KeyBoard Warrior ... (perhaps my last political comment)

“During an interview in 1010 Newstalk Mayor Meed Ward explained what she thought was happening: I think people got used to being keyboard warriors.”

She may well be correct but the irony was and is that there is no bigger “keyboard warrior” than Meed Ward herself. And arguably, from the time that she first stepped into the horseshoe chamber as a councillor, she has used all the facilities and platforms available to her to promote her message. As Mayor of Burlington, she also has an almost limitless number of public appearance, speaking and photo-op opportunities where she can further distribute her chosen pieces of wisdom – and with the mantra of authority. She is not a ‘snowflake’ and she needs very little protection I would think. I believe that she knows how to handle herself and is quite savvy about any real threats to her person.

As both councillor and mayor, Meed Ward has revelled in the roles of persecuted underdog and populist champion. Frequently, they have gone hand in hand. She made a career out of being on the short-end of 6-1 votes at Council with all others, the “haters”, as they were commonly termed, lined up against her. It was always high drama. Then she rode a wave of voter disaffection into the Mayor’s Office with tales of third-party slander with implied ‘big money’ funding. Ironically, it is she (and a bevy of others) who are being sued for posted comments about the alleged perpetrator (with the City picking up her legal costs).

She talks about “elected respect” as though it is a right of the election process and has no finite limits. I believe that she confuses “respect” with “benefit of the doubt”; the former must be earned by demonstrated behaviours and deeds; the latter should be given freely until a more reasoned judgement can be made. And there are demonstrations, caught for posterity on City video, that provide a ‘living record’. I reference, in particular, the Mayor’s orchestration of the public pillaring of Shawna Stolte because of her breach of closed session confidentiality and, particularly, the mayor’s performance when she attempted ‘remote agenda management’ so that the Stolte apology to a staff member would be put into open session and subject to discussion. As telling and, I believe, highly offensive as these instances are, as examples of practiced strategy, they work. For example, has Stolte been a problem to the mayor since? Indeed, where has Stolte been.

Is Meed Ward an “evil genius”?  I don’t believe so – she doesn’t seem to have the intellectual capacity. However, I do think that almost everything that she does is calculated and, if there is any truly spontaneous action coming from her, it is informed inherently by her self-preoccupation. Indeed, has there been anything even remotely ‘spontaneous’ about her administration? The Procedural By-Law that prescribes how Council sessions will be conducted is heavy on protocol and intolerant of open expression. Those attending are reminded ‘ad nauseum’ that any expression of support or opposition for delegations is prohibited.  Then delegations themselves are carefully ‘orchestrated’ – no questions are permitted of Council or staff and one must not only stay ‘on topic’, one must introduce new information from previous delegations. “Just the facts ma’am” – and the facts as we see them please.

So, what is the fundamental difference between the Meed Ward of 2017/18n and the Meed Ward of today?  It is quite simply that she now has a record to either promote or defend. Personally, I don’t see a great deal of puffed chest hubris opportunities – ‘we said we would do this and we did it, we encountered that and we met the challenge etc., etc. This is all surely “spin” in part but even “spin” must be based on some degree of accomplishment. Is there any here? I don’t count value signalling things like rainbow or orange crosswalks, popular misinterpretations of historical contributions like the whole Ryerson fiasco, endless flag raisings and pier lightings, unnecessary capital improvements to City Hall and Civic Square, gifts to private marinas, depletion of capital reserves for questionable projects, abdication of governance and oversight responsibilities for Joseph Brant Hospital, unchallenged/undiscussed sole source IT contracts, directed third party consulting studies of downtown that still fail to protect its greatest assets, adoption and exercise of Strong Mayor Powers in the face of strong public disapproval, three successive budgets with property tax increases far in excess of inflation, empty engagement processes like COB surveys and the annual Food for Feedback event and on and on. Like Meed Ward herself, I believe that the City administration is form over substance, rhetoric over policy and backroom operation over transparent accountability.

But the real test will be one’s answer to the question - is Burlington a better place to live than it was seven years ago? This is the totally personal and subjective soul search that handed Donald Trump the presidency and, because not truly asked, allowed Doug Ford to walk back in to Office. It will be what either hangs or saves Meed Ward in 2026, assuming that she runs. And it’s too early to tell how most people really feel.