Did Kelly cheat?

At the time of the 2014 Ward 6 election, candidates were permitted to spend up to a maximum of $12,661.05. Councillor Kelly Broome filed documents with the Town Clerk showing that she spent just shy of that limit but she raised over $15,800 in cash donations and "in kind" materials.

Despite what was officially filed with the Clerk in accordance with the Municipal Elections Act, the most controversial election pamphlet of the 2014 municipal campaign was unaccounted for in the documents filed with the Clerk. These pamphlets that were mailed to voters homes by Canada Post were written under the pseudonym "Newmarket Town Hall Watch", and they arrived in mail boxes just days prior to voting. Filled with falsehoods and distortions about Kelly Broome's opponent, the pamphlets went off like a bombshell during the campaign.

Nobody contested Kelly Broome's victory at the ballot box in 2014. Today, people may feel differently.

After years of investigation into who was behind "Newmarket Town Hall Watch", the matter drew to a close in a Newmarket Court room on December 5, 2016 when Deputy Judge Elliot Goldstein ordered Canada Post to release the documents showing who was behind the mailing.

The Canada Post invoice showed that 9,291 pamphlets were delivered to Newmarket households starting after October 17, 2014. The order was placed by Tip Top Bindery out of Scarborough on behalf of Snap Newspaper Group. The mailing went out of the Mississauga postal station located on Dixie Road.

In 2014 and today, Councillor Kelly Broome describes herself as an event photographer, videographer and writer for Snap.

At that time Councillor Broome spoke out against these pamphlets calling them "wrong."

On October 21, 2014, Kelly Broome wrote: 'We need to reject the politics of division. I have always run a positive campaign and will continue to do so right until the final vote is cast.’

With recently revealed evidence that her own employer and benefactor was behind the "Newmarket Town Hall Watch" pamphlets, The Town of Newmarket Bulletin gave Ms. Broome an opportunity to comment again on what Snap had done for her. She did not reply to our request for her comment.

Questions remain if it is legal for a candidate who has reached her campaign spending limit to have a third party advertise on her behalf while using a pseudonym.