Jane McKenna gets attention she may not have wanted in major media.

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

December 29th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Burlington’s MP, Jane McKenna, managed to get her name in the Globe and Mail on Friday. It was not a flattering mention.

The Globe was doing a piece on some of the messy nominations made for the provincial election last June.

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Jane McKenna.

There were concerns within Burlington that the McKenna nomination didn’t smell all that well but it was accepted by the provincial Tories and we thought that was the end of it all.

The Globe piece was taking a closer look at a number of other nominations with the headline: Questionable campaign tactics under Brown haunt Ford’s PC government. Reference was made to ridings in Richmond Hill, Newmarket, Ottawa, Hamilton and Burlington. The one in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas is currently under police investigation.

Snover Dhillon with Ford

Doug Ford with Snover Dhillon on the right.  Ford was not Premier at the time

The news story focused on Patrick Brown’s friend Snover Dhillon who was managing election campaigns for a number of people. Dhillion is a person with a colourful past that includes at least two criminal convictions.

The article includes mention of the questions surrounding Jane McKenna’s nomination. McKenna, is closely connected to Patrick Brown from working on his leadership campaign. Her getting the nod for the nomination was undoubtedly a ‘thank you’ for that loyalty.

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McKenna at a fund raising event.

As the first PC candidate to lose the Burlington seat in 71 years, few friends in the PC caucus and even fewer friends in the Burlington PC riding association where she is described as an “embarrassment” by more than one PC member, many were doubtful she would get the nomination for the June 2018 election.

McKenna contributed $5000 directly to Patrick Brown’s leadership campaign, significantly more than she has ever contributed to her own campaigns or riding association, according to Elections Ontario.

Ultimately the PCs under Brown decided not to investigate the allegations in Hamilton and Ottawa because they feared it would mean they’d then have to investigate Burlington and two other ridings. There was, according to the party lawyer, “no inherent difference between what was alleged in Hamilton and Ottawa, and what was alleged in Burlington and the other ridings.”

Mike Richmond, PC Party lawyer said at the time: “‘Also, there will be calls to redo Burlington and Richmond Hill and Newmarket. “If there was evidence of fraud at Hamilton and Ottawa, then why would we insist there couldn’t possibly have been any at those other meetings?'” – “The head of the riding association in Burlington had alleged that the meeting was “tainted” by numerous breaches of party rules, including allowing people who were not on the membership list to vote without proper identification.”, which is exactly what was alleged in Hamilton and Ottawa West-Nepean.

Ms. McKenna did not respond to e-mails from The Globe. She previously said Mr. Dhillon did not work on her nomination campaign.”

When Patrick Brown was ousted as PC Party leader Vic Fedeli was brought in as interim leader. He cancelled the nomination in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas but decided not to do anything which risked drawing attention to Burlington.

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Jane Michael, a former Chair of the Catholic school board lost the 2014 provincial Tory nomination to Jane McKenna. She was nominated as the Tory candidate in the next federal election. That nomination wasn’t squeaky clean either.

Jane Michael, the current candidate for the federal seat in Burlington, will run against Karina Gould, was expected to make more of a fuss over the McKenna nomination. A local political observer thought it was “reasonably ask whether Jane Michael would have made more of a fuss if it weren’t for the fact she wanted to pursue the federal nomination, and it’s only the fact the defeated candidate decided to let it go, unlike in Hamilton, that means there wasn’t a bigger controversy in Burlington.”

McKenna’s clout in Burlington became evident when former Mayor Rick Goldring brought in the McKenna campaign manager to take over from Dave Vandenberg. Goldring is said to have realized sometime in July that he was in trouble; the McKenna campaign manager was running the Goldring from that point on.

“It was the new campaign manager who, apparently who was behind ideas like the Waterdown annexation, which fits in with the expectation by PC party insiders that amalgamation is high on premier’s agenda.”

The Gazette sources have asked not to be identified. This is in reality a small town that knows how to hold a grudge.

 

Past news stories on the McKenna nomination:

McKenna gets the nod as Burlington candidate – wins by 41 votes

A closer look at that McKenna nomination

 

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4 comments to Jane McKenna gets attention she may not have wanted in major media.

  • Scott Peter

    Jane McKenna did nothing for Burlington during here last time as MPP. Being a Brown supporter will not help her gain any status in the present govenerment. If I am correct she is even sitting on the opposite side of the govenerment. yes it is due to space but also tells you what the Premier thinks of you. But I do not much care for the Premier either…

    • Hans

      I read recently that Jane McKenna had been promoted to Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Labour; if that’s true, then her status has improved and she has made some friends in the Ford regime (or Doug just wanted to increase her pay cheque to guarantee her loyalty).
      If it weren’t for the Wynne Factor, perhaps Burlington would have elected McMahon again.

  • d.duck

    “Dhillion is a person with a colourful past that includes at least two criminal convictions.”
    – why are individuals with criminal convictions allowed in politics or allowed to have anything to do with politics? We saw this with Trudeau and the criminal Jaspal Atwal.

    – I have to do a police check just to drive my high school child and her friends to a sports event and yet, we have politicians and associated power players with criminal convictions running our governments.

    “The head of the riding association in Burlington had alleged that the meeting was “tainted” by numerous breaches of party rules, including allowing people who were not on the membership list to vote without proper identification.”

    – And yet it was not looked into! This disenfranchised the Burlington riding association and made a mockery of the democratic process.

    • Hans

      Harper hired Bruce Carson, a convicted fraudster, as an advisor in the PMO! We expect better judgment from our leaders but it seems that they all have serious lapses.