62 days to go.
Not that he’s counting the days till he hangs up his Chain of Office for the last time, but Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen knows exactly how many days remain in his final term in the town’s top job.
“It gives me a sense of urgency,” he said, in explaining why he has started the countdown. “I have a lot of things to do before Nov. 26” — his official last day.
He checked off his to-do list the final Mayor in the Square yesterday at Riverwalk Commons.
It was a bittersweet end to his signature monthly tradition of bringing the mayor, unplugged, to the people.
Since 2006, when he was first elected as mayor, every month of the year except for December, he came to a bench in Market Square, or Newmarket Public Library when it was too cold to sit outside, inviting residents to drop by for a chat.
About 150 people did just that yesterday for the Farewell Mayor in the Square, including Terry Carter, a friend who was on his election team, who suggested he hold the regular event to be accessible to citizens.
“It has been fun, very positive,” he said, looking back on 12 years of the informal get-togethers.
“People shared some constructive ideas, some were our ’eyes and ears’,” he said.
Sometimes it was as straightforward as alerting him to an eyesore — a couch dumped under the Queen Street bridge, for instance — or a hazard that needed repair.
“There was only one time when it was awkward, when the bear was shot, that a guy went ballistic,” he said.
(Just Google “black bear shot”, it’s the top hit, and you’ll see all the details of the infamous 2015 incident when a black bear was roaming through Newmarket backyards.)
At the heart of it, he enjoys meeting people, which has been a key component of every job he has held, the former banker said.
Ten-year Newmarket resident Michael Storey, who hadn’t met the mayor before, said he dropped by to wish him luck, as well as thank him for the many accomplishments during his terms as mayor.
The history teacher said he is proud to live in a town with a world-class hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre, a historic downtown that has preserved our heritage, and offers sustainable environmental initiatives.
Van Bynen had many “full circle” moments as a steady stream of visitors came by, including Don and Carol Laidlaw who allowed him to stake his first election sign on their front lawn.
The mayor was an early adapter to social media, seeing it as another method of communicating with constituents about the many "good people and things happening in town".
He has become adept at taking selfies and has always managed his own posts, which included ‘thank you’ tweets yesterday to the people who took the time to help mark his last Mayor in the Square.
While he is stepping down from politics after first being elected as a councillor 18 years ago, he said he will continue to be involved in his community, volunteering with Southlake Foundation and Oasis, a centre for bereavement and healing that his daughter, Michelle Nye, has established.
He added he’s looking forward to spending some time in the extensive garden his daughter, Christine Glenn, has cultivated, while recalling his childhood on his parents’ 50-acre farm near London, ON.
He and his siblings had the annual chore of harvesting the 10-acre cucumber field ― “There’s nothing like 10 acres of cucumbers to make you appreciate the fact you have five brothers and five sisters”, said the mayor, who is renowned for his (corny) jokes and puns at which you can’t help but laugh, or groan.
Rather than turn him off gardening — or cucumbers — those experiences gave him an appreciation not only for working in the soil, but also for the opportunity to think in solitude, he said.
61 days to go.
