Well one thing is becoming clearer. It really doesn’t appear that Bernadette Clement wants to be a city councilor in Cornwall? She has attempted to run for upper political office or hope to become a judge each election.
Last night the local Liberal riding went through the charade of a nomination race with Ms Clement getting the nod on the first ballot.
There really wasn’t a credible political alternative (nothing personal Corey or Patricia) which highlights the malaise that has set into the party that once boasted Ed Lumley at the lead or even Bob Kilger.
Lumley was a political giant that was a cabinet minister with PM potential. Kilger was a party boy who had a good time and retired to two terms as mayor serving with Clement before Corruption and Cancer took him down and destroyed his legacy.
Lumley, Kilger, Clement? That’s a huge drop. Ms Clement’s political career echoes Guy Lauzon’s, our Harper MP, in that neither pose any real substance, but seem to always say very nice things if they like you and smile for the cameras.
Ms Clement’s biggest problem is that she doesn’t play well in the counties( a lot of racism in Eastern Ontario) and that her party’s local political machine is a hot mess compared to the local Conservatives and is led by a gentleman that is the riding association than spends more time in a local Facebook Hate group than stumping for his team.
There simply isn’t enough Francophone votes that support her in the riding to push her to victory.
In the last election Ms Clement’s strategy seemed to be to hide from Lauzon and smile a lot hoping for mystical change. She was soundly pounded and finished worse than Denis Sabourin who is now on her team and had been a key Kilger staffer.
This writer decided to pass on the event last night because frankly she’s acted very very weirdly towards myself from supporting the city’s boycott of this newspaper and what appears to be our 33 year old public art gallery of which I sit on the board. (She supported our funding be cut to zero including citing our governance as a reason to not give TAG the tiny bag of cash slotted for the failed Lift Off event even though the gallery board has cleaned up the historic mess that was its governance which she supported each year that she has been an elected official)
Politicians have to stand for something. Ed Lumley proved that, and generations later still speak of his stand for our community.
Ms Clement sadly seems more focused on currying favor with party bosses than constituents. 
It would be interesting to see how a strong dedicated Independent candidate would do in the riding being able to stand between two party hacks like Lauzon and Clement? Especially during a debate where they might have to actually answer a tough question or two?
Ms Clement has stated that she will be taking leave from Council and her job as a lawyer to focus on the campaign.
Of course after the Orange Crush of the last campaign we have seen that sometimes a party can get by with weak and useless mouthpiece for a candidate.
With Justin Trudeau wilting as we get close to election time it should be interesting to see if voters in this riding simply give Guy more pension time and stay out of Frances’ hair or if Ms Clement can mount any sort of offensive?
Or if how numbers are trending frustrated voters simply decide to vote Orange?
What do you think dear CFN viewers? You can post your comments below.
“Politicians have to stand for something”.
When a councilor has a record of silence, a history of attempting to fly under the radar and has been associated with dysfunctional self serving arrogant and completely disconnected individuals (at least with the community they are supposed to serve) then how are they anything but a sacrificial lamb?
Bernadette is bilingual, smiles large and has experience in responding to questions without really providing any answer of substance. So she is qualified to run for political office. The big question is…Does the local public and the few who will vote really buy what Ms. Clement is selling?
My opinion for what it may be worth….if you don’t shine on the small stage you are going to be invisible in a bigger arena. Good luck, bonne chance Ms. Clement perhaps only the unsophisticated and largely uniformed will vote this go around and your wish of climbing the political ladder will come true.
IMHO, she’s using the city council seat as a springboard to bigger political dreams. Will she get there? Only time will tell, but I don’t see it happening.
I read the article and I have to agree 100% and even more about the horrible racism in Eastern Ontario which is SD&G. SD&G is the most racist that I have ever experienced myself with my husband and children and haven’t experienced anywhere else. Ms. Clément is very intelligent (highly intelligent) and yes fully bilingual (a great asset and a real plus) but being a black lady would be a deterrent among the Canadian Deep South mentality of Cornwall and area. I am not a liberal at all and very conservative but I don’t go for this party at all and Lauzon is an idiot and MacDonnell is someone that I would rather see buried with his {MODERATED} and represents exactly as I described above and an idiot. I do wish Ms. Clément the best in her run even though I am not for her party. All the best to Ms. Clément.
Politicians have to stand for something?… About the only thing Lauzon ever stood for, was to take a pee, something that Clement dearly wishes she could do.
But stand or squat… it’s probably going to be on the electors.
Jules….if you think SD&G is racist you should try visiting some parts of Quebec and New Brunswick. It’s so bad I won’t return to those regions even to visit.
Lassie thank you for that….I thoroughly enjoyed the delivery of your perspective! What is funnier than reality?
Hugger I know very well about a lot of parts of Québec and even New Brunswick and I noticed at least a year ago on the net that in Moncton New Brunswick and other areas of that province they want to hire Acadian French only. There is a woman who used to work with my daughter left back home to Moncton and came back to Ottawa this year. She is French Canadian and she is a very good worker and my daughter was very surprised that she came back to Ottawa. I have seen signs in Moncton about being against English and according to the statistics that I have seen the French are the minority and I thought that it would be the other way around. In Québec many French people want to learn English but the province will not let them. When I worked in the Federal Government two francophone ladies from Québec worked with us and couldn’t speak English and they wanted to learn English and with English spoken in the unit they did everything to learn and it was something that they wanted to do and put an effort into it and when I left they were doing very well. Not all francophones are separatists. I worked with some Anglophone Québecois and wonderful people and that is the truth. I will never forget any of them and miss all of them very much.
Bernadette Clément is very intelligent and all politicians are “merely actors” and they promise you everything but they cannot fulfill what they promise. Bernadette can put Lauzon and MacDonell in her pocket because she surpasses them all with her keen intelligence and I hope that she makes it in the career of her choice. She is a smart cookie and has to be to be a lawyer – so much detail. I am no liberal but I am hoping that she wins.
I agree with Jules to a point. But would anyone really want to be a politician? With all the crap you have to put up with IMHO I’d say no.
Jules, Hugger1 intelligence is in abundant supply and waiting to be used by a lot of people. What has Bernadette Clement done for her community? What are her top three or even two or one contributions to the betterment of this community that she lead to fruition not merely tagged along with?
What is her stand on say the issue of the waterfront tanks? or Diane Shay and whistleblowers in general? How about Cornwall continuing to receive an exemption under the Green Energy Act to avoid undo hardship for an already financially challenged community that is saddled with arguably the highest municipal taxation rates in the country for cities under 50,000 residents. How about her stand on the stupidity of attempting to regulate a non issue like lawn watering? Really?, 20 years ago when people had nicer lawns it was possibly a minor concern. Now that most lawns are simply a variety of weeds how often do you really see people watering them? For one I wish that this councilor had chosen to champion something of substance rather than do nothing political posturing.
I want to vote for an individual that is driven to bring about change that will improve the lives of most not line the pockets of a few.
I have read something somewhere lately that “don’t vote for the party but vote for the person” and I have to agree with that. I told all of you that I am a conservative in the way I live and my beliefs. Harper is not a conservative at all and is much as a crook as the rest of them. I found my book that was written by a Lebanese/Canadian lawyer here in Ottawa that my husband hired and in the preface I had to have a good laugh but it menions “King Harper” and I sat down and roared with laughter. Vote for the individual and know who you are voting for. You know about her majesty queen Bernadette Clément and don’t vote for her party but you vote for her to represent you. All political parties are owned and controlled and this is the truth. People didn’t know the real Frosty the Showman and look at what happened. Frosty would make a great deal more money as an actor/comedian than anything else.
How about her stabbing the Art Gallery in the heart? Or simply not standing up for TAG when she herself has been a member? How about her role in the CFN boycott or some of the strange rumblings alleged to her regarding myself personally? Certainly leadership is not something that she clearly has demonstrated. Not sure being Guy Lauzon lite is something to be emulating…
“I want to vote for an individual that is driven to bring about change that will improve the lives of most not line the pockets of a few.”
Holy Jumpin’ David! Are you turning into a pinko socialist in your old age?
Furtz.. .I have lived my life choosing to believe that everything was possible. Since there are likely a huge number of pinko socialists already in heaven what is one more? If heaven is not your thing then it really doesn’t matter what you were. I think going out a pinko socialist would be considerably better than as an apathetic , no opinion piece of useless protoplasm. Cheers Furtz.
Happy Canada Day to all!
Mr. Oldham not one of the councellors nor Lauzon nor MacDonnell have really stood up for Cornwall at all. What I see are a bunch of followers and brown nosers who are there for what they want and I have said that before as well. About queen Bernadette she is the most intelligent of the flock and brown noses her way to the top. A lot of people are like that today believe me we see it all the time and not just in politics but everywhere. About weeds on lawns have you seen a lot of lawns here in Ottawa – they are utterly atrocious. I see some people tearing up their laws and putting in that turf that is grown for them to try and beautify the ugliness that they once had. Some people have not cut their grass in a long time and long weeds and grasses including on the boulevards. It isn’t just Cornwall unfortunately. There are people who shouldn’t own a house since they are not fit to own. I will say something that I have been saying like a broken record and that is that Carolyn Hébert is quite a brown noser and an opportunist and follows the likes of Elaine MacDonald and even follows queen Bernadette. Not once on council is there for the people but there for their own opportunistic self.
Mr. Oldham you said everything right to a T – completely on track and yes Bernadette has done nothing about the waterfront, chem tanks, Diane Shay and so much more. For Bernadette to give up her law practice to go and campaign then you see through her scheme and all the rest are the very same way. Not one are fit to lead but the only thing going for Bernadette is that she is the most intelligent of the lot. We are all stuck with corruption and very bad leadership. One day while walking in the Power Dam Park with a man from Cornwall (this is going back many years) and we spoke about the political leaders here in Ottawa and he said “you have to step into one little pile of s— but you just don’t know which one to step into” and this is so true. Every party is corrupt and none are there to represent you – they are there to represent the big corporations and that is the truth.
That’s funny David. All this time I thought you were a hard-line conservative.
Jamie you have been in Cornwall long enough to see how things function there where it is all a clique type of thing and brown nosing. If I were a councellor I would have voted for the art centre hands down and I love art very much. I see people doing art in the park where I walk during the summer and so many beautiful places to do art. The problem in Cornwall is that no matter who you put in as mayor and council it is the same backward, do nothing type of a governance. Queen Bernadette follows BOB who can open doors for her and all along she has been a yes woman and brown nosing at every chance she could get so as to further her career. Bernadette doesn’t give a rat’s behind about the people of Cornwall nor do the others and I mean that fully. Every single on one on council and as mayor are there for themselves and that is the truth. We all wanted BOB out by any means possible and you elected the lesser of two evils. They are all evil but they all have their different levels of evil and good at hiding it. Jamie you are the best in town and they know it and cannot compete with you at all in anything. When people are not educated and have been told and threatened to obey or else that is all they know and have never been able to think for themselves. This is the problem with Cornwall.
So, now we’re uneducated, have been told and threatened to obey or else and we can’t think for ourselves??? Pleassssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugger!….who told you to say that?
I think it was my evil twin.
The latest poll here does not bode well for Bernadette Clement .
And the wind can change in a moment. History bears that out, ask the Bloc.
Ms. Clement as a councilor and a lawyer has code of ethics (conduct) which she seems to be unaware of. She like half of the existing council had detail knowledge of wrong doing regarding more than one issue regarding Whistleblowers but remained silent. She was part of the unanimous adoption of the Judith Allen Report which clearly contravene court documents and Ministry documents.
Is this the type of person we want as a Liberal leader or even a councilor?
Take Care,
Diane Shay
She also attacked a 33 year old public art gallery. If she was David Murphy or Claude McIntosh it would be one thing, but can she ever show up and claim to support the arts after that?
Bernadette is a political welfare bum.., a wishy washy thing with no substance, fond of sitting on both sides of the fence on an issue no matter how trivial… prone to follow her sycophant nose to any crack or crevice that offers a political opportunity.
“Always kiss all four of your host or hostess’ cheeks: Flattery will get you everywhere.”
-The Social Climber’s Bible-
Simon….Ms. Clement seems able to represent herself wouldn’t it be nice if she represented some of the people who have voted for her? Maybe in a perfect world.
Admin….of course she can and quite possibly will if she determines that doing so would be in her best interests. You can almost hear the political back peddling as the remarks are prefaced with….to the best of my knowledge my remarks were taken out of context….I believe that………..
Yeah, maybe. it’s possible (unlikely) that Clement has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for her community…but that, even, is more than Lauzon has achieved in his reign as the PM’s lackey. I’ll be voting for Clement.
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