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My copy of the Newmarket ERA arrives on my drive earlier today with a thud.  

It goes to every household in Town. But mostly it is old news wrapped in a huge bundle of flyers.

There is a piece profiling me and my opponent Tom Vegh which has been slowly maturing for 53 days. 

The ERA wants to know why candidates are running for office.

I say:

The incumbent, Tom Vegh, accepts campaign donations from people intimately connected with the development industry and votes in line with their interests. I deplore this. He over-promises and under-delivers, promising a new library and seniors’ centre in 2018 and walking away from his clearly stated and unambiguous commitment. (50 words)

I send in my completed questionnaire in August.

Ted McFadden, the Managing Editor of York Region Metroland, gets in touch to say I’ve got to re-write my reasons for running or it won’t be published. (Photo right)

He says I’ve got to omit any reference to my opponent Tom Vegh.

I tell McFadden:

“But he’s the reason I’m running.”

He warns me again that without a re-write it won’t be published.

I refuse to change one word.

I ask him to explain in a little panel where my “reasons for running” should appear, his own reasons for refusing to publish.

And, Ted McFadden, true to his word, publishes my profile, a few days before voting begins, excluding my reasons for running.

I fear this could torpedo my chances.

We all know everyone in Newmarket relies on the ERA for their news.

Gordon Prentice 12 October 2022

You can read the email chain. Click "read more" below and scroll down.

 

24 August 2022 I submit the candidate profile questionnaire to the ERA newspaper. They ask:

Why have you decided to run? (50 word maximum) I reply:

The incumbent, Tom Vegh, accepts campaign donations from people intimately connected with the development industry and votes in line with their interests. I deplore this. He over-promises and under-delivers, promising a new library and seniors’ centre in 2018 and walking away from his clearly stated and unambiguous commitment. (50 words)

29 August 2022 from me to Ted McFadden, Managing Editor York Region Metroland

Dear Mr McFadden 

Your reporter, Lisa Queen, tells me you are not prepared to publish the reasons why I am standing for election unless they are re-written to exclude any reference to my opponent Tom Vegh.

In an election, it must be possible to reference a political opponent’s track record and ethical behaviour where comments are rooted in hard fact.

I have read Torstar’s Journalistic Standard’s Guide and your decision not to publish my reasons for standing appears to be in conflict with a number of core principles.

For example, the Guide states that:

“Fair news reports provide relevant context, do not omit relevant facts, and aim to be honest with readers about what we know and what we don’t know.”

When you publish the candidates’ profiles can I ask you to tell your readers (in the same piece) why you decided not to publish my reasons for running?

Yours sincerely,

Gordon Prentice

https://www.thestar.com/about/statementofprinciples.html

29 August 2022 from Ted McFadden to me

Hello Mr. Prentice,

Thank you for reaching out.

The purpose of the profiles we are offering to all candidates is to provide the opportunity to tell residents/voters a little bit about themselves and what they plan to bring to the position.

It’s not meant to be a platform to question what others have done or not done, because there is no option for those opponents to respond.

Not giving someone an opportunity to defend himself/herself is not fair, which goes against the Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide. It is addressed in the paragraph that follows the portion you quoted:

“Our core fairness standard demands that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given opportunity to respond.”

Since there is no way to provide that opportunity in the candidate profile we are offering, we cannot print your answer as provided.

I agree with your statement that: “In an election, it must be possible to reference a political opponent’s track record and ethical behaviour where comments are rooted in hard fact.”

But the candidate profiles are not the place to do so.

As Lisa has mentioned — and has offered —a separate story, where both sides of the issue can have a voice, is the proper venue.

The option to answer the candidate profile question in a way that meets our journalistic standards is still available to you and I hope you’ll take advantage of it so voters will get to know you and your platform.

Thank you,

Ted McFadden | Managing editor, York Region Metroland

30 August 2022 from me to Ted McFadden

Dear Mr McFadden

Thank you for your email of 29 August 2022.

I have considered the points you make carefully but my position remains unchanged

I have already explained why I am running for election as Regional Councillor and, as I said before, I am not going to invent another reason tailored for your newspaper. 

I am running because (a) Tom Vegh’s election campaigns are funded in large measure by people intimately connected with the development industry and (b) with his voting record in office. I cannot be clearer when I say that is my motivation for running. 

You say that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given (an) opportunity to respond. I understand from email correspondence between Lisa Queen and Jane Twinney (which was copied to all candidates) that the Candidates Profile piece will not now be published until after Labour Day. 

This gives you time to ask Tom Vegh to respond. Personally, I wouldn’t want to restrict him to 50 words. He can have as many words as he needs to explain why he takes money from development industry people and if he approaches them for money or if they offer it unsolicited. 

I have already asked him these questions but he refuses to engage with me on the grounds that I am a candidate and we are in the election campaign period. When I sent Lisa Queen my response to the Candidates’ Profile questionnaire I copied it to Tom Vegh. It follows that I am not ambushing him in any way.

But if, at the end of the day, you hold to your position I would ask that you explain to your readers why you are not printing my reasons for running. I would be content with a formulation along the lines set out below but I leave this with you. I would also ask that any statement by you is placed in my Candidate’s Profile where my reasons for running would have appeared.

“We asked Gordon Prentice to re-write his reasons for running as he criticized his opponent who would not have had the opportunity to respond in the same article. Mr Prentice would not change his reasons for running so we have decided not to publish that part of his candidates’ profile.” (50 words)

Is there an avenue open to me to appeal your decision? If so, can you tell me how I do this?

Yours sincerely

Gordon Prentice

31 August 2022 from Ted McFadden to me

Hello Mr. Prentice,

I appreciate your response, however, my position also remains unchanged.

As for a process to appeal, Lori Martin is the Metroland deputy director of content for this region. Her email address is: //This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thank you,

Ted McFadden | Managing editor, York Region Metroland

31 August 2022 from me to Tom Vegh

Hello again Tom

I am writing to ask for your help.

Ted McFadden, the managing editor of Metroland York Region, is refusing to print my reasons for running for Regional Council. He says the profile piece is not meant to question what others have done but, the reality is, I am only running because (a) you take money from people intimately connected with the development industry and (b) I believe this influences the way you vote.

Ted McFadden pointed me to the Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide which says:

“Our core fairness standard demands that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given an opportunity to respond.”

He goes on:

‘Since there is no way to provide that opportunity in the candidate profile we are offering, we cannot print your answer as provided.”

I copied my reasons to you when I responded to Lisa Queen’s “Candidates’ Profile Questionnaire” on 24 August 2022. I said this when asked why I had decided to run:

“The incumbent, Tom Vegh, accepts campaign donations from people intimately connected with the development industry and votes in line with their interests. I deplore this. He over-promises and under-delivers, promising a new library and seniors’ centre in 2018 and walking away from his clearly stated and unambiguous commitment.” (50 words)

I am asking you to contact Mr McFadden to say you have no objection to the paper printing my reasons for running. 

For my part, I have no objections to you commenting on my reasons for running in the same profile piece. I have told Mr McFadden so far as I am concerned you can have as many words as you need.

The fact that you accept developers’ money is a matter of public record. You are quoted extensively in this Newmarket Today story written by Kim Champion on 22 April 2019.

https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/local-news/half-of-newmarket-deputy-mayors-campaign-funded-by-developers-1385386

How you finance your election campaign is, of course, a matter entirely for you so long as it is within the law. I am aiming to spend about $5,000 in this campaign – a fraction of your spending in 2018.

You told Kim Champion:

“… I was in a situation where the most I could contribute myself still left me with about a $30,000 deficit, and you can’t finish a campaign with a deficit like that, otherwise it’s considered self-funding, So, after the election, I started receiving a lot of cheques and some of those I sent back for one reason or another, if I wasn’t comfortable accepting it. But there’s a few there that I said, ‘Yeah, OK’.”

“Developers are only a small portion of the donations I received. Most of the donations I got was after the election. I already won and they just started arriving in the mail. And I had to pay off that $30,000 deficit.”

The 2018 election was on 22 October. 

According to your Financial Statement filed with the Town in 2019, you accepted $1,200 from Joanne Barnett (Marianneville) on 7 September 2018; $500 from Jennifer Crainford (Groundswell Urban Planners) on 7 September 2018 and another $700 on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Renzo Fabbro (Andrin Homes) on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Howard Kerbel on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Toba Scott (Kerbel Group) on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Jeff Kerbel (Kerbel Group) on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Kerrigan Kelly (Groundswell Urban Planners) on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Lucila Sandoval (Groundswell Urban Planners) on 2 October 2018; $1,200 from Heath Purcell-Sharp (Groundswell Urban Planners) on 16 October 2018 and $1,000 from Sam Reisman (Rose Corporation) on 10 October 2018.

You received $17,500 before the election from development industry people and others and $22,850 after the election when the development industry knew you had won. The details are publicly available on the Town’s website.

Some people may believe, as I do, that taking money from people intimately involved with the development industry in order to clear your campaign debts would put you under an obligation to them. It is for that reason I have been asking you if you are soliciting donations or accepting money from these very same development industry people in this election.

I very much hope you will contact Ted McFadden. 

Once we have settled the campaign finance issue we can then move on to other matters.

Gordon

PS: I wrote to Ted McFadden to say I would appeal his decision not to cover my reasons for running. 

This evening he told me his position was unchanged and said I should write to Lori Martin who is Metroland’s deputy director of content for York Region. I am therefore copying this email to her and to Ted McFadden, Lisa Queen and Newmarket Today.

1 September 2022 from me to Lori Martin (Deputy Director of Content)

Dear Ms Martin

I am attaching an exchange of correspondence which relates to Ted McFadden’s request that I change my reasons for running to suit the format of the forthcoming candidates’ profiles.

I am only running because of the behaviour of the incumbent, Tom Vegh, who takes campaign donations from people intimately associated with the development industry. I believe this influences the way he votes on major planning and land use issues which come before York Regional Council.

I have told Mr McFadden I am not going to invent reasons for running.

Over the years I have been involved in many elections and this is the first time I have ever been told by the press that I would have to tailor my statements to what the newspaper determines is acceptable or they would not be published.

I very much hope my appeal to you is successful and that  Metroland will publish my reasons for running. There is not an alternative on offer which would be more palatable to Mr McFadden.

Yours sincerely

Gordon Prentice

1 September 2022 from Lori Martin to me

Hi Gordon

Thank you for your email.

Ted McFadden has provided you with the reasons why we would not publish your reason for running as stated. The candidate profile is your opportunity to talk about yourself, but you have chosen to talk about someone else. That’s not the purpose of the profile.

You said you are not prepared to alter what you have submitted. I can only reiterate what Ted and Lisa Queen have communicated to you: we cannot print your answer as provided.

Sincerely,

Lori Martin (she/her) | Deputy Director of Content

3 September 2022 from me to Lori Martin and Ted McFadden:

For your information:

https://www.shrinkslessorsquare.ca/1185-newmarket-s-era-newspaper-won-t-reveal-why-i-am-running-for-election

I just make one other comment. Newmarket’s Regional councillor in the 2018-2022 term took money from people intimately associated with the development industry not just before but also after the election to pay off the $30,000 deficit that he had run up in the campaign.

If those people had not bailed him out he would have been unable to pay these debts himself because of the self-financing rules. 

This is from the 2018 Ontario Candidates’ Guide to the municipal election 2018:

“There are three contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 where penalties apply automatically:

1. if you fail to file a financial statement by the end of the 30-day grace period or fail to apply to the court before March 29, 2019 for an extension by the filing deadline

2. if your financial statement shows that you exceeded your spending limit

3. if you fail to turn over your surplus to the clerk when you file your financial statement.

The penalty is that you forfeit your office (if you won the election) and you become ineligible to run or be appointed to fill a vacancy until after the 2022 election.”