Newmarket’s candidate for Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor, Tom Vegh, told Newmarket Today he had only missed two meetings of York Region and the Town in the 2022-2026 term when he missed 18. 

The true number of missed meetings was readily available from Council minutes - authoritative and incontrovertible evidence. The paper subsequently confirmed the “two” wasn’t a typo. 

I thought it was a big story as it pointed to Vegh's willingness to invent stuff. It's like he lives in his own alternative universe with his own alternative facts.

In the same article, Vegh claimed his expense record:

“… reflects a responsible and careful approach to public funds. Each year, I used approximately 50-75 per cent of my allowable office budget,” treated public funds with care and accountability.”

In fact, he claimed 78.55% of his office budget in 2023 and 85.06% in 2025 but why should I make a big song and dance about that? Both figures were below the allowable threshold. Cut the man some slack.

Message Received

But there is a pattern to Vegh’s politics. He makes claims he cannot substantiate and no one takes him to task, sticking with the question. When I contacted Tom via his election website to ask him about his attendance record I got an automated reply saying he had received my message. When I asked about his 2018 promise to triple the number of subsidised seniors housing units, giving me the baseline figure he used and the current number, I got the same "message received".

Vegh believes If he says nothing it will all blow over and he'll be back on the public payroll again. 

In the United States Donald Trump has normalised lying. It is impossible to keep up with him. Every day there’s a torrent of new lies. Americans have learned to live with it.

Fact-checking

All that got me thinking about Newmarket Today and whether it has any responsibility to its readers to fact-check. I started out thinking NT had an absolute duty to correct statements that were manifestly untrue. Then, on reflection, I realised this was simply asking too much. Where does it all end? Do we expect NT to verify the accuracy of Vegh’s statement that he attended 900+ events in the 2022-2026 Council term? Of course not. 

When so many places in Canada are news deserts, we are very lucky to have Newmarket Today which provides us with some terrific journalism. 

It doesn’t do fact checking. It reports what it is told.

And that’s OK.

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