The South Bayview Bulldog

Bulldog reader and occasional correspondent Wilmar Kortleever of north Leaside was one of many neighbours instrumental in the return of a magnificent Great Dane to his owners last weekend. The animal was found by a couple of his neighbors who checked with some well-known shelters to see if it had been reported missing. The shelters were closed but a call was placed to 3-1-1 which promised to have City animal control come and pick up the dog. In the meantime, the locals walked the dog around the neighborhood hoping to find its owner. Several people also got busy on e-mail and Facebook to a few and eventually to dozens of neighbours. Did anyone know of the Great Dane in the area? In the end, a response was received which suggested another street where it was known that a Dane lived. The picture online was helpful to this process. The street was just a block away so Wilmar zipped over on his bike and ran into someone out walking his dog who knew where the Dane lived. Thus with a knock on the door, the dog and its owners were happily re-united. Everyone considered it a good Saturday evening’s effort and it is was certainly a fantastic neighbourhood effort. Dozens of people were involved circulating the story including school trustee Gerri Gershon, and the spouse of the Premier, Jane Rounthwaite, who is also a North Toronto resident.

It is an adventure of a lifetime as a Leaside mom and daughter set off in November to climb Kilimanjaro (yes, that Kilimanjaro) for charity. Anna and Ashley Hoy of Parklea Drive are seeking to raise $5,000 for the orphanage in the Nikoaranga community where Ashley, 24, has been working since May as the marketing and fundraising co-ordinator They have already raised a substantial part of that through donations to the The Small Things charity. Her mother will join Ashley and the two will then tackle the 3,895 metre Uhuru.  Anna Hoy is  director of operations at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Our admiration and best wishes go with you ladies. 

Case Ootes

John Tory has called on East York’s Case Ootes, 73, to chair an eight-person transition team during his takeover as the head of civic government in December. Mr. Ootes, the well-known former Councillor of Ward 29 and colleague of former East York mayor Dave Johnston also chaired the transition team of Mayor Ford in 2010. Mr. Tory has also revealed a 19-person transition council. It will provide advice on executing Tory’s agenda with emphasis on key matters like transportation, congestion and housing. Mr. Ootes will also be well remembered for his time as deputy mayor of the newly-amalgamated City of Toronto under Mayor Mel Lastman from 1998-2003.

When Gayle Boxer-Duncanson decided to re-name her dancerize and pilates practice at St. Cuthbert’s Church on Bayview Ave. she turned to what some might think was an unusual source for advice. Her clients. It’s the kind of involvement with the people who seek her help that has sustained Gayle Force Fitness as essential part of life in South Bayview for some 32 years. Gayle Force is the name chosen on the suggestion of a client and then a popular vote.  The client won a whole year’s worth of free classes. Today Gayle animates and excites her classes personally as she has always done with more than 100 clients joining her each week in the spacious and brightly lit Lamb Hall extension to St. Cuthberts. It was Gayle who brought both dancersize and pilates to Toronto from New York, where she began her career as a fitness instructor. It was in New York in the early 80s that she became a registered pilates instructor.  Gayle’s biography tells us that she graduated from the National Ballet School and began her own dance school. In the language of previous chroniclers of her career “she proceeded to — not just blaze a trail through Toronto’s fitness community — but to actually light the match.” Gayle was among the first to teach fitness in the City. Gayle’s preoccupation with the body and muscles remain the key to her practice in a time of the ever-growing predominance of “exercise” and “jogging”. She is concerned about the amount if running and working out people do without stretching to protect the muscles. An important part of the Gayle Force practice is the family feeling created among clients. Gayle encourages it and even sponsors group outings to the ballet and other related activities. Gayle Force indeed. 

John Parker

There are tweets Tuesday (October 28, 2014) thanking John Parker for his eight years of service as the Councillor for Ward 26.  There are also tweets expressing surprise the quiet-spoken lawyer and resident of central Leaside was the only incumbent to be defeated last night. What was it that caused voters to turn against Mr. Parker? It may have begun during his first term, 2006 to 2010. In the 2010 election Parker  was challenged  by two strong opponents, Mohamed Dhanani and Jon Burnside. Mr. Dhanani came a close third. His accomplished business career and attractive family seemed to commend him to his dream — being the first Muslim Councillor on City Council.  As it turned out, he split the opposition vote with second place Jon Burnside, the man who went on to defeat Mr. Parker in 2014. Together, Dhanani and Burnside polled a large majority of the ballots. Mr. Parker’s plurality saw him to victory. So the people were restless in 2010. It seems that for all his quiet and carefully spoken ways, Parker could be quite direct. Members of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association said this about him. According to their published criticism, Parker as much as told them to clean up untidy public spaces themselves. It may or may not seem fair but it was a source of irritation to the tenants. In Leaside itself, the festering issue of the industrial park was not one where the Councillor made much ground. Many say the expectations of residents about this early-20th century factory farm are unreasonable. The only redevelopment possible on lands polluted with chemicals and industrial waste is commercial. But that means big developers and big box stores. And traffic. The Leaside Property Owners Association certainly had no interest in that. Parker was condemned for not being tough enough with Smart Centres and other developers. It was bruited about that he had missed out on getting a large settlement available from the developer for some political peace. We do not know if this is true. But it became part of the lore of Leaside. At a personal level, Parker could be charming. If however one was a supplicant the answer often seemed to be polite indifference. The outrageous left-over bylaws from East York deserved to be thoroughly ignored — if not publicly attacked — when it came to granting small businesses a license to operate. Quite often the bylaws seemed to triumph, or at least delay, the opening of a business. It was a natural opportunity for Jon Burnside to say that he would be “on your side” in such matters.