(Photo: Dawn Gallagher Murphy concentrates on breakfast)

No Excuses

When I was an MP in the UK a lifetime ago I used to participate in at least three or four election debates in every General Election campaign. 

I didn't make excuses, inventing reasons for not turning up.

It was my clear duty to be there. 

If truth be told, I enjoyed the cut and thrust.

Deplorable

So I find it totally deplorable that, once again, the shameless fraud Dawn Gallagher Murphy was a no-show at this week’s election debate hosted by Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora.

People are right to feel outraged.

Gallagher Murphy told the organisers she had other commitments and couldn’t attend. If that was indeed the case, she should have cleared her diary to give priority to the election debate.

This, of course, is all part of a well established pattern. In May 2022 she declined to attend the election debate put on by the Chamber of Commerce due to a “scheduling conflict”.

Phoney

These “scheduling conflicts” are completely bogus. 

Gallagher Murphy is petrified at the thought of a wide-ranging debate with other clued-up candidates, taking questions as they come. 

How would this cowering hypocrite deal with the serious accusation that she bullied and harassed her staff?

Appetite

It wasn’t always like this. As Christine Elliott’s Office Manager she had an appetite for election debates.

The photo shows Gallagher Murphy tucking into bacon and eggs during the Federal Election Breakfast Debate at the St Andrew’s Golf Club in Aurora on 2 October 2019.

I was there loving every minute of it. 

The then Green candidate, the excellent Walter Bauer, holds the attention of his audience while explaining the significance of the Climate Stick – a prop he regularly used to great effect. 

I recall Gallagher Murphy being completely disengaged throughout.

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Note: Back then I knew the control-freak Gallagher Murphy from her work as gate-keeper to my then MPP Christine Elliott. It took me months to get an appointment with Elliott to discuss Ford's promise to allow convenience stores to sell alcohol. Gallagher Murphy told me to submit my questions in advance, in writing.