As politics would have it, both the NDP and the Liberal Party held nomination meetings Sunday for the bylection to be held, maybe this fall, to replace Bob Rae in the riding of Toronto Centre-Rosedale. The NDP picked Linda McQuaig (inset top) famous stormy petrel from the pages of the Toronto Star. It is said of Ms McQuaig that she has never seen a status quo she did not wish to topple. Over at the Liberal nomination, the riding membership voted to have Chrystia Freeland (inset lower) described as an “international journalist”, represent the Justin Trudeau party when the election is called. We are indebted to the Star for the specifics of these two victories, although the information is widely available on the Internet. Reading the Star for information about politics is to be reminded that there is no prism like their own prism for reporters to espy stories about reporters. Susan Delacourt leads off her report like this:
Toronto, no stranger to newspaper wars, now has a whole new kind of media war looming in the Toronto Centre byelection — the battle of the former journalists. Just so. Somewhere after this byelection comes the lurking redistribution of federal constituencies. It will not apply until at least the general election of 2015. As it stands, the former Rae bastion of Toronto Centre will be chopped into two or more pieces. The most improbable of the new ridings is that of
University-Rosedale. It’s political affinity cannot be known. UR would contain Moore Park (and possibly Bennington Heights) Rosedale, Bloor Street West and the U of T, Chinatown and much else. The Chinese demographic has been well-courted by the Conservatives. It seems careless of the CP not to be busier here than they appear to have been.
