By Pepper Parr
September 23rd, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Update: We are advised that Jane Michael does have a campaign office on Brant Street.
Elizabeth Jane Michael
Where is Elizabeth Jane Michael? When will the public get to see her and hear what she has to say?
Michael is the Conservative candidate for the riding of Burlington. Her nomination was a squeaker. It was sort of done in private.
Then there were the serious concerns over some of her business failures that she chose not to report to the team that was vetting her as a candidate. The failures weren’t the issue, it was the failure to be honest and report them to the people who were looking her over as a candidate.
Public office is just that – PUBLIC.
Elections are public. Burlington has a strong tradition of holding public debates. The Chamber of Commerce has sponsored these debates in the past, the Canadian Federation of University Woman has also sponsored debates.
This year Burlington Green is sponsoring an all candidate debate – but Ms Michael will not be on the stage.
ECoB is filming short presentations from each of the candidates and has invited every candidate to take part. Ms Michael has taken a pass on that as well.
The big question is – why does Ms Michael not want to be an active participant in the debates?
As yet there isn’t a campaign office for the Conservatives in Burlington. There is a Facebook page and we assume that at some point there will be some campaign literature.
Burlington has a strong Liberal candidate in Karina Gould; being a member of Cabinet won’t hurt her chances of being re-elected.
The New Democrats have a new face in Lenaee Dupuis, who is said to be very good at the door when she is talking to people. Gareth Williams, who was not able to take ward 3 in the last municipal election is the candidate for the Greens; he will certainly put up a strong fight and should the country decide that they no longer like what the look of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his recent problems, may prove to be a strong choice.
Andrew Sheer doesn’t appear have the believability the public wants – but this election has only begun and one never knows what is going to come to the surface.
Burlingtonians would like to see the Conservative candidate come to the surface.
Related news stories:
Michael acclaimed as the federal Conservative candidate.
I really find it unacceptable for a candidate to refuse to attend debates in his or her community. Ms. Michael wants our vote but she won’t appear in person to tell us why? I had a problem with Green Party candidate Gareth Williams not attending his own nomination meeting, but at least he participated by video and answered questions. I used his answers to some of those questions to help form my opinion of whether to support him.
PC Leader Andrew Scheer and the PC candidates understandably complained about Trudeau not attending debates. Scheer recently said “By refusing to attend these debates, Justin Trudeau wants to force their cancellation, and rob Canadians of an opportunity to see him held to account. This is wrong and it shows a lack of leadership.” I presume Jane Michael, or Elizabeth Jane Michael, would agree with her party on this point. Why then does she think it’s appropriate for her to personally not attend the debate for her own voters, which every other candidate is attending? No candidate should be so cowardly as to refuse to attend a debate. We saw it in Burlington during the 2018 municipal election with some candidates, and here we go again.
That’s funny, I attended every debate during the Municipal election and did not notice any of the candidates not showing up
Editor’s note: Paul Sharman failed to take part in the ward 5 debate; Blair Lancaster failed to show up for the ward 6 debate but held her own elsewhere. Jack Dennison let deciding until the last minute but eventually did show up for that debate.
It’s rather rich for this Liberal publication to be castigating Jane Michael for not appearing at debates (For the record, she should!). But totally hypocritical of the Gazette for not criticizing their hero, Justin Trudeau, for ducking debates except for the Debate Commission debates where carefully chosen UNIFOR panelists will undoubtedly ensure that Justin is fully prepared.
The Gazette is correct. Jane Michael was sanctioned and disciplined by the Halton Catholic District School Board – this was all over the papers at the time, you can look it up. Problem being, it was in camera, so the issues, and outcome are not known.
Yes, they have an Office on Brant Street, Social Media feeds, you can hunt them down.
Stating the obvious, staying out of the limelight is a strategy – JT is told to use it by commander Jerry Butts. I’m guessing, that the main reason, is that JT is not that good on his feet, when it comes to answering questions. Check out JM’s social feeds and draw your own conclusions.
You cannot paint the local candidate with all of the things you have accused the party leadership of doing. Karina is a honest and hard working lady who deserves to keep her position.
She has supported local initiatives and represented our city with much integrity. We know who she is and what she stands for unlike the PC candidate who has an unknown past and is totally unwilling to engage or present herself publically.
As for the employment figures, iit is unlikely that Doug Ford the ‘”Cut,King” could be credited
with job creation.
We need an MP who is approachable and willing to engage with constituents not one who is already shirking debate and participation
When someone wants a job as MP – which apparently pays about $180 K per year now – they should be willing to demonstrate their suitability for that job, IMO.
With your logic ,Canadians should demand their money back from Trudeau
We could not be better represented than by our current MP Karina Gould. She has done a tremendous job in fighting for our democracy; helping to improve old age security for senior citizens, reducing child poverty , fighting climate change , reducing unemployment and increasing support for new immigrants to name just a few.
She is highly visible in our community participating in local events and putting a Federal face in her advocacy for Burlington.
She will be participating in the debates for her re-election and is an open and highly respected M.P.
Pepper, my understanding is that Jane was vetted twice by the local Conservative riding association –in 2016 and again in 2018 and I understand there were no issues. Can you be more specific or is this rumour/innuendo being spread in what is increasing a dirty campaign.
Editor’s note: The Tory’s did a pretty lousy job on the vetting end of things. Read Ray Rivers piece on Patrick Brown and see the part where he covers the nominations. But I think my good Tory friend that you already know this. This is not rumour or innuendos – but it is background that many would like to cover up. Wait until the fill story on the school board mess comes out.
Carol, I voted for Karina Gould in 2015 but she has been a total disappointment. She has done little other than be a Trudeau sycophant and as such she wears the Liberal record of broken election promises, corruption and ethics violations, and the very tarnished Trudeau brand. I’m a senior and I sure don’t see much in the way of improved senior’s benefits; in 2015, Trudeau promised to create a Seniors Price Index to index OAS & GIS–didn’t happen, just another broken promise. Unemployment has gone down but this has little to do with Liberal policy but just an age-old fact in Canada–when the US economy booms, we do well (as an aside, much of the job growth in the past 4 months has been in Ontario, must be Doug Ford?) As for visibility, I’ll give you that–Gould is an excellent retail politician, she may have set a record for most photo-ops by a politician; I will check with Guinness. But apart from the run-up to the election, Gould has been largely invisible in this community and does not deserve reelection.
Terrible article ,let’s show your Liberal colours by blasting a fellow candidate . We all know Karina is a friend of Gazette staff hence the one sided attack . Please try to be fair when reporting on all candidates.
Editor’s note: The Gazette has yet to write about any of the candidate – we reported on the decision one candidate appears to have decided not to participate in the debates.
Carol you forgot about her vote which would have enabled a child rapist and murderer to spend her time in a “healing lodge”? You also forgot to mention her support for the eviction of Jody Wilson Raybould and Jane Philpotts for bringing “the truth” to the Canadian people. What about the Norman case, the 11 MILLION of taxpayer dollars given to Loblaws a multi billion dollar company to buy new fridges? Karina Gould has NEVER voted against Trudeau and never will. Doesn’t represent the values of my Burlington.