Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Read this first. Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora should be congratulated for organising the Federal Election candidates Q&A at the Old Town Hall last night. And the candidates (who turned up) all deserve a hearty round of applause. There was a good crowd there. We are indebted to Newmarket Today for telling us why the Conservative candidate, Lois Brown, was absent. According to her Campaign Manager, Peter Seemann, she had “a long-standing commitment” which clashed.
When asked what that commitment was, Seemann said he couldn’t disclose the details, and added “it’s an event related to the campaign but it’s not a public event”.
What debate?
Last night’s “debate” at the Old Town Hall didn’t live up to its billing.
The atmosphere was hushed and overly respectful. The audience quiet and subdued. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
I found myself thinking: Come back Dorian Baxter!
It wasn’t a debate, it was a question and answer session with candidates sometimes reading their answers metronomically from scripts in front of them. Oh dear!
I know they can do better than that. But the format seemed to snuff out all spontaneity. Candidates weren’t invited to challenge each other. There were no rebuttals and few interactions. There were no sparks flying at any stage. Even when candidates made good points there was no applause to encourage them.
Subsidies are bad
The People’s Party of Canada candidate, Andrew McCaughtrie, is out of his depth. He has one string to his bow, ending subsidies. 
The Green candidate, Walter Bauer, comes prepared with his visual aid, a doomsday stick showing how all the parties’ commitments to tackle the climate emergency have failed and will fail, except, of course, the Greens.
He says it is not a choice between tackling climate change and employment. Oil and gas jobs are readily transferable to construction and other industries.
The NDP’s Yvonne Kelly appears fluent and relaxed, getting the first laugh of the night with a dig at companies and corporate responsibility towards the environment.
“I haven’t seen much evidence of that (pause)….. ever since I’ve been alive.”
The Liberal standard bearer, Tony Van Bynen, looks a bit red-faced and apprehensive to begin with but he soon chills out when he gets the measure of the event. The audience is respectful. Just the way he likes it.
Electoral reform
After questions to candidates from the Drawdown people things are opened up to the floor. Most are linked in some way to climate change but some other topics sneak in. The Greens and NDP are pushing for a change to the electoral system, arguing for PR. Van Bynen prefers the ranked ballot (which is not proportional).
(The Liberals have abandoned their 2015 election pledge to move away from first-past-the-post.)
Van Bynen also breaks ranks with the official Liberal line when he says he wants a ban on handguns.
There are questions on mental health, working with the Provinces, Canada’s indigenous peoples and arm sales to oppressive countries. There is another on the growth of populism worldwide. The Green’s Walter Bauer tells us we felt smug when the Americans voted in Donald Trump.
“So we voted in Ford.”
We chortle, quietly.
Now a question on addiction and opioids. It is 8pm and one hour into the event and Yvonne Kelly asks the moderator:
“Is it OK if I put my purse here.” (on the empty chair next to her)
“I guess Lois isn’t coming.”
This gets a laugh.
Stumped
All the candidates are stumped by a question about Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic once the ice melts and other countries want to use the North West Passage as an international waterway. A few fail to understand the question.
Now there is a clever question on climate change and the deficit. What’s the worst that can happen with both? As expected, the Greens come out fighting. Canada, with its relatively small population, is not responsible for most of the global heating now going on. But Walter Bauer tells us it’s not OK to pee in the pool.
I look around and see some famous faces suppressing smiles.
The Greens tell us we have 11 years left to do something before climate change accelerates and becomes irreversible. Van Bynen, the Voice for Fiscal Prudence and a gradualist by temperament and inclination, says that's impossible. It will take much longer.
Responsible debt
Now the Voice for Fiscal Prudence is telling us there are two kinds of deficits and we should have a balanced approach to debt. The old banker reminds us he once made a living doing this.
“Sometimes that (balanced approach) involves incurring responsible debt.”
Oh! I see.
Now we are gently cantering towards the close and the moderator, Penny Stevens, thanks us for our questions. She says she didn’t know what to expect from the audience beforehand. But in the event she didn’t have to deal with any heckling.
More’s the pity.
Update: And this is from Newmarket Today. Photo of Walter Bauer (above right) taken from Newmarket Today.
Updated on 28 September 2019 to include a reference to the Liberal Party abandoning its 2015 promise to get rid of first-past-the-post.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Julie Cochrane, who died last Thursday, was a key figure in saving Newmarket’s historic Main Street from developers. She was the founder and driving force behind the citizens’ group “The Heart of Newmarket” which successfully persuaded the Council to reject hugely controversial plans to redevelop the Clock Tower and demolish historic commercial buildings on Main. 
That she did all this (and more) while battling cancer was truly remarkable.
I recall the first time I met her, sitting on the porch of her beautiful Botsford Street home, on a warm summer evening in 2016. The dog was sprawled over my feet as if we were old friends. This was often the place where she discussed plans for saving the old downtown. She was always enthusiastic and fizzing with ideas – some more practical than others! I suggested it was not a good idea to march on the Deputy Mayor’s house.
I came away with a plate of butter tarts from the Maid’s Kitchen.
Julie was a great motivator and good at getting the best out of people, coming up with long lists of things to be done – and allocating tasks if required. With her laughing smile and hallmark optimism she had the knack of making things happen.
Julie was, of course, President of the Newmarket Group of Artists for many years and I saw her as a supremely creative person with great marketing flair – whether it was her design for the new Heart of Newmarket T shirts or her achingly funny campaign cartoons which were mini works-of-art in themselves.
Julie’s obituary in the Era newspaper paints a picture of a warm and engaging woman, surrounded by friends and family, who lived a fulfilling life but one that was cut short.
This Chinese proverb often featured at the bottom of her emails:
“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.”
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Former Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen has been given a deadline of 9 October 2019 to tell York Region if he has any objection to their releasing to me the letter in which he claimed a severance payment of $67,068.33.
Van Bynen had already received a severance payment of $95,671 from the Town of Newmarket. 
The 69 year old Van Bynen did not seek re-election in October 2018.
In a letter to the Regional Treasurer Van Bynen asked for the payment to be deferred until 2019. When I met him at Tim Hortons on 13 September 2019 I asked why he did this. Was it to escape public scrutiny? If the $67,068 had been paid in 2018 it would have been publicly reported in March 2019.
Tax planning purposes
Van Bynen told me he asked for the deferral “for tax planning purposes”.
The money was duly paid by the Region on 24 January 2019.
When asked by the press in June 2019 about his $95,671 severance payment from the Town of Newmarket he made no reference to the other one for $67,068 from York Region which had been paid into his bank account five months earlier.
My Freedom of Information Request to York Region asks for sight of the letter from Van Bynen claiming the severance payment and for any documents about this from the Regional Treasurer.
Deadline for objections
York Region has told me my request for the disclosure of the records “may affect the privacy interests of a third party” (ie Van Bynen).
The Region says:
“In accordance with the Act (the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act), a third party whose interests may be affected is being given the opportunity to make representations about the release of the records. They have been provided with 20 days to make such representations, with a deadline of October 9, 2019.”
A decision will be made by October 20 – the day before the Federal Election - on whether or not the record will be released. But if Van Bynen does not raise any objections it is likely I will get the decision before then.
Openness and transparency
I hope Van Bynen agrees to the release of his letter claiming the cash. After all, down through the years he has always said he believes in openness and transparency.
We know the facts in broad outline. What we don’t have is the letter itself.
The relevant sections of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act are found at s14 and s21.
Voters deserve facts
See also: Tony Van Bynen insists voters deserve the facts.