Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Let's not beat about the bush. 
Newmarket’s Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor Tom Vegh lies through his teeth.
Newmarket Today asked Newmarket’s Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor, Tom Vegh, how he would rate himself on both his attendance and involvement at the council table.
Vegh claimed he has only missed two Newmarket council or committee of the whole meetings and regional council meetings.
“I take representing Newmarket seriously, and being present, prepared and engaged is fundamental to that responsibility. Involvement goes beyond attendance. At Newmarket council, I participate fully in discussions and decision-making.”
“At York Region, much of the detailed work takes place through committees and boards before matters reach Regional Council.”
Vegh’s figures are out by a mile.
I calculate that Vegh missed six York Regional Council meetings during the 2022-2026 term (27 April 2023, 21 December 2023, 21 March 2024, 25 April 2024, 26 March 2026 and 24 September 2026) and one Committee of the Whole meeting (13 June 2024).
In addition, Vegh missed five Newmarket Council meetings (on 23 January 2023, 24 April 2023, 28 June 2023, 20 November 2023, 25 March 2024) and six Committee of the Whole meetings (on 23 January 2023, 17 April 2023, 23 October 2023, 26 February 2024, 18 March 2024 and 23 February 2026).
The dissembling Tom Vegh takes us all for fools. He is a complete disgrace.
We pay him handsomely for turning up to work. Even though he has nothing significant to say when he gets there.
The Inn From the Cold
Some things continue to intrigue me. Why was he absent on 13 June 2024 when his successor as Executive Director of the Inn From the Cold, Ann Watson, was making a deputation. If I were in his position I would have bust a gut to be there. In the same way he sucked his thumb and said nothing at York Regional Council in September 2022 when John Taylor called for additional funding for the IFTC.
What is the point of Tom Vegh if he can't speak out for a homelessness charity he used to run. What's the story there?
Anyway... we know the absent-minded Tom Vegh has a very bad memory. Or he is an accomplished liar.
Probably both.
I think he owes Newmarket Today and its readers an apology.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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.
Update on 11 October 2026
I didn’t have to wait 24 hours to get a response. He is too busy campaigning for re-election 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
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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.
Click "read more" for the Star article.
Read more: The Greenbelt Scandal: Why on earth is the RCMP investigation taking so long?
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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.