President Hugo Chavez, the fiery populist who declared a socialist revolution in Venezuela, crusaded against U.S. influence and championed a leftist revival across Latin America, died Tuesday at age 58 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer. Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, announced the death in a national television broadcast. He said Chavez died at 4:25 p.m. local time. National Post
China, U.S. agree on new action against N. Korea
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Reuters is reporting this afternoon that that U.S. and China reached a deal that “significantly expands” U.N. sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea also said it would sever a military “hotline” with the United States if South Korea and Washington pressed on with two-month-long war games. China’s U.N. ambassador, Li Baodong, told Reuters the 15-nation Security Council was aiming for a Thursday vote on a draft sanctions resolution, which was agreed to by Washington and Beijing after three weeks of negotiations. The landmark move, in which China finally seems to have agreed to taking action rather than merely disapproval, still has to unfold. But it is different and reveals the growing concern in China that North Korea might somehow trigger a war. In any such conflict, North Korea would be beaten but the death toll and social impact of the regime’s collapse is troubling to most parties. North Korea’s response to the news is revealing as well. It has not threatened a cataclysm as it frequently does, nor does it dare say a word against China. Rolls Royce Wraith has dangerous “suicide doors”
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Remarkably, the half million dollar or so Rolls Royce Wraith has shown up at the Geneva Auto Show with front-opening suicide doors, a dangerous and antiquated feature that was largely abandoned by automakers more than 70 years ago. This video is an amusing change of pace which will sit in this position for a few hours before moving to the side. The gentleman behind the wheel is the aptly named Andrew English
Casino lobbying ahead of April council vote
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The sides are lined up in advance of the vote by the city executive committee today on the prospect of a casino for Toronto. Whatever the outcome, the final vote will occur in April at
city council. 680 News
Three Target stores open in Central Ontario
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| Lineup at a target store today |
As posted yesterday, the forerunner Target stores in Milton, Fergus and Guelph have opened this morning with much concern about prices. The linked CTV story speculates about a “price war” because of the Target impact. The Comments on this story are fun to read as dizzy people worry about American imperialism and “human rights violations” as a consequence of Target opening in Canada. Woo. CTV
Bayview pothole adorned with detour arrows
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News that the city’s pothole-repair program is underway will be good news for users of Bayview Avenue and other South Bayview roads. The polthole-sinkhole that opened up on Bayview just north of Millwood Road is now adorned with a huge “detour” sign with arrows pointing to the centre lane for southbound traffic. No action on that one yet. But all up and down Bayview, Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Laird Drive there’s lots of work to do. The city says it will be doubling the number of staff fixing potholes to almost 100 (25-30 crews) over the next few weeks. During the last three years, the City of Toronto has repaired an average of 200,000 potholes per year. The City spends approximately $4 million per year to fix potholes. Residents are asked to call 311 to report potholes so that crews can be assigned to fix them. There are some ways to make it easier for the crew to fix a pothole. When you call, provide the precise location and street address if possible. You are also asked to estimate the size of the pothole. While city staff usually repair potholes within five days, requests are prioritized based on the amount of traffic on the road and the severity of the pothole
Toronto Star plans to out-source page production
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The Toronto Star will lay off 55 employees and is making plans to out-source what is known in the newspaper business as page production. This process involves the fabrication of the plates bearing the information from which the newspaper pages are printed. The layoffs come as no particular surprise with the Star, like newspapers everywhere, facing a revenue squeeze caused by the Internet revolution. Those who follow the economics of newspapers will understand that the flight of paid classified advertising to cyber platforms where it is published free, sinking subscription revenues and the many alternatives for display advertisers are threatening the very existence of large daily papers.
Target opens in Guelph, Milton and Fergus
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Target announced Monday afternoon that it will open three “pilot stores” in Ontario on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. They are at Stone Road in Guelph, Milton Mall Shopping Centre in Milton and Gates of Fergus in Fergus. The release said that the three pilot stores are the first Target locations to open in Canada, and the first of 124 Target stores that will open across the country throughout 2013. Target has said internally that the new store in the East York Town Centre will open Monday, March 25. That date appears to be firm, so far at least.
Hockey poll says delay body check for kids
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The annual report of the Rick Hansen Institute on youth health and safety contains a survey of more than 2000 hockey parents which finds that 67% of them would delay the introduction of body-checking until age 15 or older.
- Two thirds of hockey parents (67%) and four-in-five hockey fans (79%) support delaying the introduction of body-checking until age 15 or older.
- Two thirds of parents (66%) and seven-in-ten fans (71%) support the idea of having youth only play others of the same age. (Currently, player ages can vary by as much as three years in some divisions).
- One in six (16%) have considered moving their child to a non-body-checking league.
- Only 17% think delaying body-checking will hinder their child—half (49%) believe it will make no difference and one-in-four (26%) think it will be helpful.
- And, only about 7% of respondents oppose enlarging rink sizes to international standards, which some say is another important way of reducing hockey related injuries. Read the full report from the Rick Hansen Institute
Gyro Hyundai takes shape at Laird and Industrial
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The new home of Gyro Hyundai across the street from parent Gyro Mazda is taking shape at the corner of Laird Drive and Industrial Street. The modern sales and service centre will add quite a nice “we’re-in-business” feeling to Laird Drive. South Bayviewites can only hope this Hyundai dealership is a harbinger of more new car business on Laird. East central Toronto is very poorly served by the automakers. Gyro Hyundai is said to be looking at an opening later this year. Previous posts.Deborah Coyne plans run in Mt. Pleasant riding
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Admitted “intellectual” Deborah Coyne is profiled here and drops the word that while she is running for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, she also has plans to contest the new riding of Mt. Pleasant in the 2015 general election. Mt. Pleasant will extend west from Bayview Ave. and include Bennington Heights, which was formerly part of Don Valley West. It also would include Moore Park and Rosedale above Rosedale Valley Road. Ms. Coyne was asked in this long interview whether she found it awkward running against Justin Trudeau since her daughter is Mr. Trudeau’s half sister. She said no. She is the author of a biography A Life Devoted to Building a Better Canada in which she touches on her relationship to former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and the daughter she had with him. StoryGarneau, Trudeau trade barbs in Halifax debate
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The federal Liberal Party has held its second last leadership debate in Halifax with the front runners once again trading personal barbs. Marc Garneau worked his thesis that Justin Trudeau is full of platitudes with no substance. Trudeau says he is proud of his “positive” campaign and called Garneau negative. Observers seemed to feel that the the contenders generally ducked the big issues. Michael Den Tandt, writing for Postmedia, feels Trudeau has it locked and made the cheeky suggestion that if Trudeau is ever elected Prime Minister he will behave somewhat like Stephen Harper. Said Den Tandt: “Neither Trudeau nor his people will concede this. But Grit economic policy in 2015 is liable to look something like Harper economic policy — save for tweaking and packaging. Why? Because red-meat rhetoric aside, Harper & Co. haven’t been much interested in bucking centrist public opinion, either. If popular sentiment leads policy, and sentiment is broadly centrist, then the “new” Liberal party’s policies will be broadly centrist, with a socially progressive inflection. It’s simple logic”.