Canada’s inflation rate jumped to 3.7 percent in July, as the cost of shelter and durable goods went up at a fast enough pace to push the cost of living up to its highest level since 2011. Some are saying the cost of living may influence how the current election will be decided. Provincial rates of inflation range from a staggering 6.1 percent in PEI to merely 2.3 percent in Saskatchewan. Ontario’s rate is 3.5 percent but you can bet it is higher than that in fat Toronto.

National inflation rates

Supermarket prices starting to sting

No chicken even though there’s lots of chicken

Many Britons are without chicken as shops like Nandos and Kentucky Fried Chicken close up. Why? It’s because of Brexit. Cheap labour from Eastern Europe has gone home and the chicken joints can’t find staff. Amazing.

Seeking identity

Martin Grove and Eglinton

Police are seeking the man shown above in connection with a fail-to-remain accident Tuesday in which a VW Jetta struck a bus shelter at Martin Grove Road and Eglinton Avenue. A man, 74, was critically injured as he waited for a bus. The unknown man is described as having dreadlocks with blond tips and was last seen leaving the Warrender Ave area in a black Hyundai Santa Fe ride-sharing vehicle.

Martin Grove and Eglinton

Ready, Set, Midtown: Parks & Public Realm at Charlotte Maher Park on Roehampton Ave near Bayview Ave.

Read the plan

The City is asking residents to make recommendations for the best use of parks. “From August 4 to September 14, Parks, Forestry and Recreation is seeking public input to help identify opportunities and confirm priorities for park improvements. Tell us how you use the existing Midtown parks, areas of concern, and your ideas to make the parks more enjoyable and welcoming.” This signage is in Charlotte Maher Park on Roehampton Ave. Below is the Charlotte Maher playground as it was finished by workers in 2014. Does it need an update?

Charlotte Maher playground near completion in 2014

As part of the Ready, Set, Midtown study, the City is looking at parks in the Yonge–Eglinton area to identify opportunities for improvement. Improvements upgrade the function, condition, quality and amenity of parks to better meet the community’s recreation and social needs. These can include the addition or enhancement of amenities such as seating, lighting, pathways, playgrounds, recreation facilities and much more.

Comments at a long Facebook thread are voicing a lot of distress with the new one-way traffic rules on Roehampton and Broadway Aves. One reader says it appears that drivers are rolling the dice on turning west onto eastbound Roehampton in the chancy effort to get to their apartment driveway before encountering oncoming traffic. Really? Another observer thinks the City has got the directions wrong. Broadway should be eastbound, Roehampton westbound. We like that idea. FB

1050 The Queensway on Sunday afternoon/Celena Twitter

This balcony fire (a barbeque gone wrong?) damaged adjoining units. The 2-alarm fire was at 1050 The Queensway Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Who is she?

A post to Leaside Community says this woman is usually accompanied by a man and that their purpose is to porch pirate Leaside and Davisville Village.

Demonstrators of various sorts who were at an Indigenous “unity” rally in Hamilton Saturday pulled down a statue of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald. It is a fairly emotional incident.

Saturday’s $20 million Lotto 649 jackpot will be split between two ticket holders, the Ontario Lottery Corporation has announced. One winning ticket was sold in Ontario and the other in the Prairies. Each is worth $10 million.

An East York citizen who was persuaded not to get C-19 vaccinated has been struck by the infection and admitte3d to the ICU at Micheal Garron Hospital on Coxwell Ave. According to Dr. Micheal Warner, director of critical care at MGH, the patient is “filled with regrets and wanted this message shared to help influence other people to make a better decision for themselves and everyone else.”

The story of my previously healthy patient in their mid 40s who acquired #COVID while unvaccinated. (Shared with permission) pic.twitter.com/mvRYYJO12q

— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) August 14, 2021

Trudeau as Willy Wonka character Veruca Salt

Members of the Conservative Party of Canada are criticizing the party for producing an election-eve ad that portrays Justin Trudeau as Veruca Salt, a character from the 1971 film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” in which she throws a fit for not getting what she wants. Toronto Sun