Details

Newmarket Public Library’s chief executive, Tracy Munusami, filed incorrect statistics for the Province’s annual survey of public libraries. 

Ms Munusami told the Province the library had 24,136 members (or active library cardholders) in December 2023. She now says the correct figure is 17,893 – a decrease of 26%.

I don’t know when the Library Board was informed of this mistake.

The survey, which is mandatory, is designed to capture key statistics from the 413 municipalities in Ontario.

Extraordinary year

In the foreword to the Library’s Report to the Community 2024, the Board Chair, Darryl Gray, said 2024 was an extraordinary year for the Library and trumpeted a “significant growth” in membership.

I relied on the official figure reported by the Library’s Chief Executive to the province when I claimed there was, in reality, no increase in membership at all. I calculated that membership had fallen by 7.9%.

Ms Munusami told me on 16 April 2025:

“The number you received from the provincial annual survey is incorrect. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming does have an updated figure from us. We have been informed that the reports on the Province’s site from 2023 will not be updated for the public, but the Province does retain the record of the revised number from us.”

Inaccurate data

I cannot believe the Province would allow seriously inaccurate data to remain uncorrected on the authoritative official database on which the public rely. I hope it will be updated on-line in due course.

The revised 2023 membership figures formed the baseline for comparison with the latest 2024 figures which were reported to councillors on 7 April 2025.

Ms Munusami told councillors 9,476 people signed up for a Newmarket Library Card in 2024 and 5,357 people signed up in 2023. Last week she told me:

“We track new memberships because they indicate how effectively our outreach and marketing efforts are reaching people. So yes, there was a 43% increase in new memberships.”

She is understating her achievement. The percentage increase was not 43% but a spectacular 76%.

Ballooned

Total Library cardholders ballooned in 2022 to 27,780. The reason for this is unclear to me but I do not see similar spikes in libraries elsewhere which could be the case if the figures were influenced by the pandemic.

In 2022, the Chief Executive embarked on a database clean-up, telling councillors in her presentation on 7 April 2025:

“In 2022 we were looking at ways to evaluate the people who are using the library card numbers as well as to clean up our databases.…  In 2022 we removed accounts from the system that were no longer active library users. The definition of an “active library user” is someone who's used the library in the last 24 months. And in order to make better business decisions we had to have the most accurate data. So that's why we made the change in 2023."

Extravagant

Getting the membership base down to a new low of 17,893 allows for these extravagant percentage increases in membership. We are told there were 9,476 new members in 2024 but we still don’t know how many people renewed their existing membership – a statistic that used to be routinely given.

If I were on the Library Board I’d ask the Chief Executive for a note on the process for “cleaning up the database” and an assurance that this would be done annually, removing non-active library cards.

Last year, when Ms Munusami presented her report to councillors on 8 April 2024, the effusive library Vice Chair and Town councillor, Kelly Broome, complimented her on the strategic plan, the rebrand and her leadership. 

Kelly Broome trilled:

“We’re extremely proud of the level and where we are with the library in terms of our brand and our reach. It’s significant. If we had the annual reports lined up you would see the significant increase since you joined us (3 August 2021)…

“We’re definitely at a point now when measuring data is critical and (it’s) great we have some really great data to share.”

What is needed

We no longer have a time-series allowing us to compare membership and usage over the years which makes it easier to spot trends. There appears to be no distinction between genuinely ”new” members and those who have simply renewed their library card. We just have bald numbers presented as snapshots with percentage increases over the previous year.

On the key metrics the Board needs to have statistics covering at least three consecutive years. And the Board must have confidence in the figures it gives to the Town, the Province and the wider public.

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Photo from Newmarket Today 8 April 2024: Library adds more than 5000 members in 2023. And from Newmarket Today on 9 April 2025: Focus on community outreach gives Newmarket Library a growth spurt.

Updated on 21 April 2025. Click "Read more" below for email exchange.

Newmarket Public Library membership 2014-2024

Details

I am back on YouTube but still have no idea why I was kicked off in the first place. 

The last video which I posted here was filmed outside Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s constituency office just a few days before the Provincial election on 27 February 2025. (Still shot right)

I branded Gallagher Murphy a tyrannical bully (or some such) quoting the evidence of her ex-employees, including her former office manager, Teena Bogner.

YouTube says it can remove an account immediately if the matter, for example, involves “first-person privacy”. 

I do not believe Dawn Gallagher Murphy complained to YouTube but I have no way of knowing for certain.

Details leaked

The ERA and Newmarket Today both ran stories about Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s alleged bullying and harassment, quoting directly from the complaint document filed with the Ontario Labour Relations Board by Teena Bogner. It is inconceivable that Gallagher Murphy leaked Teena Bogner’s complaint to the press given that it contained so many reputation-shredding allegations about the MPP.

Bogner’s complaint was made available to me after I had gone down to the OLRB in Toronto and asked to see the file. The Board Solicitor approved its release to me. 

Adjudicative records are “presumptively available to the public” but parties and affected persons "may apply for, and the Board may make, confidentiality orders in certain circumstances". But no confidentiality order had been issued by the Board in this case. 

Absurd

When I was at the OLRB I pointed out the obvious absurdity of being told I couldn’t see the complaint file (if that was to be their decision) when I was quoting to them chunks from the complaint that had appeared in the local press.

YouTube has done the right thing and I am now allowed to upload video again which I can use here if and when the fancy takes me.

I got 14,000 hits on my most visited post on the Southlake scandal which is a microscopic figure when compared with everything else that’s happening out there on the internet.

There’s nuthin’ here to complain about.

I am no danger to anyone.

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Details

Advance voting in the Federal Election begins today and, astonishingly, none of the parties has yet published their election platforms. 

Another convention thrown overboard.

Nevertheless, I shall be voting Liberal because of the existential threat facing the nation. Donald Trump is a dose of anthrax to Canada.

Deranged

I am not a member of the Liberal Party and never have been.

But I believe the centrist Liberals are best placed to keep the deranged Trump at bay. I am not going to split the vote and let Pierre Poilievre sail through the middle.

The Liberals have a leader who – as a former central banker - appeals to Conservatives. They see him as the man with the credentials. He is careful with money and has the quiet demeanor and rectitude to do the job.

He was appointed by former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Governor of the Bank of Canada and by the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, as Governor of the Bank of England.

Tighten

Last night’s debate didn’t change anything. The election will “tighten” as the pollsters say but that always happens as voting intentions harden as we get closer to polling day.

Importantly, Mark Carney is not Justin Trudeau and he takes pains to underline that fact – as he did last night.

Trudeau’s sunny ways darkened over his ten years as PM.

It is impossible not to disappoint people over a decade. I have my own personal list of disappointments; others will have their own. 

He promised electoral reform straight out of the gate in 2015 and it was quietly shelved. 

Triangulation

After the worst gun massacre in Canadian history at Portapique when 22 people were brutally slaughtered Trudeau equivocated on whether or not to ban handguns. It didn’t happen. We got, as usual, Clintonesque triangulation.

Then there were the controversies over indigenous peoples, the trans-mountain pipeline and everything in-between. 

Trudeau’s former Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, said the longest meeting he ever had one-to-one with the Prime Minster was the one arranged on his resignation from the Government.

His valedictory book “Where To From Here: A Path to Canadian Prosperity”  is full of interesting revelations.

Dilettante

Trudeau, a dilettante, was more interested in polling numbers than economic policy and left Morneau to get on with it.

When our former Liberal MP in Newmarket Aurora, the bland banker, Tony Van Bynen, said it was time for Trudeau to go, I knew the game was up.

Trudeau spent all his energies clinging on to office when everyone knew it was time for him to go.

And now we have Mark Carney, steady at the wheel.

He says he is interested in policy outcomes, not the performative aspects of the job of PM that Trudeau revelled in.

We shall see soon enough.

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Graphic below from Smart Voting.

Details

Last night’s All Candidates Forum at the Royal Canadian Legion in Srigley Street produced one clear winner, Jennifer McLachlan. 

She was the only wannabe MP to turn up.

Disgracefully, the Conservative’s Sandra Cobena was a no-show. Nothing was more important than this event, organised by a group of local Christians because no-one else was prepared to do so.

Cobena should have cleared her diary to make this event a priority. She had nothing to lose. The Conservatives are trailing in the polls.

The NDP candidate was, predictably, also a no-show. Anna Gollen is a paper candidate with, literally, nothing to say. The NDP can’t win here and a vote for Anna Gollen is a vote for Sandra Cobena.

Weirdly, the organisers had asked one of their own to fill the spot on the stage where Sandra Cobena would have been sitting had she bothered to turn up.

Positive

I came away with a positive impression of Jennifer McLachlan though I prefer my politics more astringent.

Her credo is neighbourliness just like her mentor, the former MP Tony Van Bynen who was far too bland for my taste.

When she was asked questions she glanced at the folder in front of her to make sure she said the right thing. 

I overheard someone complaining she was just reading from a script.

When reciting the prepared answers she came across as wooden, referring to the Liberal leader deferentially as “Mr” Carney. 

Balancing the Budget

She was asked - to a ripple of laughter - how she planned to balance the budget. 

“Mr Carney is an economist and I will follow the leader’s lead.”

She is the ultimate Party loyalist. If you like Mark Carney there is no reason not to vote for Jennifer McLachlan. There’s no danger she will ever step out of line.

Jennifer McLachlan was so much better when she threw the away the prepared notes and went skiing off-piste. 

She said she would “go off script a little bit here” before describing her volunteering in BC, doing environmental work.

“I did so for a bigger picture on what the environment problems were. I have a 26 year old and a 24 year old daughter and I'm telling you the environment is essential to their future.”

Prepared notes

Then it was back to the notes with nods to energy efficient housing; zero emission vehicles, expanded public transit systems, ten new national parks and all the rest.  And you can’t talk about the environment these days and shut out the unfolding disaster in the Arctic with thawing permafrost and collapsing ice-roads. But I sensed no urgency about the climate emergency. It was just something on a long list of to-do-points.

“We will closely collaborate with indigenous communities and municipalities to enhance climate resilience, disaster preparedness and sustainable land management.”

Of course, all politics is local and this was where Jennifer McLachlan hit her stride.

Walk the walk

She was asked what she would do for the poor and for homeless people. She spoke about taking a homeless man off the streets and into her home for two years. 

“I am just going to speak personally here… I don't know if anyone is aware of Larry Woodcock. He was homeless and hung out on Main Street for the majority of his life, drawing the great pictures for everybody. At the tail end of his life I invited Larry in to live in my home. Larry lived with us for the last couple of years his life. I’m only sharing that because I care about homeless people. I care about the vulnerable. I genuinely walk the walk. And I gave Larry that moment in his last days surrounded by the community. An hour before he passed at Southlake Hospital he was given a Maid’s Cottage Butter Tart by a member of the community that I had sent to the hospital… if you wanna go visit……

"When I owned a restaurant (Cachet on Main Street) I hired Inn from the Cold to come and do the maintenance and lawn maintenance. I support Blue Door's construction program where people in transition learn a new skill. Or you get refreshed and get out there and start earning. I think addressing mental health is important but not everybody that's going through an economic crisis has a mental health problem either. So I've done significant support to the food pantry. I was project manager on the Cereal Centre Kitchen and donated a lot of my time to build that as well.

So again, it's really key for me, as your Member, to bring this whole community together...  I want to back up the not-for-profits, the charities and foundations in our community that are doing great work and I want to make sure they continue to get some federal investments. I want to advocate on their behalf but I want everybody to really start working together a little more as well.”

This is her life experience. Helping others. Not as a one-off but over many years. And it is clearly laudable.

She would bring that perspective to Ottawa. 

I found her authentic.

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Note: In today's polling update from the Writ, Eric Grenier has Newmarket-Aurora leaning Liberal - down from "likely". So it is not in the bag.

Update at 3.30pm from Newmarket Today: Newmarket-Aurora voters disappointed Conservative and NDP candidates skip Forum.

Details

Newmarket Today’s Joseph Quigley reports that a group of local Christians of multiple denominations is organising an all-candidates forum at the Newmarket Legion, 707 Srigley Street from 7 to 9 p.m. The doors open at 6.30pm. 

“All candidates in the riding have been invited and will be asked a range of questions, along with some questions submitted by the audience at the event.”

This is excellent news and the organisers deserve a hearty round of applause. Our democracy thrives when there is open debate and candidates’ views and opinions can be tested and challenged.

My advice to Sandra Cobena and Jennifer McLachlan is for them both to say what they mean and mean what they say. 

Think of it as an interview for a job with a base salary of $210,000 a year.

I hope there is a good turnout.

Palestine

Newmarket Today also reports on Shameela Shakeel’s efforts to get Palestine on the agenda in this election:

“Shakeel and other locals are asking for pledges to the https://votepalestine.ca/">Vote Palestine platform for both Newmarket-Aurora and Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill candidates. The platform is a grassroots campaign aimed at getting the issue to the forefront in the election. The platform, being circulated to candidates across the country, asks candidates to support five points: 

    • A two-ways arms embargo on Israel;
    • Ending Canadian involvement in illegal Israeli settlements under international law;
    • Recognize the state of Palestine;
    • Address anti-Palestinian racism and freedom of expression on the topic; 
    • Fund relief efforts in Gaza, including the UNRWA.”

Consultation

Joseph Quigley writes: 

While some NDP, Green and Liberal candidates have endorsed the platform, including former Liberal minister of housing Nate Erskine-Smith, local candidates have not yet done so.

Liberal candidate Jennifer McLachlan said, “I am a clear advocate for human rights,” but did not wish to expand further before further consulting with fellow local Liberal Leah Taylor Roy.

My heart sank when I read the response from Jennifer McLachlan who only last Thursday hosted a meeting here in Town with Nate Erskine-Smith on Liberal housing policy. She is on record saying she wants to be Prime Minister one day.

She will not be able to get away with those evasions in a two-hour meeting on Tuesday – especially if there are only two candidates on stage.

NDP no-show

I don’t believe the NDP’s invisible Anna Gollen will turn up. 

How are the organisers supposed to contact her with no website, no contact number and with her name missing from the NDP’s official list of candidates?

But if I'm wrong I shall dance in the street.

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Update at 8pm on 13 April 2025: Anna Gollen has now appeared on the NDP official list of candidates. No website. 

 

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