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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Newmarket’s Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor is running for a third term and, once again, there is no election debate. The local Chamber of Commerce and the local media no longer organise them. And, tragically, no-one else is stepping into the vacuum created except in Ward 1. (See below)
Instead we have a "Meet and Greet".
So, I wander along to Newmarket’s Seniors’ Meeting Place last night (29 September 2026) to chat to all the candidates running for election. I also bring along a thick sheaf of Tom Vegh’s flyers from earlier campaigns, hoping for an update on promises delivered, discarded or still work in progress.
It goes off the rails right away. As soon as Tom Vegh spots my iphone he moves into cardiac arrest territory, declaring he isn’t going to be interviewed.
I wave his leaflets from his 2018 campaign which was an open race.
The then Deputy Mayor, John Taylor, was going for the top job and the Deputy job was vacant.
Tom Vegh WILL 
I am intrigued by some of Vegh’s vintage promises:
“Tom Vegh will double the number of housing subsidies available for Newmarket seniors.”
and
“Tom Vegh will triple the number of spaces available for affordable supportive seniors’ housing.”
I want to know what definitions he was using. A quick tour of the literature tells me it is complex and I need help in understanding the full picture.
There’s assisted living for high risk seniors. There’s long term care and so on. I want Tom Vegh to explain it all to me. He says:
“We’re working on it at York Region.”
I say:
“Eight years later, you’re working on it?”
Vegh replies:
"Still working on it, and we have increased it."
By this stage the Deputy Mayor is anxious. He is desperate to escape rather than do the adult thing and chat for five minutes.
Tax rises below the cost of living
What about:
“Tom Vegh will limit tax increases to the cost of living.” 
Vegh repeated this promise in 2022.
Most years the Town/Region tax increases have been above the rate of inflation.
And we were told that:
“Tom Vegh will convert the old fire station on Main Street into an artists’ hub.”
It is now a pub.
Vegh just finds it difficult to persuade people to his point of view.
There is no shame in making a promise and failing to convince your colleagues – Vegh’s vote on the Council has the same weight as everyone else’s.
But just to sit like a lemon and not argue the case is unconscionable.
Newmarket + York Region tax increases vs. inflation
|
Year |
Newmarket Town |
York Region |
Combined effective increase |
Canada CPI |
|
2018 |
2.99% |
2.77% |
5.84% |
2.3% |
|
2019 |
2.95% |
3.96% |
7.03% |
1.9% |
|
2020 |
2.24% |
2.96% |
5.27% |
0.7% |
|
2021 |
1.98% |
2.96% |
5.00% |
3.4% |
|
2022 |
1.99% |
2.96% |
5.01% |
6.8% |
|
2023 |
5.50% |
3.90% |
9.61% |
3.9% |
|
2024 |
3.99% |
3.75% |
7.89% |
2.4% |
|
2025 |
2.99% |
4.55% |
7.68% |
2.1% |
|
2026 |
2.99% |
4.28% |
7.40% |
— |
Election Debates
A healthy democracy is more than the simple counting of votes. The voters should be engaged and informed especially in this new world of AI which can produce sophisticated election material targeted at specific demographics with little human input. A lot of stuff from Vegh again focusses on seniors.
But we've got to look beyond the election flyers and lawn signs. Candidates also need to be tested one against the other.
And the time honoured way of doing this is by the election debate, impartially moderated by an independent person acceptable to both sides.
A “Meet and Greet” is not a substitute for an election debate. It reduces our municipal politics to its most elementary and sanitised form. No opportunity for candidates to quiz and test each other’s policies and proposals on a public stage.
If Newmarket’s Mayor were to fall under a bus tomorrow and a vacancy unexpectedly opened up, does anyone seriously believe a “meet and greet” would be enough to meet that moment?
In fact, John Taylor tells me he strongly believes in election debates.
But how are they going to happen if the Chamber and local media refuse to get involved?
What is to be done?
The answer is for municipalities themselves to step up and use the powers they already have (or what ChatGPT tells me they have).
ChatGPT comes with a health warning – and it does get a lot of things wrong – but I am told:
“In Ontario, there is a strong legal basis for a municipality to fund and commission an independent, arm’s-length body or individual to organise non-partisan candidates’ debates, including debates for municipal, provincial and federal elections. The municipality would need to structure the arrangement carefully, particularly around neutrality, municipal resource policies and the statutory role of an integrity commissioner.”
It’s now urgent.
The Conservative candidate (and now our MP), Sandra Cobena, did not participate in any public all-candidates’ debates in Newmarket Aurora during the 2025 Federal Election. (She attended a school debate at Sacred Heart which was not open to the public.) Likewise our Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, boycotts debates. The list goes on.
And debates for municipal candidates at Ward level are becoming rarer year by year.
But intriguingly, there is a debate for Newmarket Ward 1 Candidates (an open contest with no incumbent) at the New Roads Performing Arts Centre in Pickering Crescent, Newmarket on Monday 19 October from 7pm – 8.30pm. But double check the date, time and venue.
So debates are not entirely a folk memory yet.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
It was a beautiful sunny early Fall afternoon in Newmarket. And down at Riverwalk Commons there was a decent turnout for Dawn Gallagher Murphy's fifth taxpayer funded BBQ. 
Our MPP was flanked as usual by Spiderman and (I think) Marie "let them eat cake" Antoinette. (Photo right)
The event ran from 2pm-4pm. But after 3.30pm things were seriously winding down.
You could get a camera angle suggesting the place was teeming with people. Or, if you wanted to, you could give the impression it was half deserted.
Here is my selection taken at various times during the afternoon.
We shall find out in due course how much this cost us.
In the meantime, and while she pulls all the invoices together, I asked ChatGPT to tell me what what Gallagher Murphy has said recently about the deficits being run by the Province.
"The clearest statement I found in Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s own words was in the Legislature on 21 October 2025. She criticized the previous Liberal government for having “raised taxes, ran deficits and allowed Ontario’s credit rating to fall,” then said the Ford government had “restored fiscal discipline and put Ontario’s finances back on track.” So her identifiable personal position in the material I found is that past Liberal deficits reflected mismanagement, while the current government has restored fiscal discipline. Her website simultaneously published forecasts showing continuing Ontario deficits and a later date for returning to balance."
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
It has been brought to my attention - by the Mayor himself no less - that my description of his position on electoral reform was inaccurate.
I opened my blog with this statement:
Newmarket Mayor, John Taylor, is in favour of mandatory voting, supports electoral reform and – with all its challenges and some real dangers – is on the side of AI. And he would like to see education become the responsibility of regional councils (in two-tier municipal areas like York Region) or single tier municipalities elsewhere. And education should develop curiosity and creativity, fostering debate, discussion and democracy.
At no point in the evening did Taylor express support for electoral reform. He said he was in favour of compulsory voting which was, I think, the first time I’d heard this. I made the mistake of conflating this with his previously stated views on electoral reform. This was just sloppiness on my part.
I’ve known for years that Taylor is an “unabashed fan of ranked ballots”. He said that way back in 2019. I don’t know if that is still his position.
Compulsory voting is different from embracing a new electoral system, replacing First Past the Post.
"I'm an unabashed fan of ranked ballots"
This is what Mayor Taylor told his colleagues on 14 May 2019 at a Special meeting of the Town’s Committee of the Whole:
“I'm an unabashed fan of ranked ballots. I think in this context, it's a little tricky. The financial consideration, the fact that we're doing online voting, and we're just getting going on that, and the fact that we only have London (Ontario) to look to, and, you know, you want to manage your risks and manage everything else, but I think there's a great deal to be said for it.
I think this last election here in Newmarket was relatively, if not very polite, and having witnessed many over many, many years that aren't necessarily that way. I believe that there's evidence internationally that ranked ballots can do a lot to improve the tone and tenor of elections, and create a different type of conversation, a more respectful debate, focussed on issues and ideas, over personalities, because of the fear that you could lose people's second place vote, if you start slandering, frankly, their candidate.
… in most communities, in every election, there's at least one race that might be changed, and the other way of putting that is that, in every, in many elections, someone is elected that the majority of residents would not have voted for.
And a ranked ballot takes that out. That means that the person that most want gets elected. And you don't have this vote splitting with one person with 30% or 35% of the vote, getting elected, even though the majority of people wouldn't have voted for them if there was a system in place where they could express that.
So I think there's clear democratic advantages. I think there's advantages to the respectfulness, and we need to think deeply about the voter disenfranchisement due to the tone of elections North America wide..."
As I say, I don't know if this is still Taylor's position.
If his views have changed I shall let you know.
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Update on 28 September 2026: The Mayor tells me earlier today:
"I think electoral reform deserves our attention given the well documented shortcomings of our first past the post system. I like ranked ballots especially for municipal, possibly for provincial and federal too. I would have to spend a lot of time studying options and examples to be sure about what reform may or may not work at the provincial and federal level but our current system creates enough democratic shortcomings that it warrants a serious look at all options. I hope Canada takes a deep dive on this issue and creates a meaningful dialogue on the pros and cons of the various options. This work is long overdue."
I am glad that's sorted out.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Dawn Gallagher Murphy MPP hosts her fifth annual taxpayer-funded community BBQ on Sunday 27 September 2026 from 2pm-4pm at Riverwalk Commons. 
It's all free and people love it. They queue up. They register. And they are now in her database.
So it’s time for me to accept defeat and throw in the towel.
For the past four years I have been sniping at our Progressive Conservative MPP for casually squandering taxpayers’ money on her annual “free” community BBQ at Riverwalk Commons.
This is what I said about her first BBQ; her second; her third and her fourth. And I railed about our MPP's flexible definition of her "office operations" budget and how much she spent on BBQs in her first term as Newmarket-Aurora's Progressive Conservative MPP. (Photo bottom right shows her 2023 BBQ.)
What started out as outrage has now mellowed into a reluctant acceptance of the practice. Dawn Gallagher Murphy was an early adopter but now MPPs all over Ontario have jumped on the bandwagon and are using taxpayers’ money to fund increasingly extravagant BBQs. And no-one bats an eyelid.
So I gotta move on.
Hey! Big Spender
Sheref Sabawy, the PC MPP for Mississagua Erin Mills, spent $32,157.59 on his BBQ. That’s over 30% of his “office operations” budget. The event reportedly attracted over 2,000 people. And he has just chalked up another $21,752 for an evening meal at sunset at the banqueting hall, Elmacan, on 6 March 2026 where an unspecified number of his constituents broke their fast during Ramadan.
This taxpayer funded extravagance puts Dawn Gallagher Murphy, by comparison, on the side of the Angels. Her spending on last year’s BBQ was a modest $9,662.19 – almost 11% of her “office operations” budget.
Servicing Ontario's Debt
Of course, it escapes no-one that all this is happening at a time when the Province’s 2026 Budget is projecting annual interest payments of $17.2 billion on its ballooning debt. These interest payments are more than the annual cost of running the Province’s entire justice system ($7.3B) or its spending on postsecondary education ($14B). But no matter.
I suppose the FordFest started it all with Doug handing out $20 bills to constituents just because he likes people and can afford to do it.
Lightning Fast
Digging out the details of MPPs spending was always possible but you had to know where to look. Now ChatGPT makes the whole process lightning fast and painless. So you can easily compare spending in 2025/6 with 2022/3 when Gallagher Murphy was first elected and the years in between.
I shall wander down to Riverwalk Commons tomorrow and check out the vibes.
But, in line with my long standing practice, the puritan in me won’t let a “free” hamburger or “free” hot dog touch my lips.
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And from the man who started it all
The table below shows the 43 MPPs who used taxpayers’ money to fund their BBQs in the Fiscal Year 2025/6. The Fiscal Year runs from 1 April to 31 March of the following year. (Figures pulled by ChatGPT and checked by me.)
|
MPP |
BBQ hospitality claimed |
|
$32,157.59 |
|
|
$27,600.13 |
|
|
$24,452.58 |
|
|
$23,150.52 |
|
|
$22,615.04 |
|
|
$22,121.88 |
|
|
$21,573.29 |
|
|
$21,396.23 |
|
|
$20,864.05 |
|
|
$18,175.68 |
|
|
$17,930.68 |
|
|
$16,661.59 |
|
|
$16,000.11 |
|
|
$15,829.13 |
|
|
$15,150.55 |
|
|
$10,202.88 |
|
|
$9,871.28 |
|
|
$9,662.19 |
|
|
$9,521.99 |
|
|
$8,624.19 |
|
|
$7,654.62 |
|
|
$7,350.37 |
|
|
$7,347.24 |
|
|
$6,955.08 |
|
|
$6,955.07 |
|
|
$6,865.12 |
|
|
$6,102.01 |
|
|
$4,782.39 |
|
|
$3,572.39 |
|
|
$3,504.08 |
|
|
$3,111.38 |
|
|
$2,676.80 |
|
|
$2,426.84 |
|
|
$2,250.83 |
|
|
$2,132.59 |
|
|
$2,100.00 |
|
|
$2,057.54 |
|
|
$1,964.10 |
|
|
$1,906.85 |
|
|
$1,202.55 |
|
|
$1,081.75 |
|
|
$371.75 |
|
|
$303.01 |
|
|
Total |
$448,235.94 |
35 of the 43 MPPs are Progressive Conservatives (claiming $403,213 in total); 3 are Liberal ($22,797 in total) and 5 are NDP ($21,725).
Office and Support Staff Expenses
From 2024–25 to 2025–26, Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s reported spending changed as follows. Percentages use 2024–25 as the base. www.ola.org
|
Category |
2024–25 |
2025–26 |
Dollar change |
Percentage change |
|
Support staff |
$285,495 |
$269,852 |
−$15,643 |
−5.5% |
|
Constituency office rent |
$47,958 |
$47,737 |
−$221 |
−0.5% |
|
Office operations |
$76,986 |
$88,578 |
+$11,592 |
+15.1% |
|
Communications |
$41,476 |
$55,796 |
+$14,320 |
+34.5% |
|
Global total |
$454,784 |
$464,895 |
+$10,111 |
+2.2% |
- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
Newmarket Mayor, John Taylor, is in favour of mandatory voting, supports electoral reform and – with all its challenges and some real dangers – is on the side of AI. And he would like to see education become the responsibility of regional councils (in two-tier municipal areas like York Region) or single tier municipalities elsewhere. And education should develop curiosity and creativity, fostering debate, discussion and democracy. 
I learn all this last night (23 September 2026) when I take myself along to Pickering College, an independent school and a Newmarket landmark since 1909 but founded (in Pickering no less) by the Quakers in 1842. I am in the magnificent new Assembly Hall, opened last September, to hear the political journalist and author, Steve Paikin, in conversation with Newmarket’s Mayor since 2018, John Taylor.
Taylor has since been acclaimed twice in a row, in 2022 and 2026. Acclamation rather than election is the norm in many municipalities across Ontario.
Many of the Town’s top tier movers and shakers are here. I see Dr Mohsen Alavi, the wannabe Deputy Mayor of Newmarket but no sign of the current place-holder, Tom “Instagram” Vegh.
The moderator is Rex Taylor, a retired teacher and currently a Board member of Newmarket Public Library. He is clearly at home in his surroundings and guides the conversation easily from topic to topic. He wants to focus on the importance of education for community and civic life and touch on recent changes to public education, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the spread of dis/misinformation, and the erosion of democratic norms. That’s quite the menu.
We know that, increasingly, young people seem to be losing faith in democracy. But, unfortunately, we don’t hear from any of the students at Pickering what the problem is as they see it. Given the topic, that for me would have been a highlight.
Political Junkies
Steve Paikin was a familiar sight on the TVO’s Agenda – a programme for political junkies which hooked me for many years. The final episode aired on 27 June 2025 after a 19-season run of 4,000 episodes featuring 19,000 guests.
It is in his DNA to adopt a centrist position that he and his audience are comfortable with. He doesn’t shock. He is, rather, an accomplished storyteller. He doesn’t take sides, one way or the other. Although, very occasionally, he lets his hand show.
“I’ve spent a whole career not taking public positions on issues that are controversial, because if I have to cover them on the program that I did—or do—I’ve got to be seen as a neutral person.”
Too much time is taken up at the start of the evening talking about Donald Trump and how he has debased and coarsened American democracy. But, curiously, not once in the entire evening did anyone mention the elephant in the room, Doug Ford, who has done more than most to erode democratic norms here in Canada.
Decency Matters
Indeed, Steve Paiken tells us that our former MPP and Doug Ford’s deputy, Christine Elliott, has started a group in Ontario called “decency matters”. 
“She just wants to re-establish, not just in politics but in all walks of life, the notion that we’ve got to get decency back at the centre of everything we do, and that you are just not allowed to be a horse’s ass 24/7 anymore.”
I almost laughed out loud when I heard that. Our current MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, was Christine Elliott's protégé. She was appointed by Ford as Newmarket-Aurora’s PC candidate and went on to relentlessly harass and bully her staff before, at the last minute, settling the dispute with her aggrieved Office Manager, Teena Bogner. The grisly details are covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
Boycott election debates
Ford has told Progressive Conservative candidates to boycott election debates. He now appoints the Chair of York Regional Council. The Region's population is larger than Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, NT, Yukon and Nunavut.
He uses omnibus bills with no Committee Stage to ram legislation through. This is not a deliberative process where MPPs invite and consider expert perspectives before a Bill is enacted. Instead inchoate Bills are rushed through regardless. He throws conventions overboard.
Too bad all that didn't get a mention.
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Click "read more" for selected transcripts of the conversation.
Read more: Steve Paikin and John Taylor talk about Education and the Erosion of Democratic Norms
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