The South Bayview Bulldog

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.

This is a lovely reminiscence on Leaside Chit Chat by James Lenoury of his friend Steve Teskey, a leapling who is, he says, 15 on February 29, 2016. Mr. Lenoury also includes a picture of the Teskey clan taken just when is not clear. But they are a handsome group of people who could quite easily be a race all to themselves. Thanks for sharing. Chit Chat 

Forecasters all predict a major a  major winter storm beginning tomorrow and dumping as much as 20 centimeters of snow — maybe more — by Wednesday.  Both days may be considered a write-off for business or socializing outside the home. The snow will begin Tuesday midday and intensify into the evening with the heaviest amounts of snow falling Tuesday night. Strong northeasterly winds will also give blowing snow especially in exposed areas and along the Lake Ontario shoreline. About 2 to 5 centimeters could fall Tuesday afternoon and then 10 to 20 centimeters during the night. As the wind shifts early Wednesday morning to northerly the snow will end. The City is said to be ready to begin salting There is scheduled garbage collection Wednesday for part of South Bayview. The pace of collection is uncertain and the  possibility of stranded containers and — or empty — seems real.

GRAUPEL ANYONE?

And the CBC has recounted a 5 p.m. or so onslaught of snow pellets (sometimes mistaken for hail) known as graupel (who knew?) The linked story also has many videos of which this is the best. CBC 

What the heck! This hail just blew in outta nowhere! @JayScotland @CBCToronto pic.twitter.com/YpBvPS1tHL

— Patrick Morrell (@PatMorrell_CBC) February 29, 2016

CUPE 79 president Mike Maguire has taken City’s inside workers back to the bargaining table following what seems to have been an effective  power play by Mayor Tory earlier today. Tory had the City’s contract proposal posted online and then held a news conference to tell employees and the public that the union was walking away from a good deal. Maguire is calling his walk-off the result of a mistake — the City’s offer was mislabeled he says — but it seems more likely  he found himself with nowhere to go.  “We have re-engaged with the mediator,” Maguire said. “I called the mediator immediately after we realized there had been a misunderstanding and clarified that misunderstanding. Today we will be providing the mediator responses to the city’s offer. Mayor Tory had put the feet of  CUPE leaders to the fire. Tory  spoke at a midday news conference making the point that the more than 20,000 CUPE employees have “good jobs” and that their working conditions will only get better as a result concessions in areas such as advanced scheduling which the City has agreed to implement.  Some members will know their hours as much as six months in advance.

Well known political scientist Stephen Clarkson has died at 78 in Freiburg, Germany after contracting the pneumonia virus in Portugal followed by incurable sepsis. This is reported by the University of Toronto’s political science department, where Clarkson taught for several decades.  Clarkson’s work focused on areas including the North American Free Trade Agreement and how Canada has been affected by globalization. In 1990, he and then-wife Christina McCall won the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction for “Trudeau and Our Times.” The second volume of that book won the J.W. Dafoe prize. In 2011, Clarkson was named a member of the Order of Canada. His other books included “The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics,” “Canada and the Reagan Challenge,” and “Uncle Sam and Us.” He was once married to former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson. Funeral arrangements have not been announced. U of T obituary 

CBC

The Toronto Fire Service was called to the Mecca Halal Meat & Seafood on Overlea Blvd early Monday. There was a fire and the cause is not yet known.

No kidding, and there are a couple of days, like tomorrow (Tuesday) that we would like to leap right over. Some 15 cm of snow is predicted by the Weather Network. It will remain chilly through the week as well.  Be not afraid. Below is an entertaining item about why Leap Year happens including the often forgotten  slightly less than quarter which must be made up by just cheating the clock every God Knows How Many Years.

The annual Fraser Institute ranking of secondary and elementary schools has been published for the 2013-2014 year. It shows, as it does each year, the superior performance of pupils at these schools in South Bayview neighborhoods. The South Bayview Bulldog has broken out the main local schools. The ranking of all 3,037 elementary schools and 676 secondary schools in Toronto may be seen at the link.

High school ratings for this year and last 

North Toronto 8.8   8.7

Earl Haig 8.6  8.4

Lawrence Park 8.4  8.4

Forest Hill 8.4   8.1

Leaside 7.8  8.0

Rosedale Heights School for the Arts 7.7  7.6

Etienne Brule 7.4  7.0

Northern 7.3  7.3

Jarvis  5.0  4.8

East York 4.4   4.4.

Elementary schools 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help  9.8  9.8

Forest Hill  9.8  9.2

Whitney 9.6  8.6

Blythwood 9.5  9.5

John Ross Robertson  8.9   9.4

Bessborough  8.9  8.7

Deer Park  8.7  9.6

Rosedale   8.7  n/a

Maurice Cody  8.4   8.6

St. Anselm  8.4   8.4

Northlea  8.4  7.9

Rolph  8.3   7.7

Bennington Heights 7.6 8.6

Davisville  6.6   n/a