Category: Uncategorized

Patrick Rocca

Realtor Patrick Rocca invites everyone to get a Halloween pumpkin free at his 7th Annual Pumpkin Giveaway on Saturday, October 25, 2014. Once again the popular giveaway is being held in conjunction with the Leaside Haunted House Contest. Good fun. The pumpkin giveaway  will take place at McDowell’s valu-mart at Bayview and Davisville Aves. between 11 a.m.and 3 p.m. Remember, if you can’t make it to the event, Patrick and the gang will deliver the pumpkin to your door. As usual it is sponsors by Patrick Rocca, Bosley Real Estate and McDowell’s. You can ask questions and get information by writing to Patrick. To apply for the Haunted House Contest go here.

The overflowing crowd trying to get into the mayoralty debate in the William Lea Room was more than the fire regulations would allow Tuesday night (October 7, 2014). Members of the organizing Leaside Property Owners Association made a decision to turn away people at the outer door of the arena function room  as the  260 odd chairs filled and standees gathered as many as six lines deep around them. Several umbrella toting persons who had walked to the arena had to turn around and go home. Inside, some LPOA organizers expressed resentment that the crowd seemed to contain many people from outside Leaside. As to the debate, it followed a pattern of frequently hyped answers from the candidates to orchestrated responses. Mayoral debates have largely ceased to offer anything fresh from the candidates. They are exercises in trying to massage the media coverage, whether live or delayed. The message is the media massage, one might say. The questions from the audience were pertinent if familiar. They ranged over transit, traffic and the OMB. This was all red meat in the parlance of politics for Leaside voters facing the chaos of the Eglinton Ave. LRT and the notice served by countless developers. There is also the stinging pain of the death of Georgia Walsh in July. That accident is now pretty much enshrined as proof of out-of-control traffic.  Olivia Chow made references to this tragedy and expressed gratitude for the Slow Down signs which have appeared across the city. All candidates spoke sympathetically about this tragedy but their solutions to heavy traffic remain open to question. They all talk of stopping traffic from leaving main thoroughfares, but the definitions were necessarily vague. John Tory responded quietly to attacks on the viability of Smart Track by Mr. Ford. Tory said experts published today called the criticism from Ford and Chow a tempest in a teapot. The plan was a sensible way to use existing track to speed transit, Tory said. 

This enterprising Grade 8 group was busy outside Starbucks on South Bayview today speaking with members of the public for a school project at St. Anselm’s School. They were seeking input about the issue of bullying and were ready with questions, notepaper and camera. Good work guys. 

Leaside’s Michael Bliss has told CP24 host Stephen LeDrew that the ISIS situation is terrible and that “good people on both sides” will disagree on what to do about it. He spoke as the Commons re-convened to continue debate on the government’s decision to send fighter jets to attack ISIS in Iraq. Dr. Bliss said he wished Canada would postpone action until the matter became clearer.  He said he did not think Ottawa understood conditions in the region nor did the Americans. The West’s track record of figuring out how to react to such problems was not good, he said. He conceded that ISIS terrorists were “bad guys and a menace” but he added that they seemed to be a threat to others in the region, rather than to Canada. He noted that countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey are well equipped to deal with ISIS. Between them they had excellent air and military forces. Bliss referenced the last time Canada used air power in the region. That was in Libya during the so-called Arab Spring (Bliss did not use that term). He called the effort a failure. There is chaos in Libya. (Some might say that the West embarked on its Arab Spring adventure with a giddiness quite unlike the sense of horror surrounding ISIS — Ed.) Dr. Bliss said we should give credit to CSIS for being on top of the comings and goings of terrorists associated with ISIS. He said the government should pay a lot of attention to this concern. A public opinion poll done by Ipsos Reid shows that perhaps 64 percent of Canadians support some form of action against ISIS, although with feelings of caution. American public opinion registers a similar support. This sentiment is largely attributed to the disgust and outage people feel over the public atrocities staged by ISIS. Dr. Bliss mentioned his concern, when asked about the beheadings by Le Drew, that these acts alone may not be the best basis to decide if we send forces to the area.