Stephanie Smyth of CP24 has interviewed Doug Ford (Ward 2). She is good but she could not match Mr. Ford’s bombast. He followed his usual plan of ignoring right-thinking concern about his brother to repeat the “best mayor ever” rhetoric. It is the execution of a scheme to use his brother’s notoriety to get air time. The National Post explored this strategy a few days ago.  The Fords see the best chance for the mayor’s re-election to be the use of his “minor setbacks” to get on television and then change the subject. It is not a new trick but it has probably never been used in the face of such widespread public disgust. Any other politician would long ago have crept off in shame and disgrace. But for the Fords, the embrace of  the international ridicule dispensed by Jimmy Kimmel is seen as their lifeline. No doubt we should expect more of these abuse opportunities from U.S. television programs as the Toronto campaign ripens. Ms. Smyth’s interview is proof positive that it has the result the Fords want. She and others follow on the Americans to offer the Fords more chances to try to change the subject. Photos: Smyth, Doug Ford, Kimmel 

Radio Shack Corp. in the U.S. plans to close as many as 1,100 stores after a poor Christmas and a long cold winter. After that, it will still have some 4,000 storefronts across America. Radio Shack has long since ceased to exist in Canada although it once ruled the pre-digital electronics market of the 60s and 70s in this country. But the company split and the Canadian firm lost the right to the name. Now called Source Electronics, it is owned by Bell Canada. Radio Shack suffered a drop in sales over the holidays that left it with a $400 million loss last year. What does the future hold for the Source franchise in Canada? Every sign indicates that it is onward and upwards as far as Bell is concerned. As The South Bayview Bulldog reported recently the company is moving to larger premises in the Sunnybrook Plaza. It is an analyst’s exercise as to whether the Source would do better with  more or fewer locations. What the Source has that Radio Shack does not is a flush corporate parent, less overhead and in all probability business locations that are on average superior to Radio Shack.   

The big job of wiring homes for Bell’s wireless TV service Fibe has landed at the corner of Bayview Ave. and Millwood Road. Pedestrians making their way around this blockage outside epi bread may or may not have asked what was going on. But the big billboard atop the Bonnie Byford Real Estate building was a tip off. “Fibe — TV You Can Move”. Unfortunately we can’t move the construction and workers today were moaning about how frozen solid everything seems to be. 

Toronto Police Service are on the hunt for a man they say committed an indecent act in the children’s literature section of a book store at 2300 Yonge Street at Eglinton Ave. It happened at  about 5.50 p.m. on Friday, February 28, 2014. The man left the scene prior to police arrival.    He is described as white, 40-50, 6′, 150 lbs, with short grey hair. He was last seen wearing a dark long-sleeve shirt and black pants. He was carrying a black backpack. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.

12-year-old Madi Vanstone needs the new drug Kalydeco to live a normal life. The Beeton, Ontario girl suffers from a rare form of cystic fibrosis and only Kalydeco, a drug made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of South Boston, Mass. treats the underlying cause.  The problem with Kalydeco is that Vertex demands a price for it which many physicians in the U.S, say is unconscionable. Shortly after the drug was approved for use by the U.S. drug agency early in 2012,  a group of 24 doctors who had worked on the project wrote to Vertex to complain. “We have invested our lives and careers toward the success of these inspiring therapeutic agents. We also write with feelings of dismay and disappointment that the triumph and honour that should be yours is diminished by the unconscionable price assigned to Kalydeco.”  In Canada,  the Ontario government estimates that a year’s treatment would cost $340,000. In the U.S., Vertex has set the price at $307,000 for a year’s treatment. In Germany, the price is said to be $450,000 per person per year. Alberta and Ontario have been among the Canadian negotiators with Vertex in efforts to negotiate a reasonable price. The medication’s effectiveness is apparently profound, the result of what is known as “rational drug design.” The process relies less on trial and error and focuses instead on known genetic factors which, if attacked directly, might lead to the kind of improvement which Kalydeco provides for patients taking it. Those who may be helped by it are few — perhaps no more than four percent of cystic fibrosis sufferers can benefit. Madi is apparently one of these, a carrier of the G551D gene mutation. She knows it works because friends, relatives and ordinary people raised enough money to get her started on it. The medication transformed the girl’s life. Today, Madi and her  mother Beth were told by Premier Wynne and Health Minister Matthews the drug is not yet covered by OHIP because the price is still under negotiation. Some provinces have banded together to use their collective buying power to cut drug costs. Alberta, which is leading the talks on Kalydeco, has made three proposals to the drug maker Vertex, but it has rejected each one, the Premier said. It’s not responsible for Ontario to undermine other provinces, she added. “Of course we don’t put a price on a human being’s life,” she told the Legislature. But a former health minister called her response “complete garbage.” The governing Liberals could fund the drug tomorrow if they wanted to, said Progressive Conservative Jim Wilson. The Opposition is recalling the long and depressing history of misspent money in response to the Kalydeco issue. Photos: Madi speaking after meeting Premier, Vertex location in South Boston, Madi with PC MPP Jim Wilson (Simcoe-Grey)

Traffic is now said to getting through through both ways after this truck fire at about 7 a.m. Monday morning on the Gardiner Expressway. It happened at the Gardiner near Jameson Ave. and caused the closure of all roads, including Lakeshore Blvd. No injuries and no explosions, although there was an early fear that there was a propane canister in the truck that might go off.  One motorist tweeted that he moved only two km in 90 minutes in his drive into Toronto from the west.  This twitter thread is active with updates   Jane Brown tweeted about 9.30 that all lanes are open.