Drinking and Driving is a Newmarket Election Issue

3 years have passed since Chris Emanuel plead guilty to driving while impaired.  Here is the Toronto Star reporting on this crime:  http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/08/16/councillor_fined_for_driving_drunk.html

This story, in the context of a municipal election, is more relevant than ever.

Voters in Ward 7 won't be able to vote Emanuel out of office.  He isn't running for re-election.

But the Mayor, who downplayed Emanuel's crime as the folly of youth, can certainly be held to account.  The Mayor's antagonistic attitude towards community members who were appalled by the crime showed a man who was out of touch with ethical standards.

So should Regional Councillor Taylor be held to account.  It was Taylor who pleaded against demanding Emanuel's council resignation.  Taylor promised us that Emanuel was essential in blocking the Glenway development.  It turns out that Emanuel's involvement in this dispute only increased the number of homes to be built through an ill-advised 'all or nothing' OMB hearing.

Councillor Kerwin called Emanuel a friend and spoke about the work that Emanuel did on council.  Voters should challenge Kerwin to name a successful council initiative led by Emanuel in the past three years.  There aren't any.

And finally, council hopeful Kelly Broome Plumley needs to answer for her decision to name Emanuel a community hero via a New Roads Kia blog.  The corporate headquarters of Kia Canada had to formally denounce that move in light of Kia's support of MADD Canada.  It was a serious lapse in judgement and a slap in the face of all victims of drunk drivers.

While voters may not be able to punish Councillor Emanuel's misdeeds, there are others on the ballot who should face voters' wrath.  When the candidate knocks on your door, please tell them where you stand on the issue of drinking and driving.

The First Attack Ad of the Municipal Campaign Comes from Tony Van Bynen

Tony Van Bynen must have had a bad week.

After weeks of negative public feedback about his Davis Drive debacle, he's resorted to what he does best: attacking the person who has brought it to light: Councillor Di Muccio.

In Tony Van Bynen's "positive" Newmarket, when things get desperate, it's best he attack through third parties - regardless of how fringe they might be.

Last week, Councillor Di Muccio wrote a blog asking why a member of Tony Van Bynen's and ward 6 candidate Kelly Broome Plumley's campaign team was encouraging Davis Drive businesses to make a claim against York Region, with the use of tax payer dollars, for the inconvenience of lost revenue that construction may have had on their businesses. Councillor Di Muccio (presumably out of respect) didn't name the individual who made the claims in her blog. She wrote this blog because after speaking with management at York Region, she discovered there was no such compensation. In fact, Van Bynen opponent, Chris Campbell, confirmed Councillor Di Muccio's position with his own phone calls to York Region.

Something smells bad at the Old Boy Club Headquarters in Newmarket.

What is a desperate Mayor Van Bynen to do? Ask one of his acolytes to attack Councillor Di Muccio through his opponent's campaign team.

Here's an email I received from Councillor Di Muccio this morning. It was written by a member of Mayor candidate Chris Campbell's campaign team:

"...this Doug Brown guy is Chris Campbells election campaign social media guy.  I sat next to him the other day (editor's note: at Chris Campbell's campaign meeting) and he sent me a FB friend request.  ‎He seemed reasonable in past FB posts and had no reason to be concerned.  I can't believe what he posted on FB about your opinion on the fact or fiction of any reported financial assistance to businesses on Davis Drive.  

Chris Campbell posted on his blog exactly the same opinion as you (editor's note - referring to Councillor Di Muccio) , as confirmed by the Region and Viva Next contacts he spoke with confirming that no financial assistance available to Davis Drive businesses directly opposing Jim Alexander's comments yet Campbell's social media guy trashes you for having the same exact opinion?  This is totally berzerko world?  

I smell a trap being set and caution is advised with this guy.....Either Chris Campbell doesn't know that his social media guy is a Tony Van Bynen plant or Chris Campbell himself is a Tony Van Bynen plant. 

Something stinks here.. Newmarket politics is truly messed up."

Who is Doug Brown? Doug Brown is Newmarket Free Press (@newmktfreepress and @aralai), the same individual who posted the negative attack letter from Tony Van Bynen's ally, Jim Alexander. Most of Jim Alexander's negative letter is focused on attacking Councillor Di Muccio without actually defending his position of making claims against York Region in what we can only presume is a hush hush you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours program.

How can Doug Brown attack Councillor Di Muccio when his own candidate, Chris Campbell, holds the same position as her?

There's only one easy answer: this is Tony Van Bynen's Newmarket.

And on voting day remember: it's yours too.

It's time to take it back.

Compensation for Davis Drive? Why not Glenway?

On January 8, 2013, I exposed the curious ties between the people behind the group opposing Slessor Square, the Glenway Preservation Association, the Town of Newmarket and the Newmarket Aurora Liberal Party Association.  I think taxpayers would be wise to pay attention to these links because millions of your public funds have been spent at the behest/ direction of the very few people who cross over between these groups.

I recall that many Glenway home owners asked about compensation as a result of the Marianneville development.  These home owners paid a premium to have a property that backed on to a lush golf course.  With Mayor Van Bynen and the Glenway Preservation Association (lead by Ward 7 council hopeful Christina Bisanz, herself a former unsuccessful Liberal Party candidate), having bungled the OMB hearing, these same home owners are out of pocket 10's of thousands in terms of home equity.  These home owners are victims of the Mayor and Glenway Preservation Association's insistence on playing hard ball with a developer who was very willing to negotiate for fewer homes.  Hard ball tactics seldom lead to winning solutions.

The money lost by Glenway home owners in this fiasco will never be recovered.  The lot premiums are gone.  Residents depending on home equity for a secure retirement must make up that money in some other way.

Compare this scenario to another case of compensation, one that Mayor Van Bynen apparently approves of.  A close ally of the Mayor is announcing that public funds will be made available to businesses along Davis Drive who have been hit by lost revenue due to the bus lane construction.

Pay no attention that, unlike Glenway homes, this construction inconvenience is only temporary.

And Newmarket taxpayer, pay no mind that the person who announced this compensation, has multiple locations and a large corporation behind him to ensure his brand will be just fine.  Jim Alexander is not laying awake at night worrying about being able to afford retirement.

And finally, let's not busy our thoughts with the fact that the people who are forcing this bus lane through and forcing us to accommodate another 45,000 new residents are the Liberal Government at Queen's Park.

Because these same Liberal Party members want your vote, (including former Liberal Party candidates John Taylor and Christina Bisanz).  And once they are on council, they'll be able to take care of their wealthy friends, like Jim Alexander, while ordinary home owners can go get stuffed.

Friends of Tony Compensation Plan for Davis Drive

Over a year ago, before it became trendy to talk about it, I raised the alarm about the plight of small businesses on Davis Drive.  You can read my July 24, 2013 blog here:  http://www.nwkttownhall.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-businesses-on-davis-drive-in.html

I read with a raised eyebrow that the owner of Tim Hortons is promoting some type of government compensation for lost business revenue due to the bus lane construction along Davis Drive.  To wit. Jim Alexander writes (via Twitter) "Since the start the Region and VIVA included a process to claim for documented business loss.  I am working thru it now."

As a Davis Drive business owner, I have never been contacted by anyone related to the loss revenue sustained by my business which resulted in lay offs to offset business losses.

Ward 6 Councillor, Maddie Di Muccio, has this to say about possible compensation:  http://maddiedimuccio.webs.com/apps/blog/show/42555522-government-compensation-for-davis-drive-businesses-fact-or-fiction-

Now, I have no reason to doubt that Tim Hortons Newmarket (even though this owner has multiple locations in Newmarket and significant corporate advertising budgets to bolster his business) is receiving some taxpayer funds.

But I do doubt that there will be money for the rest of us.  It simply won't happen.

If there is a going to funds made available, it will be done on the "Friends of Tony" basis.  Long term businesses noted with some chagrin that Tim Hortons on Davis Drive received priority response to construction issues while the rest of us had large vehicles and pylons blocking drive ways.  That's because he is a close friend and ally of Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen.

So when you promote your 5 for the Drive tweets, perhaps you should give the big conglomerates a pass and help out the smaller businesses.  It will give Jim Alexander more time to work with the Region for compensation while the rest of us just hang on.

Ward 6 Candidate Kelly Broome Plumley? You have some explaining to do ...

Editor's Note:  The following blog post is not written by Nwkt Town Hall Watch.  It is attributed to the John4Newmarket Tumblr page and John Blommesteyn (originally published on June 23, 2014).  It is being reprinted here in the public interest as Kelly Broome Plumley is a candidate for Newmarket Town Counci:

 

John4Newmarket

Elect John Blommesteyn Newmarket Town Council

Elect John Blommesteyn Newmarket Town Council

One of the most important prerequisites for elected office are our values.  When circumstances call for tough decisions, the community must have faith that the moral fibre of our elected representatives remains strong.  This faith in our elected officials is the foundation of our democracy. 

 

It goes without saying that plagiarism is bad.  But if a candidate for Town Council plagiarizes in a section of her website entitled “My Values”, can she be trusted?  Taking another author’s work word-for-word and claiming them as her own is simply wrong. 

 

The top photo comes from Newmarket Ward 6 candidate Kelly Broome Plumley’s web page.  The bottom photo comes from the Go Daddy template that I purchased to set up my own page.  Clearly, Ms. Broome Plumley has some explaining to do about the section entitled, ”My Values” on her web page

.

I am proud to say that I don’t need to take my list of values from another author.  And Newmarket residents can rest easy knowing that you can rely on my value set to lead us to a prosperous future. 

Christina Bisanz: Giving voters the opportunity that Chris Emanuel denied them

I know that I am not in the minority when I admit that I was disappointed when Chris Emanuel decided not to seek re-election because he denied the voters here the opportunity to vote him out of office. 

And so today I am happy to see Christina Bisanz (former President of the Glenway Preservation Association) put her name forward as a municipal candidate. 

This is the moment that Newmarket voters have been waiting for. 

Newnarket taxpayers are disgusted when they learn that the Town of Newmarket wasted approximately $1,000,000 to fight -- and lose -- the Marianneville development project at the OMB.  The Town's refusal to negotiate with the developer cost Glenway residents dearly and Christina Bisanz is one of the most visible "masterminds" behind that doomed strategy.   

And let's be clear that $1,000,000 is not an insignificant sum of money to waste in the town of Newmarket.  It could have been put to better use building splash pads in every corner of the town, for example.  It is a lot of money to waste on lawyers and consultants without any actual return benefiting the people of Newmarket.

With Christina Bisanz in the race, voters can now put a face to the $1,000,000 Glenway/OMB fiasco and cast their vote in favour of the wasting this money or against it. 

(With the final property tax bills coming due, it isn't hard to imagine your own portion of that $1,000,000 tab). 

So thank you, Christina Bisanz, for giving Newmarket voters the opportunity that Chris Emanuel denied them.  I am certain that with her in the race, voter turnout is going to near 100% as voters vent their anger at the ballot box. 

What to do if you are a Newmarket-Aurora PC member?

Picture someone turning on the kitchen lights in a run down house and watching the cockroaches scurry for dark corners.  This analogy cannot be one that the local Ontario PC'ers want connected to them.

Yet, is there a more apt way of describing this?:  http://m.yorkregion.com/news-story/4611941-mpp-pressured-somerville-out-of-newmarket-aurora-pc-race-document/

Councillor Maddie Di Muccio has every right to be furious.  She has been falsely accused of criminal activity.  I hope that she channels her anger to making some real changes in the local political scene. 

The grass roots members of the local PC Party should be even more furious.  This so-far-unnamed-MPP who is hiding in the dark corners, has schemed and plotted to ensure that local democracy was subverted/ hijacked.  

If the unnamed-MPP responsible for pressuring Mr. Somerville continues to sit within caucus (which I personally doubt), he/she needs to be exposed for their undemocratic behaviour and unceremoniously dumped from caucus.  There is no way for the PC Party to escape its dirty Tim Hudak past if new leader Jim Wilson and party president Richard Ciano leave this matter uninvestigated and festering like an open wound. 

Mr. Somerville has been exposed as a snake.  He issued a press release saying that his family was threatened but if you read today's article, Mr. Somerville did not repeat that claim.  Now he says he dropped out of the race, "to minimize the harm caused to his family, reputation and career", says the article's author. 

A threat is a criminal act punishable with jail time.  Public embarrassment caused as a result of being a terribly flawed candidate for public office, is not a matter for either the police or the courts.  Mr. Somerville would be wise to remember this truth. 

The eventual acclaimed candidate, and subsequent loser, isn't named in the article but her presence behind the scenes can be clearly felt.  Nobody believed that Jane Twinney would prevail over either Somerville or Di Muccio in a fair and open vote.  Twinney's only chance of winning the nomination was through stabbing her competitors in the back, and that is exactly what she set out to do.  The fact that she lost this long-held, never-voted-any-way-other-than-PC seat is a testament to the wisdom of the voting public which simply didn't accept Twinney as an authentic conservative. 

And for anyone who believes that the outcome of the Newmarket-Aurora went Liberal in the last election had anything to do with this undemocratic candidate selection, I say, you are wrong.  The PC'ers lost because they ran a bad campaign with a really bad candidate.  Jane Twinney could not sell Tim Hudak's platform because she isn't actually a conservative. 

Jane Twinney's voting record on Newmarket Council is to the left of the political spectrum.  She never passed up a chance to tax and spend and abuse her position to block transparency.  When she tried to do a 180, voters simply never bought her act. 

My advice to the local PC'ers is simple: the PC'ers need to distance themselves from the charlatans associated with Frank Klees and his gang of dunder-heads.  Recognize that Klees's jealousy caused the party to back the wrong candidate and lose the Newmarket-Aurora seat to the Liberals. 

The local PC'ers need to move beyond Frank Klees and make peace with the Newmarket Councillor who should have been the party's candidate. The riding needs to rebuild.  If you don't take my advice, it won't be too long for the Newmarket-Aurora riding to become a Liberal-stronghold just like the rest of York Region.