Call it Transit Thursday, as the longest mayoral campaign in the world grinds toward October, 2014. Olivia Chow plunked herself on Donlands Ave to say she has a plan to make this town move faster. A most arresting discovery on the candidate’s part is that Mayor Chow could fine construction companies for leaving a roadway blocked while there is no actual work going on. That’s what they do in Chicago and even if it doesn’t make the traffic move, it sure is a tempting source of revenue. Ms. Chow also spoke of hiring a person to be in charge of traffic. Isn’t there someone like that already?  The media has jumped on this as a “Transit Czar.” We sincerely hope not. Over at Queen’s Park, the Premier is threatening to electrify the GO system if only she can electrify voters to give her a majority government.  (We’ve enlarged on her remarks for that little Hydro conceit).

John Tory was in Leaside Thursday morning speaking with housewives about transit but later appeared on CP24. He got asked about his idea for water taxis (on which Chow dumped scorn today).   Tory then got feisty about keeping the Gardiner Expressway and insisted that Chow will tear it down. That seems a reasonable guess. At the end of his exchange with Stephen LeDrew,  Mr. Tory made his most critical move. “Rob Ford is done. He’s done,” said Tory. This is so important for him because it is Ford who will lose the election for both Ford Nation and John Tory. Between them they have more than enough support to beat Ms. Chow, but as it stands, these two guys are the most important part of her campaign to occupy the big office overlooking Phillips Square. It is, as The Bulldog observed earlier, like watching a traffic accident unfold in slow motion. That’s it so far for Transit Thursday. But at this writing it is only noon.

Wilmar Kortleever, parent volunteer on behalf of the 132nd Toronto Scouts writes to alert everyone to the group’s Annual Garden Products Fundraiser. The products on sale – like soil, manure, mulches, peat moss, garden bags – tie in very well with Scouting activities. Wilmar says the 132nd also wishes to thank everyone for the donations received for the  ‘Plant a Tree’ program and to send deserving and needy Scouts to camp. The garden campaign runs through Sunday, April 20 and orders can conveniently be placed online or over the phone at (416) 425 6881, or delivered to 104 Glenvale Ave. Scouts are also still going door to door in Leaside (although they can not cover all streets). Delivery will be next Saturday, April 26. 

The final farewell to Jim Flaherty was a sombre but luminous event made so by the galaxy of politically-important mourners and the rich colour of a Canadian state funeral.  Scarlett-coated Mountie pallbearers and green-scarved notables throughout venerable St. James Cathedral set the tone. The Canadian Press report quoted the Prime Minister: “What a sad time this is in the life of our country,” he said.  But Mr.Harper was mostly upbeat in his personal tribute to his longtime political confidante, CP says. Directly addressing Flaherty’s wife Christine Elliott and the couple’s triplet sons, Harper said, “We have lost a partner in politics, but you have lost a partner in life.” Harper kept his composure throughout most of what turned out to be a cheerful, light-hearted look back on the time he and Flaherty shared together in power on Parliament Hill. “Occasionally, I imposed a final decision,” Harper said of their periodic cabinet-table disputes. “Occasionally I decided he was probably right. And occasionally, I decided he was wrong, but let him have his way because I just got so damn tired of arguing with him.” But as Harper’s eulogy drew to a close, he had to compose himself as he described the day he accepted Flaherty’s resignation. “I told Jim that he had truly been over these eight years, in my judgment, the best finance minister in the world, if not indeed the best in our history,” Harper said. “I also wished him well in his next career … and I told him not to be a stranger.” One of the most touching moments came when the prime minister addressed himself directly to Flaherty’s three sons, John, Galen and Quinn. “I lost my own father almost exactly 11 years ago, to the day,” he said. “That period, I remember almost nothing of what I said or what was said to me, so powerful were the waves of emotion. “But once that passed and perspective took hold, I came to appreciate my father’s place in my life probably even more fully and deeply than if he were still here. And it is all good, and it will be all good for you.”