By Pepper Parr

March 20, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON.

The Burlington Liberals have their candidate chosen and she has been doing regular Saturday door to door canvases the past three weekends.

The Burlington Provincial NDP will be hosting a nomination meeting Tuesday, March 25th at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre (2285 New St.) at 7:15pm.

The sitting provincial MPP, Jane McKenna’s association has not announced a date on which they are going to re-nominate their candidate.

When McKenna goes to the polls it will not be with the same organization that did her peek-a-boo campaign in 2011. There have been consistent rumblings of dis-satisfaction at the local riding level with the MPP. However her star has risen with the party at Queen’s Park where she is said to be a favourite of Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak. Other than a small stream of photo ops, Burlington hasn’t seen or heard all that much from McKenna.

The New democrats maintain: “It’s clear that in the next election Ontarians will have a choice between an entitled Liberal party that has betrayed the public trust, a Progressive Conservative party that lacks leadership and vision and a team of dedicated New Democrats who have already delivered tangible results in a minority house.” said Ryan Perera, president of the Burlington NDP.

One candidate, Jan Mowbray, has put forth her name at this time; Jan brings a wealth of experience in public administration and volunteerism in Halton.

Mowbray, an experienced political operative, left the Liberal party “because there was no sign of change for the better. More and more scandals popping up in the news, lack of oversight – think Hydro. The vulnerable sectors of our community continue to be impacted by policies that don’t address real problems. McGuinty in 2008 promised to reduce poverty by 25% in 5 years – it was referred to as 25/5. There was hope in the social sector. Five years later we were at 30% poverty. What could we have done with $2.1 billion?!”

“I know the issues, I know the people with 25 years of experience working as a volunteer in the social sector. I have considerable legislative and electoral experience (2 terms on council; worked federal and provincial election campaigns); as my by-line states, I am committed to the community.” Said Mowbray

Mowbray was elected to the Milton town council in 2003 and then re-elected in 2006. She ran for the Regional seat that Milton has and lost to Colin Best in 2010.

Mowbray would seem to be a candidate for the Halton provincial but running against Ted Chudleigh is tantamount to suicide – Burlington was probably seen as a location where the New Democrats at least had a shot – not because the NDP is all that strong in Burlington but because Progressive Conservative McKenna is so weak.

While the Liberals have a strong candidate in Eleanor McMahon, Mowbray will dump all over her citing the McGuinty sins. Mowbray is a shoe in for the nomination – none of the usual NDP suspects appear to be up to the challenge. Burlington might see itself with three women running for the provincial seat.

Although only members in good standing with the party are welcome to vote, any and all are welcome to come meet the Burlington NDP executive and the next provincial candidate for the NDP in Burlington.

All inquiries are welcome at burlingtonndp@hotmail.com or by contacting the riding association president, Ryan Perera at 647-402-5874.