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Background: It is 7.30am and I am in the St Andrew's Golf Club for a hearty breakfast before this morning’s Aurora Chamber of Commerce debate. It is small and cosy and the place is packed. It costs $25 for non-members so I doubt we shall see any curious members of the public wandering in off the street just to have a look.  

The usual suspects - the inner core from two main political parties – are out in force. I see famous faces - former Newmarket Mayor Tom Taylor, Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas and former Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard. I suppose there are a few Aurora business people here too.

We have candidates from the two adjacent federal ridings of (1) Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill and (2) Newmarket-Aurora. There will be six rounds of questions – on topics notified in advance.

The format allows the Liberal, Conservative, Green and NDP candidates from the two ridings to decide which one of them is going to answer for the Party. This gives the sole representatives of the Libertarian Party Serge Korovitsyn (standing in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill) and the People’s Party of Canada, Andrew McCaughtrie, (Newmarket-Aurora) double exposure which neither deserves.

Serge “Canada is turning into a socialist state” Korovitsyn’s politics are half-baked, incoherent and off-the-wall. He wants to get Government out of our lives yet calls for universal, free child care – because it worked quite well in the old Soviet Union. McCaughtrie’s politics are shallow and ill-informed.

We have short introductions from each of the candidates, taking a minute or two to set out their stalls. Lois Brown reminds us she was previously MP for Newmarket-Aurora but forgets precisely when. She says she was MP from 2005 and then corrects herself before someone else does. Her actual tenure was from 2008-2015 but may seem longer to many.

Public Transit

The first question is on public transit and Brown comes across as Lady Bountiful. Her big selling point is she knows how to work the system and get Federal dollars into the riding. Only the simple-minded believe this kind of stuff - that her wizardry alone got the money here. She tells us she got Federal cash for the bridge in south Aurora. Now she says:

“The Conservatives are going to prioritise transport projects that have already been agreed to.”

But what about getting an all-day two-way GO Train service up to Newmarket? 

That’s unfinished business. And it is a very big deal for people in Newmarket.

Stop reading from a script!   

Tony Van Bynen, a recent convert to the Liberal Party after 69 years on the planet, appears relaxed in this Chamber of Commerce milieu. But why, after years in the public eye, does he read from a script all the time, head-bowed? Doesn’t he know that the candidates who are most effective look directly at their audience as they speak. That’s the way to connect with people.

Van Bynen talks about his long commute when he worked down in the city when he still had a full head of hair (I made that up) and how he took the heat for the rapid bus system. I think this is a coded reference to the endless construction on Davis Drive.

Liberal to Conservative

We move on to questions on tax. Former Liberal MP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, Leona Alleslev, now standing for the Conservatives, grabs the microphone and launches into a passionate exposition of Conservative policy on taxation. She has a huge ring binder at her elbow but doesn’t consult it once.

Alleslev, who was formerly a Captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force, crossed the floor to join the Conservatives in 2018 but her views are so uncompromisingly right-wing I am left wondering how she was ever selected as a Liberal in the first place. When she left the Party she should have done the honest thing and resigned her seat to fight it under her new colours. But she didn’t and is now a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative.

Pharmacare 

Now we are on to question three about Pharmacare. This is Yvonne Kelly’s strong suit and she comes across as knowledgeable. The Green’s Walter Bauer makes the case for universal healthcare and how it could be made more efficient, such as bulk buying drugs. (On the climate emergency, he explains the meaning of his doomsday stick and how close we are to irreversible climate change. See photo below)

Now Leona Alleslev pulls rank and grabs the microphone again, elbowing Lois out of the way. 

Now we are on to precarious employment, the minimum wage and that sort of stuff. Yet again Alleslev reaches for the crackly microphone and gives the Conservative line, leaving poor old Lois Brown open-mouthed. 

Alleslev is very animated, waving her index figure in the air, looking directly at her audience and speaking in perfectly formed sentences. She talks about the knowledge industries of the future and complains that Canada cannot keep its bright young talent here at home. She says with absolute certainty that 80% of engineers graduating from Waterloo leave the country. (Hmmm. I make a mental note to double check that one.)

Junior Partner

Leah Taylor Roy answers for the Liberals in the same way as Captain Alleslev answers for the Conservatives. This makes Tony Van Bynen appear as the junior partner. Leah doesn’t bury her face in her notes but speaks confidently and clearly, giving the impression she knows what she is talking about. She has facts - and opinions - at her fingertips and comes across well. (She also believes in a nationwide ban on handguns – as does Van Bynen – but this, of course, is not in the Liberal Platform)

Now we are galloping on to question five on affordable housing. I see Lois Brown snatching the microphone before Captain Allesev can lay her hands on it.

“My turn!”  (On the climate emergency, he explains the meaning of his doomsday stick and how close we are to irreversible climate change. See photo below)

Terrific! 

I want Lois to assert herself and not play second fiddle to this Conservative arriviste.

Inventing facts

Now Lois is shamelessly inventing facts to suit her argument. She says there were no new builds in Newmarket-Aurora over the past four years. This is demonstrably untrue. 212 Davis Drive is just one example. 

Now she is talking about extending the amortisation period of mortgages to 30 years but, instead, says 30%. Someone from the audience shouts out to correct her but we all know what she means.

She is stumbling. Something has short-circuited under than expensively coiffured hair.  

Now she turns her fire on Tony Van Bynen. She is talking about stress-testing mortgage applications and has a dig at the complicity of bankers:

“Someone wilfully put them into a situation they can’t afford.”

I hear Van Bynen talk soothingly about the importance of having a safe and affordable place to call home. He talks about 212 Davis Drive where 25% of the units are subsidised. Is he gilding the lily here? I don’t know. I thought there were 225 private purpose built rental units with 30 subsidised for low income households but things may have moved on since 2017 when these figures were quoted by York Region.

Deficits

Now there is a question from the floor on what to do about deficits. 

Lois is now on a roll. She has the microphone tightly in her grip, telling us we have to start living within our means. This is straight out of the Conservative playbook. 

She lambasts the Liberal’s projected deficit of (I think) $20 billion 

“with no repayment program!”

She demands to know from the old banker when he ever loaned money without a repayment program.

This is shaping up quite nicely into a grudge fight. I like this. I don’t want politicians to pull their punches.

Lois on the red leather couch

Now, without missing a beat, Lois turns her fury on to Justin Trudeau’s red leather couch in his office which she says cost $150,000. We get some phoney outrage:

“It could pay for four people to go through college!”  

Is this the same red leather couch that featured in the Globe and Mail editorial on the 150thanniversary of Canadian confederation?

Lois is all hot and bothered about the couch. I look around and people seem unconcerned. 

Van Bynen on debt

Now Van Bynen sparks into life. The old banker talks about the 

“positive components of debt”.

He says you can’t pay for your house in cash (perhaps he could) and you’ve gotta borrow. And this is where people like him, the bankers, come in.

Now he is telling Lois that national debt in relation to GDP is currently 31%. Under Stephen Harper it was 39%.

Van Bynen smiles as if he has just delivered a knockout blow.

Lois just grips the microphone a little tighter and says nothing. 

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Newmarket-Aurora: Liberal candidate Tony Van Bynen; Conservative candidate Lois Brown; NDP candidate Yvonne Kelly; Green candidate Walter Bauer; PPC candidate Andrew McCaughtrie. (Dorian Baxter is now a registered candidate for the election in Newmarket-Aurora standing for the Progressive Canadian Party)

Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill: Liberal candidate Leah Taylor Roy; Conservative candidate Leona Alleslev; NDP candidate Aaron Brown; Green candidate Timothy Flemming; Libertarian candidate Serge Korovitsyn

 

Details

The Liberal Party member of a few month’s standing and wannabe MP, Tony Van Bynen, wants us to vote for him on 21 October because he is a “trusted community leader”.  

Where is the evidence for that assertion? 

Dave Kerwin knew Van Bynen for decades and saw him close up on Newmarket Council. He told Van Bynen to his face in front of a packed Council meeting:

“You never show any leadership!”

Kerwin, the longest serving councillor in Canada until he retired after last October’s election, stands by that brutal assessment.

Gradualist

In truth, Van Bynen is essentially an administrator, rarely if ever leading from the front. He is a gradualist, content to watch the paint dry.

At the candidates debate last Thursday he displayed no urgency on tackling climate change. The warnings from the UN that we have 11 years to do something cut no ice with him. He says it's not possible. During the debates on extending the 15-minute GO train service northwards to Newmarket from Aurora he said he would like to see us “easing into that” as we go forward. No rush. He says he believes in “followership” as much as leadership.

Van Bynen hoards information like the secretive old banker that he is. He says his word is his bond. Yet the record shows he trades in half-truths. 

There are examples when he broke the trust placed in him. When Newmarket Council called for the Chair of York Regional Council to be directly elected by voters at large (by a vote of 7-1) he broke that trust. At York Regional Council, in defiance of his own Council’s position, he voted for the status quo and for cronyism. 

Saints and sinners

When we elect an MP we are, of course, not electing a Saint nor, we hope, a sinner. But Van Bynen’s long municipal career is studded with sins of omission and commission.

He talks blithely of transparency and openness yet, even now, fails to tell the press about the full extent of his $162,739 severance package and how he requested payment of the huge slab of cash from York Region to be deferred from 2018 to 2019 “for tax planning purposes”. Is this what the Voice for Fiscal Prudence really means when he talks about “fiscal responsibility”? Telling us he will be watching out for our interests while looking after his own?

Against Code of Conduct

Van Bynen voted against the introduction of a Code of Conduct for York Region. These codes underpin the relationship between politicians and public. Earlier this year the Region was forced by law to adopt a Code. It calls on members “to act in a way that bears public scrutiny”. So I expect him to be fully transparent on the arrangements he made for his second severance payment of $67,068. 

Van Bynen addressed the issue of trust in an interview with Newmarket Today (while admitting ignorance about one of the major issues of this Liberal administration): 

“Trust is a one-on-one thing, I don’t know enough about the SNC-Lavalin issue to understand what’s going on there and, for me, it’s important that people make a local decision first and trust me as their local representative to take our issues to Ottawa… and I intend my community to hold me accountable to them.”

How can Van Bynen be properly held to account if his way of doing politics is to trade in half-truths or, indeed, conceal the whole truth?  

Glenway: no explanation

The former golf course at Glenway is now being redeveloped for housing but during the height of the controversy – when we saw enormous public meetings attracting many hundreds of residents - we were not told that Mayor Van Bynen and his Council had the opportunity to buy the golf course land in 2008 but turned it down. Here was an opportunity to protect open space but Van Bynen rejected it after an in-camera 20 minute discussion.

Later, when residents and the Council were doing a post-mortem on what went wrong at a so-called "Lessons learned" meeting, he chose to stay silent (other than thanking people for their contributions) offering no explanations for his actions. This failure to address issues head-on in an open and transparent way is entirely typical of the man.

"Polarity"

After the experience of Glenway, Van Bynen was desperate to cut a deal with the Clock Tower developer Bob Forrest. He told the ERA newspaper:

“We've learned through Glenway that polarity doesn't help anybody."

On the redevelopment of the Clock Tower he was less than candid. This was a major issue for the Town yet he told me in writing there had been no one-on-one meetings with Bob Forrest, the developer. Again, he was being economical with the actualité.

Clock Tower: there may have been one or two conversations

When pressed at a packed meeting of the Committee of the Whole on 18 April 2016 Van Bynen qualified his earlier statement:

"There may have been one or two phone conversations but they’ve been general in nature. They were about the project overview, the planning process and community issues. No commitments were given to support the application.

The week before Van Bynen had told the ERA newspaper that 

"The Clock Tower is a great example of the intensification we need."

He went on to support the redevelopment and ended up being in a minority of one. His “leadership” on this issue was rejected by every one of his Council colleagues.

Doug Ford's cuts

Now, as a newly minted Liberal candidate, he excoriates Doug Ford and his cuts but couldn’t find any time over the summer to talk to the paramedics, teachers, librarians and others who gathered outside Christine Elliott’s office every Friday protesting about the very same Provincial Government cuts. 

He now admits he doesn’t do that sort of thing.

Van Bynen retired after the October 2018 election but stayed on the Board of York Net Telecom - an entity wholly owned by York Region – as a “citizen member”. He is the only one.

The position is unremunerated.

But I had to check. 

I couldn’t take something like that on trust.

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Details

Read this first. Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora should be congratulated for organising the Federal Election candidates Q&A at the Old Town Hall last night. And the candidates (who turned up) all deserve a hearty round of applause. There was a good crowd there. We are indebted to Newmarket Today for telling us why the Conservative candidate, Lois Brown, was absent. According to her Campaign Manager, Peter Seemann, she had “a long-standing commitment” which clashed. 

When asked what that commitment was, Seemann said he couldn’t disclose the details, and added “it’s an event related to the campaign but it’s not a public event”.

What debate?

Last night’s “debate” at the Old Town Hall didn’t live up to its billing.

The atmosphere was hushed and overly respectful. The audience quiet and subdued. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. 

I found myself thinking: Come back Dorian Baxter!

It wasn’t a debate, it was a question and answer session with candidates sometimes reading their answers metronomically from scripts in front of them. Oh dear!

I know they can do better than that. But the format seemed to snuff out all spontaneity. Candidates weren’t invited to challenge each other. There were no rebuttals and few interactions. There were no sparks flying at any stage. Even when candidates made good points there was no applause to encourage them.

Subsidies are bad

The People’s Party of Canada candidate, Andrew McCaughtrie, is out of his depth. He has one string to his bow, ending subsidies. 

The Green candidate, Walter Bauer, comes prepared with his visual aid, a doomsday stick showing how all the parties’ commitments to tackle the climate emergency have failed and will fail, except, of course, the Greens. 

He says it is not a choice between tackling climate change and employment. Oil and gas jobs are readily transferable to construction and other industries.

The NDP’s Yvonne Kelly appears fluent and relaxed, getting the first laugh of the night with a dig at companies and corporate responsibility towards the environment.

“I haven’t seen much evidence of that (pause)…..  ever since I’ve been alive.”

The Liberal standard bearer, Tony Van Bynen, looks a bit red-faced and apprehensive to begin with but he soon chills out when he gets the measure of the event. The audience is respectful. Just the way he likes it.

Electoral reform

After questions to candidates from the Drawdown people things are opened up to the floor. Most are linked in some way to climate change but some other topics sneak in. The Greens and NDP are pushing for a change to the electoral system, arguing for PR. Van Bynen prefers the ranked ballot (which is not proportional). 

(The Liberals have abandoned their 2015 election pledge to move away from first-past-the-post.)

Van Bynen also breaks ranks with the official Liberal line when he says he wants a ban on handguns. 

There are questions on mental health, working with the Provinces, Canada’s indigenous peoples and arm sales to oppressive countries. There is another on the growth of populism worldwide. The Green’s Walter Bauer tells us we felt smug when the Americans voted in Donald Trump. 

“So we voted in Ford.” 

We chortle, quietly.

Now a question on addiction and opioids. It is 8pm and one hour into the event and Yvonne Kelly asks the moderator:

“Is it OK if I put my purse here.” (on the empty chair next to her)

“I guess Lois isn’t coming.”

This gets a laugh.

Stumped

All the candidates are stumped by a question about Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic once the ice melts and other countries want to use the North West Passage as an international waterway. A few fail to understand the question.

Now there is a clever question on climate change and the deficit. What’s the worst that can happen with both? As expected, the Greens come out fighting. Canada, with its relatively small population, is not responsible for most of the global heating now going on. But Walter Bauer tells us it’s not OK to pee in the pool.

I look around and see some famous faces suppressing smiles.

The Greens tell us we have 11 years left to do something before climate change accelerates and becomes irreversible. Van Bynen, the Voice for Fiscal Prudence and a gradualist by temperament and inclination, says that's impossible. It will take much longer.

Responsible debt

Now the Voice for Fiscal Prudence is telling us there are two kinds of deficits and we should have a balanced approach to debt. The old banker reminds us he once made a living doing this. 

“Sometimes that (balanced approach) involves incurring responsible debt.”

Oh! I see.

Now we are gently cantering towards the close and the moderator, Penny Stevens, thanks us for our questions. She says she didn’t know what to expect from the audience beforehand. But in the event she didn’t have to deal with any heckling.

More’s the pity.

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Update: And this is from Newmarket Today. Photo of Walter Bauer (above right) taken from Newmarket Today.

Updated on 28 September 2019 to include a reference to the Liberal Party abandoning its 2015 promise to get rid of first-past-the-post.

Details

Julie Cochrane, who died last Thursday, was a key figure in saving Newmarket’s historic Main Street from developers. She was the founder and driving force behind the citizens’ group “The Heart of Newmarket” which successfully persuaded the Council to reject hugely controversial plans to redevelop the Clock Tower and demolish historic commercial buildings on Main. 

That she did all this (and more) while battling cancer was truly remarkable.

I recall the first time I met her, sitting on the porch of her beautiful Botsford Street home, on a warm summer evening in 2016. The dog was sprawled over my feet as if we were old friends. This was often the place where she discussed plans for saving the old downtown. She was always enthusiastic and fizzing with ideas – some more practical than others! I suggested it was not a good idea to march on the Deputy Mayor’s house.

I came away with a plate of butter tarts from the Maid’s Kitchen.

Julie was a great motivator and good at getting the best out of people, coming up with long lists of things to be done – and allocating tasks if required. With her laughing smile and hallmark optimism she had the knack of making things happen. 

Julie was, of course, President of the Newmarket Group of Artists for many years and I saw her as a supremely creative person with great marketing flair – whether it was her design for the new Heart of Newmarket T shirts or her achingly funny campaign cartoons which were mini works-of-art in themselves.

Julie’s obituary in the Era newspaper paints a picture of a warm and engaging woman, surrounded by friends and family, who lived a fulfilling life but one that was cut short.

This Chinese proverb often featured at the bottom of her emails:

“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.”

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Details

Former Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen has been given a deadline of 9 October 2019 to tell York Region if he has any objection to their releasing to me the letter in which he claimed a severance payment of $67,068.33.

Van Bynen had already received a severance payment of $95,671 from the Town of Newmarket. 

The 69 year old Van Bynen did not seek re-election in October 2018.

In a letter to the Regional Treasurer Van Bynen asked for the payment to be deferred until 2019. When I met him at Tim Hortons on 13 September 2019 I asked why he did this. Was it to escape public scrutiny? If the $67,068 had been paid in 2018 it would have been publicly reported in March 2019.

Tax planning purposes

Van Bynen told me he asked for the deferral “for tax planning purposes”.

The money was duly paid by the Region on 24 January 2019. 

When asked by the press in June 2019 about his $95,671 severance payment from the Town of Newmarket he made no reference to the other one for $67,068 from York Region which had been paid into his bank account five months earlier. 

My Freedom of Information Request to York Region asks for sight of the letter from Van Bynen claiming the severance payment and for any documents about this from the Regional Treasurer.

Deadline for objections

York Region has told me my request for the disclosure of the records “may affect the privacy interests of a third party” (ie Van Bynen).

The Region says:

“In accordance with the Act (the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act), a third party whose interests may be affected is being given the opportunity to make representations about the release of the records. They have been provided with 20 days to make such representations, with a deadline of October 9, 2019.”

A decision will be made by October 20 – the day before the Federal Election - on whether or not the record will be released. But if Van Bynen does not raise any objections it is likely I will get the decision before then.

Openness and transparency

I hope Van Bynen agrees to the release of his letter claiming the cash. After all, down through the years he has always said he believes in openness and transparency. 

We know the facts in broad outline. What we don’t have is the letter itself. 

The relevant sections of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act are found at s14 and s21.

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Voters deserve facts

See also: Tony Van Bynen insists voters deserve the facts.

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