Strange twists in North Frontenac

Jeff Green | Oct 20, 2014

As municipal voting week started early this week, voters in North Frontenac were already reeling as information about the campaign kept coming out.

The election started on a tragic note when Mayor Bud Clayton, who had been seeking re-election, took sick at a municipal conference in London, and died two weeks later in a London hospital - on September 1, just 12 days before the close of nominations.

The campaign ended on a sad note as well, with the death of Monica Perry, the wife of Deputy Mayor Fred Perry, after a long illness, just two days before the start of voting.

Aside from these fateful events there have been a number of oddities to the campaign.

During an all-candidates meeting in Plevna, incumbent Gerry Martin, who is seeking re-election in ward 2, made an unusual response to a question about the use of consultants by the township.

He took the opportunity to vent his anger about the application of the Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value provisions that were mandated by the Province of Ontario and led to changes in the salary grid for North Frontenac

Martin was upset that some of the administrative positions at the township office now are paid as well as road crew jobs. But it was not his views that left people talking, rather it was a turn of phrase he used on several occasions.

“I don't think little girls pushing pencils should be paid as much as men driving plows late at night,” he said, which led to a further exchange with someone in the audience a the meeting.

(See video below)

The next twist in the campaign, came with the revelation that one of the candidates, Denis Bedard in ward 3, was at one time convicted of fraud and breach of trust over actions that he took in the workplace while employed as a regional municipal planning engineer in Fort Simpson, NWT. The incidents took place in July 1996, and the conviction in November of 2000 in Yellowknife.

Bedard was sentenced to 15 months house arrest and 200 hours of community service.

When contacted about the matter, Denis Bedard described the incidents were “mistakes I made almost 20 years ago, during a real bad chapter in my life.”

The township of Mississippi Mills, for whom Bedard worked as Public Works Manager until 2003, when he purchased a marina and moved to North Frontenac, were aware of the convictions. He received a federal pardon in 2003, which he needed in order to drive a school bus and join the Fire department after moving to North Frontenac.

“To tell you the truth it did not occur to me to disclose this when I decided to run for Council,” he said, “for one thing it was long ago and I have received a pardon, which is not that easy to get, and also I have never hidden my past. Everyone on the fire department knew about it and I didn't think it was a secret.”

While the story about Denis Bedard has been circulating around the township for over a week, this last weekend a story about web addresses came out.

The .ca addresses for Mayoralty candidate Ron Higgins, ward 2 candidate Betty Hunter, and ward 1 candidate Wayne Good lead to the website of mayoralty candidate Claudio Valentini.

It turns that, as part of his web campaign for Mayor, Valentini purchased over 20 names with the .ca address in anticipation that they may be running. These included Bettyhunter.ca, Waynegood.ca, Budclayton,ca, and Vernonhermer.ca. Two weeks later, when Ron Higgins entered the race, at that point as a candidate for councillor in ward 2, Valentini secured Ronhiggins.ca.

The urls cost $9.95 per year.

A number of other candidates .ca addresses were already taken up when Valentini attempted to secure them, either by themselves (Fred Fowler) or by other people who have the same name as them (John Inglis, Fred Perry, Denis Bedard)

When contacted, Claudio Valentini said that securing the .ca addresses was “a matter of search engine optimization. I wanted to create more opportunities to get my message out and with the cost of sign being about $12 this was a good deal

He said that in some cases, those of what he calls his allies, he offered to set up a web page for them under their .ca address.

One of them, Vernon Hermer, took him up on the offer.

“When he was running for council, I thought Ron Higgins might be an ally, and I would have set up a page for him,” Valentini said.

He added that he did not contact Berry Hunter or Wayne Good to make the same offer.

“They are not my allies,” he said to Valentini's site. It now goes to Clayton's obituary.

For his part Ron Higgins said that he was approached by Claudio Valentini in July about joining his alliance, but turned him down.

“Although we share some of the same positions on issues, I did not think an alliance among candidates was appropriate,” Higgins said.

As for his name being used to direct traffic to his opponents website, Higgins said “I think that really speaks for itself. There is not much I can add.”