Month: September 2016

The link leads to an un-bylined CBC story quoting a professor and a local ethnic reporter which suggests Ontario’s hydro electric planning — using the term loosely — may have cost the Liberals their former stronghold of Scarborough Rouge-River in Thursday’s byelection. That and other pocketbook issues are seen as more important perhaps that the sex education issue. There is a genuinely nutty, upside-down quality to the economics of electricity generation on Ontario which sees consumers paying more for power even though they economize.  Meanwhile, excess generation is sold off to U.S. states for a fraction of the cost per kilowatt hour paid at home. CBC

Planning staff are advising City Council to get ready for a fight at the Ontario Municipal Board to stop a 15-storey mixed use development which would be built beside the Avenue Road LRT station. The site includes Yitz’s Deli and the nondescript shops to the west. The whole parcel is known as 346, 350, 352 and 356 Eglinton Ave. West  It is yet another example of the development earthquake triggered by the LRT. Most of Eglinton is zoned mid-rise — seven to eight storeys — more than enough sun-blocking concrete for the people of these neighborhoods. But the money to be made by going much higher threatens to bring the bylaws crashing down from the Allen Road to the Don Valley.

 

Samsung suspended sales of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on Friday just two weeks after introducing it as word spread that batteries of some of the phones exploded while they were charging. Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile business, said customers who already bought Note 7s will be able to swap them for new smartphones, regardless of when they purchased them. Canadian Customers may call 1-800-SAMSUNG for additional information. CNN report below.

The Canadian Farmers’ Almanac has done what it needed to do with a bold September 1 prediction that the winter of 2016-17 will be cold and snowy. That is, get some attention. Yeah. Keeping in mind that it has been known to snow in Canada, this forecast is a bit like the old joke that it will be dark tonight and light tomorrow. The forecast was made to the CBC. In recent years meteorologists have concluded that the ability to predict events so far in advance is zero.

The Toronto Maple Leafs tweeted some history Friday to show the team’s new logo being painted on centre ice at the Air Canada Centre. The design, commissioned to mark the team’s centennial season, was revealed in February. It was the first time in 45 years the Leafs introduced a new logo. The new look is a fresh take on the classic Maple Leaf emblem that was used from the 1940s to the 1960s. It will serve as the team’s primary crest beginning in the 2016-17 season. The logo, with some slight alterations, aligns most closely to a version used from 1963 to 1967. Will the new logo inspire a whole string of Stanley Cups. It is a dreamers paradise.

Maple Leafs' new logo unveiled on centre ice at the ACC – CBC.ca https://t.co/35hJ4dp3um

— TM Leafs Tweet (@TMLeafsTweet) September 2, 2016

Police want to talk to this man about break-ins in the Bayview Village area. The photos below show the perpetrator walking through a home in the neighborhood in the early morning hours of Sept. 1. He gets into homes where doors are not secured. He is between 20 and 30 years old with a medium build and a goatee. This time he was wearing a baseball hat, a grey hoodie with ‘Nike’ on the front, long, grey athletic-type shorts and dark running shoes.

 

Don Valley West MP Rob Oliphant continues his public meetings into September and October focussed on electoral reform. In a release this week he recalls that the Liberal government in Ottawa promised a new voting system. The prospect of such a thing — in whatever form — has the potential to both terrify and delight partisans. The commonest reforms discussed by those who think about the matter are proportional representation and so-called ranked ballots. Proportional representation is intended to somehow give parties that don’t actually win in the conventional fashion a limited place in the Legislature.

PIZZA PARLIAMENT?

It is seen in Italy where it has given rise to the derisive term “pizza parliament” — a place sliced up into assorted parties. It is also seen in Israel where proportionality seems to be the sole determinant of how seats are distributed. Critics say it tends to make the “big tent” parties less inclusive and encourage single issue splinters. It may well militate against conventional majority governments such as we have at present in Liberal Canada. Ranked ballots are intended to ensure that the winner in a riding indeed has a majority of the popular vote. That system has been most notoriously in the news this year after City Council voted to introduce it for the next election and then stunningly reversed itself saying ranked ballots would be too complicated. 

CHURCHILL

Democracy needs to be taken seriously but proponents of this form of government have said some amusing things about it. The quote below is famous. Less so  but just as provocative is Winston Churchill’s observation that “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Nothing personal anyone. Mr. Oliphant’s meetings are September 18, October 12 and October 13. (416) 467-7275

The summer-long warnings from 53 Division police about securing the home are resonant in Moore Park these days after a reported series of break-ins on Harper Gardens and Valley View off Harper Avenue late in August. Neighbours are saying the break-ins occurred at night through basement windows. They believe the approach was made from the valley. It is reported there were five entries with the thief fleeing to the south along Inglewood Drive which is where dogs traced the scent of him before losing it.

PC candidate and City Councillor Raymond Cho (Ward 42) has won the Scarborough-Rouge River riding, defeating the Liberals in a seat they have held since it was created in 1999. Cho will now quit his municipal office. It’s the third byelection in a row the Tories have won since Patrick Brown became leader last year and a breakthrough for the party in Toronto, where they hold no other seats. Brown crowed about the win saying:  “There is not any riding in the province of Ontario that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal party can take for granted,” he said. For her part, the Premier said the loss was a cause for reflection. It is said that the MPP for Don Valley West has a personal popularity standing of 16 percent across Ontario. The margin of victory was 2,429 over the Liberal, a percentage gap of 39% to 29 percent.

Lun Lun the giant panda at the Atlanta Zoo is expecting to give birth.  When, is the question on everyone’s mind.  One Facebook user says that she has been watching the Panda-cam for 9 days hoping to catch some action.  According to the Zoo’s website, the giant panda birthwatch officially began on Monday, August 22, 2016. If you have the patience to watch paint dry then maybe you will catch a miraculous panda birth.  Have a look…