The South Bayview Bulldog

Rexall (known for decades as Pharma Plus) will sell its 470 drugstores to the U.S. health-services company McKesson Corp for about $3 billion. Rexall is owned by Calgary-based Katz Group, which describes itself as one of Canada’s largest privately owned enterprises. Daryl Katz, Katz Group founder and chairman, is also owner and governor of the Edmonton Oilers. Rexall said McKesson will continue to operate the stores under the names Rexall and Pharma Plus in Canada. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2016 and require regulatory and shareholder approval including the Competition Bureau and the Investment Canada Act. McKesson has a long history in Canada providing medicine, health-care supplies and information technology to other companies in the health-care arena. In a release, the two companies said Rexall and McKesson have already been working together for 20 years. There are Rexall stores in South Bayview in the Sunnybrook Plaza, at 320 Moore Ave and on Mt. Pleasant Rd.north of Briton House.  Rexall cuts back on dispensing staff in South Bayview 

A poll by the American Auotomobile Associatin (AAA) has found that 75% of some 1,800 drivers asked said  they would not feel safe in a driverless vehicle. But it’s worth noting, AAA says, that 60% said they would like access to some kind of self-driving feature, like self-parking, lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, and other options the next time they buy a new car.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has voted to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, from 18 to 21. The vote comes after New York City, Boston, and Hawaii passed similar laws. The Board of Supervisors vote was unanimous, and the law is expected to go into effect in June. In Ontario the minimum age to buy tobacco is 19. San Francisco will be three years more stringent than the state of  California where 18 remains the legal age. The effectiveness of such limits is unknown but it certainly seems likely to slow down the smoking habit which is often formed before the age of 19. It is impossible to stop some kids from smoking but this law makes it more difficult for them to begin.

It is a jaw dropping accident even from China, where there seem to be some incredibly bizarre accidents involving children. Watch as the back of a family van opens on a highway in Suzhou and a child rolls out onto the road.

Good morning. Sorry about the mess but as this photo taken in Moore Park reveals it has a beauty to it. We can only imagine how fine it would be to slide down the hills at Talbot Park this morning. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

9.4 OFFICIAL

SCHOOLS TALK BACK TO COMPLAINERS

The poor conditions on the roads prompted school bus cancellations across the GTA, including Toronto, Peel and York regions. The CBC is carrying an amusing story about how some school boards are using Twitter to talk back to grumbling kids who want the day off. In some areas, classes are being held, as they are here, but buses are cancelled. It is a cold cleanup and it will be colder as temperatures drop to as low as minus 14 or lower tonight. But next week,beginning Saturday, will be much warmer. Weather Network

Lovely evening shot of the Leaside Bridge from Don Valley trails

Leaside United Church has recently opened a Twitter account @LeasideUnited and sources at the church say there is a plan to familiarize parishioners with the usefulness of Twitter even if they are not users of it personally. The new account operates under the auspices of Graham Lute, the communications manager at LUC and gets a frequent hand from Deborah Lace-Kelly, a course instructor at Ryerson and former news and production hand at Global News. The adoption of the useful Twitter form of communication has not come very quickly to neighborhood churches but Northlea United at 126 Brentciffe Road has had an account for a few years.

The Brunswick House at 481 Bloor St West will close at the end of March after more than 140 years in business, the owners of the business have announced. It appears that Boston Pizza, a chain of pizza outlets based in Western Canada, may take the location.  The news came on a Facebook posting: “It is with great pride and sorrow that I announce the legendary Brunswick House will be closing on March 31 after 140 years of memory making history,” the post reads. “Everything comes to an end and like an undefeated champion, the Brunny must now retire on top and more beautiful and better than ever.”  CP24 said in a story that In November, the Harbord Village Residents’ Association announced that the owner of the building the bar has called home since 1876 had terminated the operator’s lease. “As of Dec. 31 the Brunswick House will remain only on a month-by-month basis until a new tenant is found,” the post on the association’s website said.

Earlier

Mike Crawley

This analysis of the last week’s Ontario budget examines the fairly aggressive removal of middle-class tax benefits (like the Children’s Activity Tax Credit) and the imposition of new outright charges on comfortable seniors for drugs. How far will it go? According to CBC writer Mike Crawley, the government appears to be moving to a health care system that will tax seniors for their drugs (and others services) based directly on how much they receive each year. He says the province has not seen anything like it since the days of the Bob Rae NDP government. Mike Crawley CBC

Security agents at a Baltimore airport Sunday confiscated a woman’s high heel shoes because they had pistols for heels. Yep. She also had a bracelet made of look-like bullets and that went too. The woman was at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport when Transportation Security Agency people found the shoes — (so ugly by any fashion rule — Bulldog).

Power to the TTC is back on downtown bringing normal subway service on Line 1 and rolling streetcars on Queen and King. Still no word on why there was a fire in that hydro vault at 50 Richmond East.