Thursday 8 January 2015

Did John Taylor Rig the Newmarket Election?

The CAO of the Town of Newmarket is linking John Taylor's possible breach of the Code of Conduct to Section III Conflict of Interest "Use Town property or Town employees for personal gain or for any private purpose."

I am not sure if that's the real breach.  Also in Section III is a prohibition to: "Solicit, demand or accept any services from any civic employee for re-election purposes during the hours in which the employee is in the paid service of the Town."

From the document that was forwarded to me, (here is the link:  http://www.newmarketchildrensdream.ca/pdfs/Registration2014.pdf), clearly shows us that a Town of Newmarket employee was the only person responsible for registering golfers.  These activities would have happened during office hours at the Town of Newmarket because the instructions to drop the form off to the employee at the Town Hall could only happen during working hours.  The municipal building is otherwise locked.   

John Taylor prominently featured his accomplishments with Children's Dream Charity as a key focus of his election campaign material.  He boasted on his website about raising $200,000 through this charity for Newmarket kids here:  http://votejohntaylor.ca/track-record/  (Of note, in the Era article, Taylor pegged the amount raised at $100,000 so there may be a book keeping issue that needs to be looked at). 

I believe, if the investigation finds that John Taylor used his staff for an event that he set up to be featured in his re-election campaign, then he is guilty of a far more serious offence.  He may have actually subverted or corrupted the results of the Newmarket election. 

Let's hope that the CAO does not delay this investigation.  It is a matter that runs to the legitimacy of John Taylor to hold office. 

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