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Nominations close at 2pm this Friday (21 August) for the elections to Newmarket Council on 26 October 2026. 

As I tap this out, there will be elections in five of the seven wards and for the Deputy Mayor. It looks like Mayor John Taylor, Bob Kwapis (Ward 5) and Christina Bisanz (Ward 7) will all be acclaimed and will be returned unopposed.

Why is there so little interest in municipal elections?

Pitiful turnout

At the last election in 2022, when I ran unsuccessfully against the incumbent Deputy Mayor Tom Vegh, the turnout was a pitiful 24.8%. But we were no worse than many others in Ontario.

The municipalities with populations over 50,000 that had the lowest voter turnout are shown in the table (right).

Where are the Political Parties?

Political parties are forbidden by Statute to contest municipal elections in Ontario. The sole exception is Toronto and no-one, as yet, has fielded Party candidates to run there. Everyone stands as an independent.

Of course, candidates don’t leave their politics at the door when they run for election to their local council and because they all run as “independents” it is difficult for the voters to get a handle on where they are coming from. Party colours and Party labels give voters an easy way to place candidates on the ideological spectrum. 

Newmarket’s Mayor John Taylor ran for the Liberals in the 2003 Provincial Election in York North against the PC incumbent Julia Munro and lost by 3,463 votes. Ward 7 councillor Christina Bisanz ran for the Liberals in Newmarket Aurora in 2007 narrowing losing by 1,355 to the incumbent PC MPP, Frank Klees.  She ran again, unsuccessfully, in 2011.  Ward 3 councillor Jane Twinney ran for the Progressive Conservatives in the 2014 Provincial Election and Tom Vegh tried to get into Queen’s Park as a Progressive Conservative but wasn’t selected as the Party's candidate. On 5 December 2016 Vegh told residents in Ward 1 that he was ready for a bigger challenge.   (see graphic right)

Newmarket’s former Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, was forever droning on about being "steadfastly bi-partisan" but as soon as he retired he joined the Liberals and was selected from a shortlist of one and elected as the Liberal MP for Newmarket Aurora.

Institutional memory

At their best, Parties provide an institutional memory, recalling significant political events that most of us forget after a few weeks. They provide campaign finance and a ready-made band of volunteers to help in the campaign. (At their worst, they corruptly legitimise campaigns and elections that can be bought through signing up thousands of new Party members who are committed only to a particular candidate and not to the Party.) 

Fighting an election as an independent costs money and for many excellent aspiring candidates this can be a real disincentive. 

Election spending shouldn't be an Arms Race

In the 2022 Newmarket Election Tom Vegh spent $27,312 against my $7,292, a difference of $20,000 and approximately 3.75 times greater than my spend.

I took the view that running for election shouldn’t be an arms race and I did everything I could to minimise my spending – in retrospect a big mistake.

After the election I returned a surplus of $1,495 to the Town of Newmarket which was money I had raised for the campaign but did not spend.

Tough Call

As an “independent” taking on an incumbent can be a tough call. He or she (the incumbent) has name recognition and four years to build support in the community – backed by the Town Hall machine. The Deputy Mayor, for example, has an Executive and Community Relations Assistant who

“reviews and analyzes social media channels, as well as Committee reports and decisions and alerting the Deputy Mayor on operational or emerging issues, and initiating the action required to respond.”

The assistant’s duties are wide ranging and include:

“monitoring activities related to social media channels and recommends options to improve social media content, outreach to the community and businesses, as well as support design elements that best serves the purposes of various audiences.”

This is from the Job Description:

Non-incumbents running for election do so, almost by definition, from a standing start.

So, how do candidates break through and get their message across to the voters?

Election Debates should be a key part of every election

Personally, I believe election debates are the great equaliser and they can break though into the public’s consciousness when reported by the local media.

In 2003, for example, when John Taylor ran against the PC incumbent, Julia Munro, the ERA newspaper reported that Taylor had put in a strong debate performance and this had narrowed the gap between the two in a Conservative leaning riding.

So, debates do matter.

Unfortunately, in 2022, neither the local Chamber of Commerce here in Newmarket nor the local media organised a debate for the contested Deputy Mayor position. For me, this was incredibly frustrating. You have no idea how much time and effort I put into trying to get a debate.

Three Choices

I gave Vegh three choices of dates with an offer that he could also select the debate moderator but he simply wasn’t interested. So I organised my own. The last thing he wanted to do was defend his disgraceful practice of taking money from developers to fund his election campaigns.

Over the years, I’ve stood in many elections in the UK and there has always been a candidates’ debate. Indeed, in my many years as an MP at Westminster, I used to do three or four across the constituency during each campaign.

Here in Newmarket the whole experience of running for election without a debate left me feeling profoundly dissatisfied. It was an election where, for me at least, there was still unfinished business.

I shall be blogging on these and other themes as the election campaign gets under way.

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Will the real Dawn Gallagher Murphy stand up? 

In her latest newsletter which arrived by email at 1pm today Dawn Gallagher Murphy says she had

"the pleasure of participating in Newmarket/Aurora’s Emancipation Day celebrations, commemorating the legal abolition of slavery in Canada and across the British Empire. It was great to connect with the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association (NACCA) and the Aurora Black Caucus, two important organizations advancing racial equity and inclusion in our community."

Early last year, former members of her own staff called her out as a racist, alleging she referred to a Black History Month event as “woke bullshit”.

On 18 February 2025 Newmarket Today quoted a former employee:

“Ultimately, it was hard to go home and reconcile racist comments with my own personal beliefs. It was deeply upsetting.”

Newmarket Today reported:

"Allegations against Gallagher Murphy first surfaced in December (2024), when former constituency manager Teena Bogner filed a complaint at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, alleging Gallagher Murphy unfairly fired her after she raised concerns to PC Caucus Services about alleged harassment. That case was settled before the election campaign began, but a group of employees then came forward and hired a PR firm to share their own negative experiences working with Gallagher Murphy.

Those allegations include verbal abuse, calling and demanding work at unreasonable hours, lashing out, name-calling, not tolerating mistakes and reprimanding clothing choices in front of other employees."

Teena Bogner subsequently withdrew her complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board and settled with Gallagher Murphy before the hearing.

The details of the settlement have not been disclosed by either party.

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(Above: Library Board Chair, Darryl Gray, Library CEO Tracy Munusami and Vice Chair Cllr Kelly Broome at the Board meeting on 15 April 2026. Also shown Cllr Victor Woodhouse and Cllr Trevor Morrison.)

Tomorrow (Wednesday 17 June 2026) Newmarket Library Board will have another chance to talk about the staff deputation on 15 April 2026 on safety and security at the library. For me, it was quite dramatic hearing staff speak out powerfully and cogently on issues and concerns that had been swept under the carpet by the Library CEO, Tracy Munusami. 

There is a short report on the agenda from Ms Munusami which tells us there’s really nothing to worry about. Sure, some people with mental health and behavioural issues can cause problems requiring a staff response but, take it from her, everything is under control. We are told that libraries across the country are facing the same sort of challenges.

Whoa… Not so fast!

The staff made very specific and detailed observations – documented by Newmarket Today and available here (Click “Read More” below). 

We learn staff are left in the library while management regularly go AWOL and are nowhere to be seen. Curiously, this happens most often on Thursdays and Saturdays. 

Personally, on a salary of $182,000, I think the CEO should spend more time in the building and less at home with her feet up.

Sulphurous

The atmosphere in the Library can be sulphurous. Library staff are not happy – as evidenced by the “engagement survey” quoted by the staff deputation to the Board. Staff have concerns about trust and senior leadership. They believe they are not listened to.

Plainly, they feel intimidated by the Chief Executive with her trademark death stare. Indeed, the staff made a point of asking to meet with the Board without management present. Staff felt “censored”, ignored and kept in the dark by the CEO.

As it happens, the Library Chair did meet staff to talk about their concerns. But my spies tell me Tracy Munusami was there, perched on Darryl’s shoulder, listening, watching and remembering everything. 

At the 15 April meeting, Board member Beth Stevenson raised the issue of security in the library, asking if a security firm was involved in any way. 

The Chief Executive said security had been addressed in a 2022 report (which was after her appointment as CEO in August 2021)

“and so we have that reference”

Beth Stevenson thought the 2022 report could be relevant but it doesn’t even rate a mention in the CEO’s Safety, Security and Risk Mitigation report which is tabled “for information” tomorrow.

“Incidences of concern”

In her report Ms Munusami says they were 14 “incidences of concern” reported in the two years 2024 and 2025. Lower down on the same page the number is given as 12. How is it possible to make such a sloppy mistake?

I know that Ms Munusami is cavalier when it comes to library statistics but still… I am left wondering where these numbers come from and how and why they differ from the numbers reported by staff.

(Update: Newmarket Today's reporting on the 17 June meeting says: Newmarket Library CEO says incidents of concern "very low" disputing staff tally.)

The salary of the Library’s Chief Executive is determined with reference to nine other libraries, deemed comparable. In at least two of these comparable library systems – Barrie and Vaughan – security personnel have a part to play. 

There are no security people at Newmarket Library.

In her report, the Chief Executive says she has taken 

“several proactive steps to strengthen the approach to safety and risk management”

including

“increased management presence”.

This is directly contradicted by staff who jot down which managers are present in the building at any given point.

She says management remains:

“actively involved in supporting staff and ensuring consistent decision-making in most major incidents”.

What is a major incident? Where are the definitions? Why are management staff not there and involved in all of them?

Terrified

We are told management promotes

“kindness, empathy and professionalism in all interactions”

But I get the distinct impression that staff are terrified of the CEO who, despite all the hype, casts a very long shadow across the Library.

That said, I am surprised she terrifies people. Since my deputation to the Board on library statistics on 17 December 2025 I have been sitting in on subsequent meetings. I had to do this to find out what was going on as Board meetings are not streamed (they should be). If you’re not there, and rely on the minutes for illumination, you won’t have a clue what’s happening. You are seriously in the dark. 

The CEO says next to nothing in Board meetings with monosyllabic responses being par for the course. I have rarely come across someone in such a senior position who says so little – in such a hesitant and whispery voice – and is so guarded. 

She has been notably silent on the work that is being done on Library metrics which is being led by Neila Poscente.

That topic is also on tomorrow’s agenda.

Inaccurate

Newmarket Public Library’s Reports to the Community – posted on the website - continue to this day to contain inaccurate statistics. I doubt they will ever be corrected. 

The Province doesn’t check – or do any kind of audit – on the figures submitted by libraries as part of the Annual Survey of Public Libraries (ASPL). (But in January this year, following my own deputation to the Board on library statistics, the Province did change the official definition of “active library cardholder” to address the confusion in the library world that I highlighted.)

In March I filed a Freedom of Information request with the Province requesting records relating to the last six occasions when a public library in Ontario sought to change its submission to the ASPL after it had been submitted. 

“Please include records where the Ministry has requested an explanation from the library where one was not provided initially and the library’s response.”

The answer tells me Newmarket can file whatever figures it wants and the Province is never going to check for accuracy. It’s all about self-reporting and trust. A bit like filing your taxes. Only, unlike the Ministry, the CRA is lurking, ready to pounce.

Change agent

Seems to me Newmarket Council bends over backwards to be kind to Ms Munusami. I think they like to see her as a powerful change agent. Someone who can ruffle a few feathers and shake up the old ways of doing things. 

But she has been in the job for almost five years now and has, in reality, very little to show for it – except a fresh coat of paint for the library, loyal employees forced out and an unhappy and alienated staff. 

But what about the (endlessly hyped) outreach initiative? 

Nah! This is all about bulking up the membership numbers, whether the new recruits use the library or not.

That says it all.

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Update from Newmarket Today on 20 July 2026: Newmarket Library Workers reach tentative deal after information picket.

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Background: Newmarket’s library board meets tomorrow Wednesday when they will look again at library statistics. They say they want to “measure what matters”. 

The previous CEO, Todd Kyle, warned us over a decade ago that that the library was no longer fit for purpose and a new building was needed. I agree. Unfortunately, a new library is not even an aspiration for the Board. It wants to squeeze as much as it can out of the existing inadequate Park Avenue building.

The recent rebrand “Anywhere and Everything” focusses on outreach, going out into the community, targeting schools to sign up new “active” members. But what exactly is an “active” member?

Key Definition Changed

The Province has just changed a key definition used by libraries across Ontario to report their membership numbers – or “active cardholders”. Libraries must file this figure with the Province by 30 April 2026 for inclusion in the Annual Survey of Public Libraries (ASPL), a statistical series going back years. 

Errors and revisions were often left uncorrected in the ASPL even though the series is relied on by the public and regarded - mistakenly - as authoritative.

The Ministry’s old definition of “active cardholder” lacked clarity and was open to different interpretations. Previously, we were told “active” cardholders were:

“cardholders who have used their library card in the past two years” 

Many libraries across Ontario, relying on common English usage and the plain meaning of words, counted library members who had actually used their card to access library services.

But in a January 2026 revision the Province told us an “active” cardholder would, in future, be a library member who has:

“used, activated, or renewed their library card in the past two years”

This means the Province now wants a bald headcount rather than a figure showing the number of people who use their card to access library services beyond mere activation. 

Interpretation

At the turn of the year, I filed Freedom of Information requests with over 30 Ontario libraries asking how they interpreted the then definition of “active cardholder”. I asked for any documents, memos or guidance to staff explaining how active cardholders were identified and counted. (Click “read more” below)

A handful of libraries, such as St Thomas, equated “active cardholders” with library members with an unexpired library card. 

Others, such as Quinte West Public Library in Trenton, took a very different approach: 

“This (active cardholder) metric is used to measure the actual usage of the library by registered patrons, rather than just the number of people who hold an unexpired card. 

This provincial definition is a standardized metric used across Ontario to ensure consistent and comparable data for library statistics.”

It is common ground throughout the library world that the definition didn’t capture everything that libraries offered. Guelph Public Library put it this way: 

“We acknowledge for contextual understanding that members of the public may interact with the library without using a library card (for example, by using public access computers, attending programs, or using library space as warming or cooling centres). 

These interactions are not included in the Active Cardholder count as they fall outside the Ministry’s definition.”

Whatever its other merits, the Annual Survey’s old definition did not ensure consistent and comparable data across Ontario’s libraries. 

Newmarket’s membership up 26%

The number of “active cardholders” is often used by libraries as a key metric to show their local communities how well they are doing.

So, it comes as no surprise that Newmarket Library’s latest “Report to the Community” breathlessly tells us that in 2025:

“library membership grew by an impressive 26%”

bringing the total number of members to 28,005 – the highest year end figure since the series of on-line records began in 2014.

Over the past two years membership has soared by an eye-watering 47.7%

They do this by defining an “active” member as someone with an unexpired library card – whether they use the card to access any Library services or not. 

Why is this important? 

Newmarket library’s priority is to bulk up its membership. When new members are signed up through outreach their membership card is automatically activated, there and then, before they have a chance to use it.

The Library does not track these new members to see if they ever use their library card. The CEO says there are privacy considerations. But legislation specifically allows for this information, aggregated and anonymized, to be collected for statistical purposes.

Figures reported to the Library Board on 19 November 2025 show that in the July-September quarter of that year, over 23% of new members were signed up through outreach. 

There are now plans to increase spending on outreach. At the Library Board meeting on 18 March a working group was set up to examine ways of bolstering outreach work perhaps, as suggested by Vice Chair Kelly Broome, by acquiring a “bus, vehicle or trailer”. 

Metrics Working Group 

Last December, the Library Board responded to concerns about the range and quality of statistics coming out of the library by setting up a “metrics working group” chaired by Neila Poscente (formerly CEO of the Southlake Foundation). It will: 

“explore and evaluate alternative methods of reporting library statistics and to incorporate these considerations into the next strategic planning process.”

The Working Group plans to report by the end of June this year with its findings being used to inform the library’s new strategic plan. The Board says it will look at practice across eight Ontario libraries (Vaughan is one) that are currently used as comparators when deciding the CEO’s salary which, last year, was $182,307.

Clarity

The Province’s old definition lacked clarity with even professional librarians interpreting it in myriad ways. As a result, comparing libraries on their performance, reach and outcomes was next to impossible.

Our next-door neighbour, Aurora Public Library, has one branch like us but serves a smaller population. In 2024 (the last year for which figures are available) 38.5% of Aurora’s population were “active cardholders” compared with Newmarket’s 24.2%. Newmarket’s percentage for 2025 will be going up to 30.5% or thereabouts. (We don’t know the Town’s latest population figure.)

Headcounts only take us so far. More importantly, we need to understand how people use their library, what to measure and for what reason. This is what Newmarket’s Metrics Working Group is now focussed on.

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Update on 5 May 2026: From Newmarket Today: Newmarket Library Staff Raise Safety and Management Concerns.

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The “Concept Plan” (above) shows the preferred location of the proposed new Southlake acute hospital on the Bathurst lands following Premier Doug Ford’s decision – now abandoned - to open parts of the Greenbelt for development. It is dated 29 January 2023.

Despite Ford reversing his Greenbelt plans in September 2023 and returning to the status quo ante, Southlake has fought tooth and nail for years to keep the drawings, emails and discussions secret until now when the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered their disclosure.

Background

On 15 September 2022 the 2.7 sq km block of Greenbelt land at Bathurst – in the municipality of King and next door to Newmarket - was bought by the developer, Michael Rice, for $80M. 

This was less than two months before 522 acres of it were removed from the Greenbelt and 132 acres of it were redesignated as a settlement area within the Oak Ridges Moraine.

On 1 November 2022, Rice said he would gift some of that land to Southlake for a new acute hospital. On 4 November 2022, the Housing minister, Steve Clark, announced that certain Greenbelt lands were to be opened for development.

Backlash 

Ford’s Greenbelt policy generated a huge backlash from the public and media. On 9 August 2023, a highly critical report from the Auditor General was published on the changes to the Greenbelt. And three weeks later the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, published his searing report.

On 21 September 2023 a contrite Ford announced that the lands removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022 were to be returned to it. He pledged never to build on the Greenbelt again. Ford admitted it had been a huge mistake.

The RCMP launched their investigation into the Greenbelt scandal on 10 October 2023. Astonishingly, it is still ongoing.

Reporting from the Toronto Star last October revealed that former Housing Minister Steve Clark, former business minister Kaleed Rasheed and Clark’s former chief of staff, Ryan Amato, had not, at that stage, been interviewed by the police. 

The Greenbelt Development that collapsed

We now know from the newly released material from Southlake that in January 2023 there were plans for a major new community on the Rice lands complete with high, medium and low density residential and commercial development. There were to be elementary schools. There was also the possibility of a 320 bed Long Term Care facility - something Rice clearly wanted. 

Servicing options were still being explored but these discussions didn’t involve Newmarket or King Township as the municipalities at that stage were being deliberately kept out of the loop.

On 17 April 2023, the Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk, asked Rice to meet her to discuss all this. He refused and she didn’t pursue the matter. She published her damning report anyway. However, Rice gave evidence to the Integrity Commissioner. 

Ryan Amato 

The report of the Integrity Commissioner revealed that on either 28 or 29 September 2022 Rice handed over to Ryan Amato a bundle of documents calling for the removal of the Bathurst lands in King from the protected countryside in the Greenbelt. There was no mention of a hospital on the Bathurst lands.

Rice subsequently had a crisis of conscience and told the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, that he had promised to make land available for a new hospital and he was going to stick with it.  

In any event, we now know from the concept plan that Rice was proposing a major redevelopment of the entire Bathurst block which would have returned a big profit on the $80m he paid for it just a few months earlier. The land gifted to Southlake would, presumably, have been set off against tax otherwise owing to the CRA. 

In her report the Auditor General estimated that the owners of the 15 sites originally removed from the Greenbelt could have seen an increase in land value of $8.3 Billion.

Freedom of Information

I expect the RCMP will shed more light on Ryan Amato’s role in getting the Bathurst lands removed from the Greenbelt.

That said, there is much speculation that Ford’s proposed FoI legislation will torpedo the investigation.

But the Police are investigating possible criminal behaviour and any materials removed by them using their search warrant powers would not be affected by changes to Freedom of Information legislation, even if retroactive.  

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Note: The new material confirms that no development was being considered for John Dunlap’s land immediately to the south and adjacent to the Rice Block. As we know, only the Rice lands were removed from the Greenbelt. Dunlap was a member of the Southlake Board when his company facilitated the sale of the Bathurst block to Rice. It was marketed as a “land banking opportunity”. Graphics presented to the meeting at King municipality on 1 November 2022 (when Rice offered to gift land to Southlake) clearly showed the new hospital site straddling the Rice/Dunlap lands. A similar graphic was shown to Southlake’s Land Acquisition Sub Committee on 5 December 2022 – with the colour coding showing the land ownership removed. Dunlap had told King Mayor, Steve Pellegrini, that he was prepared to offer his land as the site of a new Southlake. But former hospital CEO, Arden Krystal, said Southlake had no record of Dunlap ever making an offer of land.

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