[1] Markin found himself at the centre of controversy during this campaign when seventy-three work orders were mandated for a tenant house that he had recently purchased from a family-owned business.
He was hospitalized near the end of the campaign, after a large dog chased him down a street where he was canvassing and caused him to trip over a sewer grate.
He wrote a letter to Toronto Transit Commission chairman Gordon Hurlburt in early 1978, arguing that the cost of a subway art and architecture preview was unwarranted.
Markin was arrested on December 9, 1982, after agreeing to sell $3,000 worth of cocaine to an undercover police officer.
The presiding judge determined that Markin had advertised himself to the officer as a major player in the cocaine business, but found that there was no solid evidence to back up this claim.