Details

I didn’t have to wait 24 hours to get Tom Vegh’s response to my invitation to discuss the future of Newmarket Public Library in front of an audience of interested members of the public.

I learn he is too busy campaigning for re-election to his third term as our Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor to fit me into his busy schedule. 

Thank you for your email and for your interest in the future of the Newmarket Public Library. I agree that the library plays an important role in our community, and I believe it is important to look at how we can best meet the needs of Newmarket residents as our town continues to grow.As I noted in my questionnaire response, I believe a second library, be it a satellite or branch, should be a priority. Decisions about future library facilities, however, need to be considered in the context of the library board's strategic plan, our community's evolving needs, long-term planning and financial responsibilities.Thank you for the invitation. With the municipal election approaching, my campaign schedule is already committed and I'm unable to take on any additional public events before election day.I appreciate you reaching out and sharing your interest in this important community issue, and I wish you the best this Thanksgiving weekend.Tom

Tom Vegh told Newmarket Today that a new branch library was a priority of his for the coming term. (Right top: What Vegh said during the 2018 election. And below, what he should have said.)

We’ve been here before

As we know, in 2018 Vegh made an explicit commitment to build a new library and seniors’ centre. 

Vegh won that key election with two big unconditional promises – and eight years later neither has materialised.

When he spoke about the library back then he said the time for talking was over. But he didn’t tell the voters he wanted a new study or “needs assessment” to see whether a new library was really needed. There was no talk about a “needs assessment” or anything like that. His headline grabbing unconditional promise was totally dishonest.

It is impossible to know what drew people to vote for Vegh but common-sense tells us these dramatic, explicit pledges about a new library and seniors’ centre are likely to have shifted votes his way. 

Getting Elected: Promising the Earth. Delivering Dust. 

That election in 2018 was a three-way contest that included Chris Emanuel and Joan Stonehocker. It was an open election with no incumbent. Vegh believed he had to spend more – and promise more – to boost his chance of winning. On 30 September 2022 he told Newmarket Today:

“I was not an incumbent last time (2018), and it was a vacant seat. In this case, I’m the incumbent, so it’s a different type of campaign.” 

Why was the promise abandoned?

At last week’s “Meet and Greet” Vegh told me he ditched his promise for a new library 

“because the Board took a new library off their strategic plan”.

More than two and a half years after Vegh’s promise of a new library the Board decided in February 2022 it was going to focus on outreach. But it did not explicitly abandon the prospect of a new library at some stage. In July 2022 the Town's financial planning still explicitly provided for a 65,000 sq ft new library but pushed it out to 2028-30.

Newmarket Today reported in February 2022 that there was "no mention" of a new building and quoted Board member Darryl Gray:

“We didn’t go straight to the idea of a new library because we [have] a great library right now to continue to work on.”

And, earlier, Darryl Gray, told Newmarket Today:

“We may get to that point, where we decide as an organization and in partnership with the municipality, we need a new library, but we’re certainly not there.”

Flaccid

So what did Vegh do to press the case for a new library and seniors’ centre from his election as Deputy Mayor in October 2018 to February 2022 when the Library Board unveiled its new strategic plan? 

Nothing. His advocacy was flaccid to non-existent. 

His limp attempts to locate a new library and seniors' centre at the Hollingsworth arena site went nowhere. Why? Because no-one listens to Vegh. He is irrelevant. 

I recall sitting in on a Library Board meeting in May 2019 when the (then) Library Chief Executive Todd Kyle was updating Board members on the Town’s latest strategic priorities exercise and the implications for new or enhanced library facilities. 

At the time I posted this: 

"In the course of these exchanges no-one mentions Regional Councillor Tom Vegh or his proposed new library. This must be the ultimate insult. A Library Board choosing not to discuss a proposal for a new Library from the Town’s Deputy Mayor." 

Strategic Policy workshops

The Town ran a series of workshops early in 2019 to decide on its “strategic priorities” for the new Council term: 2018-2022. 

The first of these was on 29 January 2019. Others followed on 11 February 2022 and 26 March 2022.

On the first of these, on 29 January 2019, the newly elected councillors – steered by a professional moderator, Erik Lockhart - put forward their priorities for the new term and then started ranking them. The library and seniors’ centre appeared in the initial list but after ten minutes' discussion their ranking slipped and both dropped out of contention as a top priority.

At no point during this exercise did Tom Vegh make the case for a new library and seniors’ centre. 

The new Mayor, John Taylor, told members they were setting a blueprint. The agreed strategic priorities would guide the staff over the next four years.

Taylor wants a "needs assessment"

Taylor told councillors that even if the new library didn't make the cut as a top priority:

"I fully expect, regardless of where this lands, that the Library Board will advance a needs assessment on the library."

And Vegh agrees: 

"That was the comment I was going to make. For example, the Library Board have just over $200,000 already in their budget allocated for a needs assessment, and to look, after a needs assessment, at what locations and options are available in the town.

The library certainly works very closely with the Town, but you’re correct that, in discussions with the Town, they can go ahead and do this, frankly, without being on our priority list, if the Library Board feels it’s a priority.

They can act independently on it, then present that information, and then we as a council have to make decisions. But they’re certainly able to go on with that needs assessment."

Pocket Full of Mumbles

Vegh was given a platform to argue his case for a new library and seniors’ centre.

Instead, we got a pocket full of mumbles about a "needs assessment".

We are on the cusp of an election and, as always, we bow the knee before the will of the people.

But if Tom Vegh is returned as our Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor some things will stay the same.

Over the years, Vegh has been irrelevant when it comes to setting the direction of the Town of Newmarket and York Region.

And that won't change.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click "read more" for the Mayor's introduction to the strategic policies workshop on 29 January 2019. 

The clip below shows the library and seniors' centre not making the cut as "top priorities". The full video is here.

Details

Tom Vegh who is seeking a third term as Newmarket's Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor tells Newmarket Today that opening a second branch of Newmarket Public Library should be a priority in the next term of Council.

I've just written to Tom asking for a meeting to discuss his plans for the library. He says he's never refused a meeting request and he replies within 24 hours.

Good boy! That's what I like to hear.

I am really looking forward to an evening in conversation with Tom about something he feels so strongly about.

The Library has been a priority of his for many, many years.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

Details

I owe Ward 2 candidate Pamela McCarthy an apology. 

On 2 October 2026 I called on Pamela McCarthy to remove a photo on her election website showing her flanked by uniformed York Region police officers.

I declaim it is against the rules!

The Regional Solicitor says it is permitted.

Hmmmm. In many years in elected office in the UK I had always been brought up to believe that using police officers as stage props in election campaign materials was way out-of-bounds. It crossed a line.

Clearly, I was wrong.

There is nothing to stop any candidate campaigning on "safer streets", "crime" or "law and order" (or, indeed, anything else) to pose with a York Regional police officer and use the image on their election website, flyers and social media.

But it must be done in such a way that the photo does not suggest an "affiliation or endorsement".

That's the tricky bit.

I am left wondering if it is OK to put your arm around the shoulder of your smiling neighbourhood police officer (with their consent) while saying the police are underpaid for the work they do. 

Yeah... that's OK.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

Details

The former Conservative Solicitor General Bob Runciman says it’s time for the RCMP to come clean with Ontarians on their investigation into the Greenbelt scandal. 

In this morning's paper, he tells the Toronto Star’s excellent Robert Benzie:

“It’s unconscionable on their part not to make a public statement, give some sort of update with respect to where the investigation stands.” (Click “read more” below.)

Personally, I think it’s a disgrace.

People under suspicion can’t get on with their lives. After three years, memories fade.

Over the years I've blogged extensively on the Greenbelt scandal. From the word go, I was both intrigued and outraged that the developer Michael Rice had bought a huge slab of land in the Greenbelt at Bathurst and offered part of it to Southlake as the site of its second hospital.

Public Inquiry needed

In September 2023 I accused the Ford Government of being deeply corrupt and that a public inquiry was needed. That is still my view but, like everyone else, I wait to see what the RCMP comes up with.

I don’t know what’s causing the delay. It is impossible to find out how many officers the RCMP has assigned to the investigation. So I can’t compare the size of the Greenbelt investigation team with other comparable inquiries in the past.

Gas Plants

The closest parallel is the gas plants scandal which involved the destruction of Government records. That took two and a half years. It involved the investigation of possible criminal breach of trust involving the Premier’s Office.

The police are not a law unto themselves. 

Yes, they must investigate possible breaches of the criminal law and go where the evidence takes them. But, as Bob Runciman says, it is not in the public interest to have a long drawn-out investigation with, apparently, no end in sight.

This leisurely plodding, this lack of urgency is absolutely criminal.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click "read more" for the Star article.

Update on 11 October 2026. From Newmarket Today

Details

As the results from Quebec’s general election were coming in last night, the Globe and Mail’s Andrew Coyne remarked on Twitter: 

“28 per cent of the vote -- by far the lowest winning percentage in modern Canadian history. And yet they still came within a few seats of a majority. Not quite as insane a result as it might have been, but still pretty insane.”

The PQ will form a minority government which generally last about two years.

First Past the Post

Of course, false majorities happen all the time under our perverse First Past the Post system. In the Federal election in 2021 the winning Liberals obtained fewer votes (5,556,629 or 32.62%) than the Conservatives, the party they defeated (5,747,410 or 33.74%). This translated into 160 seats for the Liberals and 119 seats for the Conservatives.

The same upside down result happened in the 2019 election where the Liberals got 6,018,728 votes (33.12%) and the losing Conservatives got more votes (6,239,227 or 34.34%)

In the 2025 Federal Election with Mark Carney leading the Liberals the ship returned to an even keel with some kind of equilibrium. But, even if the distortions weren’t as dramatic, they were still there. It took many more votes to return a Conservative MP than a Liberal MP.

Grotesque mismatch

In the UK the grotesque mismatch between votes and seats in the House of Commons has become impossible to ignore. 

In the 2024 General Election, the Labour Party won 33.7% of the vote and was rewarded with 63% of the Commons seats. 

The new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, wants to see a commitment to electoral reform in the manifesto for the next General Election which must be held by 2029.

Dysfunctional

But it is not just the electoral system that is insane.

Our politics is dysfunctional on so many levels. Not just in Quebec or in Ottawa but here at home in Ontario.

The Globe and Mail editorial today laments the Ford Government’s secrecy and lack of transparency. (Click “read below”)

Take one example. Freedom of Information requests are becoming prohibitively expensive.

Our MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy told the legislative assembly in 2023 the Government was planning to consult on changing the law on Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Freedom of Information at a cost

The proposal has since stalled and when I filed FoIs with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development I was told it would cost me $1,320.

In the light of this, I said I wanted to reduce the scope of my FoI and asked for an index of the files the Department held on NDAs which would allow me to target my search more accurately and cut down the cost. I was told there was no index.

"Our office has consulted with the Ministry’s Strategic Policy Division, which has confirmed that no index of records exists identifying the titles and dates of all files created in relation to the Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) initiative. Consequently, locating and retrieving all records responsive to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request would require a substantial and comprehensive search."

Yesterday, I emailed my MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, asking for an appointment to talk to her about this issue.

As I am tapping this out, I hear a beep and an email comes winging in from her constituency assistant:

"Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP Newmarket-Aurora and share your concerns regarding NDAs.

I have addressed these concerns to the most appropriate Ministry for further review. I will get back to you as soon as I receive a response.

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions, concerns or suggestions."

At least I am in the system and that's a start.

Election Rituals

In the meantime we observe (some of) the rituals and go through the motions in our municipal elections here in Newmarket.

The fact that Doug Ford now appoints the Chair of York Regional Council – rather than have the Regional Councillors elect their own chair – hasn’t yet featured as a campaign issue. I doubt it ever will.

I gave evidence to a Committee at Queen's Park a decade ago when the former Liberal MP, Chris Ballard, was trying to get the Chair of York Region elected by the voters at large. That now seems a quaint and totally unrealistic proposition.

The structures are simply not in place to allow that kind of issue to surface and grab the attention of the voters. 

We are not going to see the candidates for Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor on a stage together, taking questions, explaining their policy positions and accounting for their record. 

The Quiet Man

In the same way, there is no comment on the fact that our Regional Councillor, Tom Vegh, who is now vying for a third term has never once authored and moved a single motion for debate at York Regional Council. And this is after eight years in the job.

A lot of people would just shrug their shoulders and say that’s just politics.

Personally, I think that's just insane.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  • You are here:  
  • Home