Marianne Meed Ward is a politician and journalist, currently elected as city councillor for Ward 2 in Burlington, Ontario
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A graduate of Carleton University, Meed Ward worked for Faith Today Magazine from 1989, becoming managing editor in 1996. She resigned her position in February 1999 following a 'change in direction' at the magazine.[1]
Thereafter Meed Ward was employed by the Toronto Sun as a columnist providing weekly columns on affairs in the '905' area of the Greater Toronto Area.[2] She stood down from the position to contest the election.
In 2007, Meed Ward ran as the Ontario Liberal Party candidate for Burlington, coming second by only 1824 votes, and receiving 37.81% of the vote.[3] After 2007 Meed Ward returned to journalism, before deciding to run for election municipally.
At the 2010 Municipal Election, Meed Ward defeated incumbent Peter Thoem by a large margin, pushing him into third place behind runner-up Dave Bedini.[4] Meed Ward ran a highly successful activist campaign in advance of the election, exploiting social media[5], creating the 'A Better Burlington'[6] and 'Save Our Waterfront'[7] websites, building extensive mailing lists of supporters, and raising her profile by publicly criticizing the council, especially with regard to downtown high-rise development.In particular she raised her profile by campaigning against changes to the city's official plan that enabled high-rise development along Old Lakeshore Road,[8] a campaign that led directly to the creation of the Burlington Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee.
Since her election, Meed Ward has continued to publicly question development projects in Ward 2, to call for more citizen consultation,[9] and has established a Ward 2 Advisory Committee.[10]
Meed Ward appears as a regular Wednesday panelist on the Michael Coren Show on multi-faith channel VisionTV as the resident left-leaning pundit.