing she can move beyond the single issue that has dominated her life since 2006.  Expect every bicycle rider in Burlington to out promoting this candidate.

The provincial government is expected to call an election in late May of this year.  Should they prevail in the two by election scheduled for February 13th, that election will be a certainty – and will probably mean Eleanor McMahon will become the provincial member for Burlington.

Background links:

By-election will indicate how well McMahon might do in Burlington.

McMahon gets tips from political journalist.

 

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6 comments to Formidable advocate for stronger cycling safety measures to be a candidate for the Liberal provincial nomination.

  • Maggie Steiss

    To bad she is running for the Liberals. She sounds like she might make a decent MPP, depending on how she feels about other issues than cycling. How does she feel about the fact that between 2006-2012 over 700 children died in the care of Children’s Aid, all preventable deaths. Add to that the number of children neglected and abused in the care of this government funded but private corporation.

  • Jack Fernihough

    How can an article be written suggesting that any Liberal candidate is a shoe-in? Where has the writer been for the last decade? The Liberals have ruined Ontario. Eleanor sounds like a very nice person, but then so is Jane. Surely the NDP will also run a nice candidate. Can’t vote for her because she is nice. Can’t vote for the others because they are nice. I will NEVER vote for Eleanor because she is a Liberal. I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER vote Liberal again.

    • Pierre Gagne

      How about if Rick Craven ran for provincial Liberal party? There is a debate as to how nice he is, even though he is Liberal. Craven could be exactly what the provincial government needs right now.

      Can’t keep changing governments all the time; you just need some smart people in place, like Frank Klees who will be retiring and will be a loss to the system.

      Never say never; there is a lot of time between now and the election

      • Jack Fernihough

        Never, Never, Never vote Liberal again. Craven? NEVER, get it? If there was ever a time to change, now is it.

  • Pierre Gagne

    It may be better if she was to go for the federal seat when that time comes.

  • Shannon Gillies

    Eleanor McMahon does indeed sound like she will make a formidable candidate. Her husband’s death was a tragedy, and I genuinely applaud her efforts to improve cycling safety and infrastructure.

    I must, however, question the final line of this article. Burlington has not been represented by a Liberal at Queen’s Park since 1943. The McGuinty years were a governance disaster–a decade of gross mismanagement, reckless spending, blunders, and pandering to unions (and pretty much anyone else who had a pulse and a vote for sale).

    Now, Kathleen Wynne plans to run a campaign based, in large part, on adding new taxes to fund transit–increases that probably wouldn’t be necessary had McGuinty not squandered taxpayers’ money. It’s no secret that voters around here tend to vote against big spenders, especially when they’re confident they won’t see any bang for their buck. As qualified as Ms. McMahon obviously is, I’m curious why you feel that 2014, of all years, will be the one where Burlington breaks with tradition.