Maria McRae
| Maria McRae | |
|---|---|
| Ottawa City Councillor | |
|
In office 2003–2014 |
|
| Preceded by | Wendy Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Riley Brockington |
| Constituency | River Ward |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1966 Sudbury, Ontario |
| Spouse(s) | Paul |
Maria McRae (born c. 1966 in Sudbury, Ontario) is a lawyer and politician. She represented the River Ward on Ottawa City Council, covering some of the city's southern suburbs. Born in Sudbury, Ontario McRae has an undergraduate degree in biology and a law degree from the University of Western Ontario. She moved to Ottawa in 2000 working as a legal consultant and teaching at Algonquin College. In the 2003 Ottawa election ran to replace the departing Wendy Stewart. McRae, who was endorsed by Stewart, won a large victory against two opponents in the November 10 election. She was re-elected in 2010, but announced that she would not run again in 2014. On council, she was considered a centrist. She lives in the Hunt Club area with her husband, Paul.
She ran on a fiscally conservative platform opposing tax hikes and voted against a tax increase the first year, but faced with the significant budget shortfall she was forced to abandon this pledge. She also was criticized for paying Stewart $4000 in consulting fees.
On November 9, 2005, McRae did not vote in favour of a pesticide bylaw that was promoted by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). In the period leading up to the vote, McRae was implicated in email incident. It was the daughter of a woman retired federal intelligence analyst who discovered McRae's wrongdoing, when the daughter received an acknowledgement from Councillor Cullen on which the content of her pro-bylaw e-mail was changed to read the opposite. Allegedly, the daughter's predicament was not unique, as there were about 40 other e-mails that were similarly altered. Evidently, Maria McRae had been involved by having written an email whereby she impersonated Councillor Alex Cullen by placing his name on a pro-pesticide e-mail petition conducted by a pro-pesticide website, propertyrights.ca. Alex Cullen, who in fact supports a strong pesticide bylaw, replied to McRae stating: "I must tell you that I am doubly disappointed to learn that you, a council colleague, used my name to author a message you knew did not represent my position and then, when the matter became public more than three weeks ago, you did not acknowledge your role in this matter, neither to me nor to the public."
...
Wikipedia