The Leaside Junior Wildcats struggled to win a 2-1 victory over the K-W Rangers in the first of their best-of-five game playoff series Saturday night at home. The go-ahead marker was scored with 24 seconds left in the game by Kristin Della Rovere unassisted. The game was marked by a rare slew-footing penalty assessed as both a double minor and a game misconduct against Emma Thomas of the Rangers. In addition to that, the Rangers took three more penalties to a total of two for the Wildcats. It may be rough series. The next game is in Leaside on Wednesday. Incorrect information on the location was published previously. Boxscore

Thr Leaside Meraki Synchro Intermediate Team pose proudly after winning the gold medal at the Skate Canada Synchronized National Champions 2018 in Oshawa. Standings are below. Congratulations all.

Christ Bentley and the Pontiac

LHS is there as Robots Collide

Jenner Cricket Sunday at 1.30

Meet K-W Rangers are Gardens Saturday

Strike up the band, Please!

Learn to curl

Earth Care 2018

Upper left, Christine Bentley, a resident of Summerhill, declares she cannot bear to part with her trusty 2000 Pontiac. Chris is one half (with Kate Wheeler) of What She Said, the informative and fun radio and Facebook syndication. Read why we love this old car so much.  Then at upper right, robots collide this weekend and the Leaside High School wonks are competing in the VEX Robotics Competition at Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catharines. This is a qualification event with the World Championship set for a later date. Centre right, don’t forget the Jenner Cricket kickoff Sunday at 1.30 at 48 Thorncliffe Park. Down the left side, the Leaside Jr. Wildcats begin their best-of-five series with the K-W Rangers Saturday (tonight) in the quarter-finals of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League. Puck drops at 5.40 at Leaside arena. Then the Toronto Tuba Euphonium Symposium is March 17 at Lawrence Park Community church. Strike up the band. And a nice invitation from the Leaside Curling Club to learn how to play. That’s in April. Finally at the right, the St. Cuthbert’s Earth Care 2018 events are shown. Looks good.

Devastation/OPP

Where the diesel poured out/OPP

Sawdust sops up oil/OPP

Need lots/OPP

Just after dawn/CP24 Twitter

The stench of diesel oil hangs over the 401 between Avenue Rd. and Yonge Saturday morning after a transport truck hit a concrete barrier and spilled what is being called “a significant amount” of diesel fuel. The accident happened in the westbound collector lanes of the highway at around 7 a.m. This was one of two tractor-trailer crashes Saturday within a few hundred feet of each other. It’s a mess.

Canadian Press says Tuesday’s federal budget will include a five-week “use-it-or-lose-it” incentive for new fathers  to take parental leave and share the responsibilities for baby care.  The government has been under increasing pressure from advocates to make further changes to Canada’s parental leave policies. A recently released briefing note prepared for Morneau said Canadian women with children are less involved in the labour market than their counterparts in many of the industrialized countries in the OECD. The idea of parental leave for a second parent would be similar to a policy in Quebec, which is the only province that pays for leave for new fathers. Quebec’s system provides up to five weeks of paid leave to new fathers and covers up to 70 per cent of their income.

Ontario has banned the door-to-door sales of expensive home infrastructure like furnaces and air conditioners starting March 1, 2018. Businesses will only be able to enter into a contract in the consumer’s home if the consumer has contacted the business ahead of time and invited them into their home for the purpose of entering into a contract. Contracts that are in violation of the new rules relating to door-to-door contract solicitation will be considered void, and consumers will be able to keep the goods and services with no obligations. There will also be a 10-day cooling-off period, allowing consumers to cancel the contract for any reason without penalty. The new rules will apply to:

• Air cleaners
• Air conditioners
• Air purifiers
• Duct cleaning services
• Furnaces
• Water filters
• Water heaters
• Water purifiers
• Water softeners
• Water treatment devices
• Bundles of these goods and services

Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa

Leaside’s Meraki Intermediate Synchronized Skating Team starts off in first place as further competition continues Saturday at the Skate Canada Championships being contested at the Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa. The skating runs through Sunday. Carol Wrigley, whose daughter skates with the team, says they will be on the ice this afternoon. Good luck ladies

Justin Bieber

Caroline Mulroney

Steven Pinker

Idyllic Stratford knows a good gambit and they have found one in a Justin Bieber museum. Then, it’s on to Caroline Mulroney and her one-on-one with City News scribe Cynthia Mulligan. Below that, the appalling failure of the FBI to act on all sorts of warnings about Nikolas Cruz. Finally, listen carefully to Professor Steven Pinker of Harvard. He’s actually got it right.

Leaside Cup

Grade 5/6 Winners: Forest Hill

Grade 7/8 Winners: Glen Ames

Rolph Road wins third

Nicholas Munn and Stas Mironova (right) played against each other. Nicholas goes to Bessborough and Stas goes to Northlea. Here they pose with Nicholas’s dad Jeff Munn.

Bessborough and Northlea Intermediates face off in an exhibition game. Photos by Robin Dickie.

Kirti and Caleigh from Northlea

Tireless Robin Dickie

That tireless friend of Rolph Road School Robin Dickie has provided a photo record of this year’s play in the locally organized Leaside Cup League. It began in 2017 and this year expanded to embrace kids from Grades 7 and 8 (new for 2018) as well as Grades 5 and 6. The need was seen to level the hockey playing field in a way that kids from around home were playing each other, not those from “elite hockey schools.” Thus was born the Leaside Cup competitions. The first tournament had three local schools: Bessborough, Rolph Road and Bennington Heights. Its success led to this year’s expansion. There were six schools for each age group.

JANUARY TOURNAMENT

The Grade 5 and 6 co-ed teams played on January 17 and the Grade 7 and 8 teams played on the 18. TDSB schools were represented by Grade 5/6 teams from Northlea, Bessborough, Rolph Road, Bennington Heights, Deer Park and Forest Hill. Grade 7/8 tournament teams included Bessborough, Northlea, Deer Park, Glen Ames, Hollycrest and Forest Hill. A first place trophy was awarded for each day, as well as ribbons for second and third place. The winners were, Grade 5 and 6: First Place: Forest Hill, Second Place: Bessborough, Third Place: Rolph Road. Grade 7 and 8: First Place: Glen Ames, Second Place: Forest Hill and Third Place: Hollycrest.  Ms. Dickie’s thanks are offered to volunteer friends Tracey Shepard and Sheila Allen and Bessborough teacher Ritch Couper for organizing events. She also thanks teachers and volunteer parents who offered to help coach the school teams and to student volunteer timekeepers.

Saturday only closure – During this Saturday’s closure, there will be no north-south shuttles. Instead, #TTC will have frequent express bus service on east-west routes to get customers to the University side of Line 1. Allow extra time for travel. https://t.co/kiW9PxJvW7

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) February 23, 2018

Alberta has lifted its ban on BC wine, at least for the moment. That’s because BC Premier John Horgan put aside his threat to limit Alberta’s ability to ship oilsands bitumen by pipeline to the West Coast. Minutes later Alberta Premier Rachel Notley lifted her government’s retaliatory boycott against B.C. wine. Notley said she felt Horgan had blinked but some say the blink was kind of squinty-eyed. That’s because Horgan did not disavow the oil embargo, he merely referred it to the courts.

Sophie Trudeau with failed assassin Jaspal Atwal

Randeep Sarai — What was he thinking?

CTV says that Justin Trudeau has vowed to meet Liberal MP Randeep Sarai, the person responsible for putting a failed assassin on the guest list for two high-profile receptions with the prime minister. He made the remarks in India where he met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. Sarai has taken full responsibility for the fact that Jaspal Atwal — convicted in the 1980s of attempting to kill an Indian cabinet minister who was travelling in Canada — was invited to the two events, including one where he was photographed alongside Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau. Perhaps the prime minister will ask “What were you thinking?” or other words.