Oro-Medonte candidate says he’s victim of ‘smear’ campaign

Councillor vying for same ward seat says he’s setting record straight
By NATHAN TAYLOR THE PACKET & TIMES – October 8 2010
 A candidate for Oro-Medonte Township council is accusing his incumbent rival of conducting a “smear” campaign.
Gord Roehner got his hands on a photo of his property, handed out by Ward 4 Coun. John Crawford. The photo has been labelled, indicating the site of provincially significant wetlands and pointing out the “protect our water” sign and “mounds of stripped topsoil” on Roehner’s property.
With the photo, Crawford has supplied a 2007 letter from Roehner to the township, stating Roehner’s plans to build a pond on his property. The reason for the approximately 20-acre pond, he said, is to help with wildlife preservation.
“I’m not doing anything wrong in this particular project to hurt the environment,” Roehner said.
Crawford said he has provided the image and letter to “maybe four” people, only to those have heard “untruths” from Roehner regarding the township’s plans for the TRY Recycling site — a construction-material recycling operation being considered for a site on the Oro Moraine.
“I plan on taking the high road, but when I heard some of the stuff, I thought I should expose some of the things in that letter, which is public record,” Crawford said. “I felt that it was necessary.”
One of the “untruths” Roehner allegedly told was that garbage would be buried on that site, Crawford said.
Roehner disputed that claim.
“As far as I’m aware, I’ve not given any misinformation out about TRY Recycling,” he said.
Roehner stressed he was not against recycling, but he did take issue with the proposed site. Also, the image “justifies my concerns about the TRY Recycling facility proposed almost across from the environmentally sensitive provincially significant wetlands marked by Mr. Crawford on the picture,” he said.
“Potential contaminants would certainly impact on them and further downstream to Lake Simcoe, in my opinion,” Roehner said.
Crawford said Roehner’s pond plans are “a little hypocritical.”
“If you really want to protect the water, you shouldn’t be digging in a watershed,” he said.
Roehner said he became aware of the image when a Ward 4 constituent brought it to his attention. He said Crawford “knew all along” of his plans to create the pond.
“Why is he attacking me at this particular time? Election,” he guessed.
Crawford insisted he was not trying to smear Roehner.
“I’m trying to point out that this is what I have a record of at the township. There it is,” he said. “People take me for who I am and I hope this election doesn’t get into some of the dirty stuff that’s getting into the deputy mayor’s race, because that’s not the type of campaign I like to run.”