Random Access

It’s a case of trying to follow in his daughter’s footsteps for Thomas Thomas, who has registered to run for Ward 5 trustee on the Dufferin-Peel Catholic Separate School Board.
Thomas’ daughter Tracy was the surprise winner of the 2003 race when Rick Falco tried unsuccessfully to get himself elected to City council.
Still a student in computer science at York when she won, Thomas has a new career with Mississauga’s Hewlett-Packard and has decided not to seek re-election because she travels a lot and her new career is very demanding of her time. That’s one of the reasons for her spotty attendance record at board meetings.
There were already three well-qualified candidates (Hilda Andrade, Clarence Clarke and Rosemary Rosanova Shields) in the race when Thomas made up her mind not to run and her Dad jumped into the race.
Thomas was a Dufferin-Peel trustee representing Ward 4 from 1988-91 when he lost a close three-way race. He ran again unsuccessfully in 1994 and, after being convicted of election fraud as a result of voting irregularities in that campaign, he was banned from running for election in 1997.
Perhaps inspired by Cliff Gyles, who ran for re-election in 2003 just a few months after being convicted of two counts of municipal corruption and two counts of breach of trust, Thomas also ran for Ward 5 councillor, collecting 290 votes or 2.34 per cent of the vote.
His conviction is old news that no one is interested in except the media, Thomas said this morning. “That was a long time back,” he said. “I don’t know why people want to bring it back. Ninety per cent of the people don’t even know about it. It’s just the media that bring it up.”
The conviction is probably not even on his official record anymore since it’s been more than a decade since the conviction, he said. “It’s the media who want to keep the thing going.”
It’s understandable that Thomas would like to minimize his brush with the law. His point that most people in the ward probably don’t know about it, however, is precisely why the media should report it.
Past records are always scrutinized intently at election time, as well they should be. Even those little white lies on CVs and election brochures have come back to haunt many a candidate.
It is inevitable that candidates will have to speak to their records, even if they were not convicted. Mississauga Ward 6 candidate Ron Starr had fraud charges against him in conjunction with the operation of a charitable group’s summer camp dropped in April 2002, but you can bet he will be asked about it and you can bet he’ll have a response ready.
At least two candidates in this municipal election have restraining orders against them requiring them to keep a certain distance away from City Hall and the incumbents they hope to replace, as part of their bail conditions. They haven’t been convicted of anything as their trials are still pending.
But if there is a possibility of electing someone to City council who may not be legally allowed to attend the inaugural meeting at city hall, isn’t it the public’s right to know that?