The South Bayview Bulldog

Later post 

The 78,000 members of the Ontario Elementary Teachers Federation (EFTO) have voted to ratify the contract which was finally agreed upon between the union and the education department.  ETFO says 86 per cent of its members voted in favour of the deal. What can possibly have motivated the other 14 per cent?  That’s about 11,000 teachers. Did they vote no or were they too disgusted to bother.  Education Minister Liz Sandals has said the key elements such as salary, are similar to those in agreements previously reached with the province’s English Catholic and public school teachers. Those deals included raises of 1.5 per cent plus another one-per-cent bonus. And, like those deals, Sandals has said those new agreements are net zero, meaning any salary increases are offset by savings elsewhere (could someone check that?)

The new transportation minister, Marc Garneau, has made it clear that there will be no expansion of the Toronto Island (Billy Bishop) Airport to accommodate jets. The minister had seemed to deviate from a firm promise made by the Liberals during their election campaign by saying he was still thinking about expansion. Late yesterday he tweeted that the government’s position is the same as stated. “As the new Minister of Transport, I have been enjoying learning about my files, including re: Toronto Island Airport,” Mr. Garneau said. “I confirm that GoC position is the same as LPC (Liberal Party) commitment: we will not re-open tripartite agreement for YTZ.”

IS THIS THE END?

The news will please many in South Bayview where passenger aircraft noise from Porter Airline flights has been a regular feature since the company began service. It seems unlikely to end the issue in the long term however. At City Hall, resistance to the jet scheme has been very uncertain. The mayor took the position that he would not vote on the question because of his son’s employment. It effectively  removed — or so it seemed — important leadership. The issue, as put forward by former mayors Crombie, Sewell and Eggleton in a joint statement, is that the inevitable outcome of permitting jets on the island will be justifiable demands from commuter carriers in eastern Canada and the U.S. for equal access. And thus a much larger, noisier airport

BOMBARDIER

The politics of Quebec will never go away. The Liberals will not  be indifferent to the Bombardier factor in that province. The Bombardier streetcar plant is in Ontario. But where are the streetcars? And speaking of uncertainty, it does not require a very long memory to recall that Robert Deluce, head of Porter Airlines, pledged for many years that he would never ask to put jets at the airport. But then he did.

The Leaside Sports Hall of Fame will induct five new members next week  Left to right they are George Armstrong, Arthur (Laurie) Irwin, Pat (Watt) Friesen, Annie Fahlenbock and Norm (Charlie) Ahier. George Armstrong was the Captain of the 1967 Stanley Cup-winning Maple Leafs. Armstrong, who has lived in Leaside since 1960, will be honoured along with Laurie Irwin in the sport of basketball, Pat Friesen, a talented multi-sport athlete, Annie Fahlenbock for contributions to women’s hockey and Charlie Ahier for his contributions to baseball. The 2015 induction ceremony will be held on Friday November 20, at Leaside Memorial Gardens Arena. Tickets are available here, from any of Leaside’s sports associations or at the arena.

Loblaws has closed its Chinese-themed T&T supermarket store at 5661 Steeles Ave. E. The closing appears to be part of a contraction of locations announced earlier of stores that were not making a lot of money. Loblaws continues to operate several other T&T locations in Toronto including one in the Promenade Mall in Markham not far from the store that closed. Loblaws bought the national chain of Chinese supermarkets from the founder in 2009 for $225,000,000 in cash and  preferred stock. Today in many Loblaws stores, like the one at 301 Moore Ave., certain T&T branded products can be found. Loblaws said in July that it planned to close 52 of its unprofitable stores across the country over 2015-2016.

These kids in New York had their game cancelled when a hockey big shot landed his helicopter on their field.

It may be not everybody’s cup of tea, but Daryl Marritt says he is unburdened by debt and worry as a result of frugal lifestyle. CBC Toronto 

Readers will be eager to know — we hope — that Otto the English Bulldog has travelled through the longest tunnel of human legs of any dog skateboarder. That would be 30 people and this was achieved in Lima, Peru on November 8, 2015. If by some strange chance you are not interested, please be a good sport and indulge us for this one post. Thank you.

Sweden will impose temporary border controls from today (November 12, 2015) to control a record influx of migrants after police warned it was a threat to public order. The moves comes as generous Swedes search their souls and ponder the 100,000 refugees that have arrived in the Nordic land in just 12 months. The controls are a huge turnaround for a country known for its open-door policies that also threw down the gauntlet to other EU nations hit by the migration crisis. The decision by this ‘humanitarian superpower’ underscored how the flow of refugees into the European Union is straining its prized system of open internal borders close to breaking point.

CANADA

The new government in Ottawa is committed to bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees here by the end of the year, a goal that many say seems unrealistic.The Globe and Mail and others have urged more time to make sure there is somewhere for such large numbers to actually live. Germany has warned it could start sending Syrian refugees back to other EU states from which they came, prompting Hungary to insist it would take none.Meanwhile, while Sweden’s neighbour Denmark said it was tightening immigration rules and Slovenia began to emulate Budapest in erecting new border fences.

Dining room table and chairs on display in Lea Room

The William Lea Room in the Leaside Arena is the scene until Sunday afternoon of a sale of Mission style furniture made by Stickely, the foremost name in this field. Mt. Pleasant Road merchants Ilona and Jim Sublett of Manderley Fine Furniture have trucked in a large variety of pieces from the Stickley factory near Syracuse, New York. The show runs daily and in the evenings up to and including Sunday, November 15, 2015.

Interesting CBC report on studies at the U of T and in British Columbia which show that gender is the single-most important factor when it comes to safe cycling.