Eglinton plan leaves local councillors divided
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The City Planning Department’s vision for Eglinton Ave. has been passed by City Council 26 to 7 with a very substantial 12 councillors absent. Whether they were really away or just hiding is yours to guess. The plan seems to suggest that Eglinton can be turned into a sort of walk-in-the-park with wide boulevards, benches, bike lanes and stands (of course) and less traffic. And maybe it can. It won’t happen before 2020 at the earliest so there is a lot time to change things. Toronto Sun Also there is this break down of the vote on this question from the City. Who voted how is at the bottom of the page. Proponents of the plan — and there are many including the Leaside Property Owners — feel there has been sufficient consultation and that the changes will be agreeable to the people who live here. A curiosity worth noting in yesterday’s voting however is that the thoughtful Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) and Toronto Centre’s Krystin Wong-Tam (Ward 27) were among merely seven councillors who opposed the plan. John Parker (Ward 26) and Josh Matlow (Ward 22) voted in favour. Mr. Matlow is very enthusiastic. Karen Stintz (Ward 16) was among the absent.
Humphrey, Newbigging funeral homes to merge
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Intense competition in the funeral industry in Toronto is seen in an announcement from the Murray E. Newbigging and the Humphrey Funeral Home that they will merge effective August 15, 2014. A tip-off to a rationalization of the industry in South Bayview was the sale last year of the Newbigging property at 733 Mt. Pleasant Rd. where the Newbigging family has served the community for nearly 65 years. The land obtained a price of $5,500,000. The operations of both companies have also been touched by the emergence of the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery visitation centre in recent years. There is said to have been some hard feeling among traditional funeral directors that a cemetery should move into the funeral service business. The Humphrey Funeral Home — A.W. Miles Chapel — is located at 1403 Bayview Ave. at St. Cuthberts Road and has been in business under the Humphrey name for 135 years. Here is the news release
Humphrey Funeral Home – A.W. Miles Chapel Limited and Murray E. Newbigging Funeral Home today announced the amalgamation of their operations to form Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles – Newbigging Chapel Limited, effective August 15, 2014. “Major redevelopment on the Newbigging site at 733 Mt. Pleasant Road provided us with the opportunity to merge our firms,” says Paul Newbigging, second generation President of Murray E. Newbigging Funeral Home, “We’ve found the principles, staff, and facilities at Humphrey Funeral Home – A.W. Miles Chapel to be of the highest order. Together, we will continue to serve Toronto’s families for years to come.” Wayne Hamilton, Managing Director at Newbigging’s, and a valued staff member for more than 40 years, will join Humphrey’s as a Director. Paul Newbigging will also join Humphrey Funeral Home as Past President of Newbigging’s in a semi-retired capacity. “This is the finest example of two Toronto families working together into the future, to better serve our community at a responsible cost – and we are pleased to enter into this new chapter of our business with Newbigging’s,” says Bruce T. Humphrey, fourth generation President of Humphrey Funeral Home – A. W. Miles Chapel Limited. Both longstanding family operations, with Humphrey Funeral Home – A.W. Miles Chapel Limited and Murray E. Newbigging Funeral Home having served Toronto families for 135 and 64 years respectively (199 years combined), this historic move will carry their common tradition of family service into the future at 1403 Bayview Avenue (at Davisville Avenue) – the current location of Humphrey Funeral Home
Lawn Summer Nights fundraiser at Leaside club
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The second of four scheduled Cystic Fibrosis of Canada fundraisers took place at the Leaside Lawn Bowling Club on Hanna Rd. tonight (Thursday, July 10, 2014). Pumped music ranging from the 50s to right now washed over an elegant young crowd of supporters as they ate, drank and played bowls to celebrate this Lawn Summer Nights event. Lawn Summer Nights was conceived four years ago according to organizer Rachel Balchin. She is with KPMG, a prime sponsor and benefactor of the Lawn Summer. It was Rachel herself who lost a cousin, Eva Markvoort, to this disease. The heartbreak inspired Rachel and others to create a fundraising event which now extends to nine cities in Canada. Teams with madcap names like Lawn Order, The Royal Canadian Mounted Bolwice and Guacabowles, now compete, after a fashion, in Toronto, Ottawa, London, Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Teams are urged to dress the part and much of the costuming on show tonight was sensational. The four women of Cast My Line (above) were there with their whale mascot, Willy. Elegantly dressed young bowlers chowed down on sandwiches and various delicatessen dishes from the Zane Caplansky Food Truck Thundering Thelma. The remaining two Lawn Summer Nights will take place at the Leaside Lawn Bowling Club on the last Thursdays in July, 17 and 24. Photo: Cast My Line starring l-r Jennifer, Chelsea, Ashley, Sonia and Willy.
Neighbours watch pool fly into Colin Ave. backyard
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Nico and Jane Cape were fairly confident but still apprehensive as workmen prepared to “fly” their new laminated swimming pool into the backyard from the pavement of Colin Ave. in Chaplin Estates. Their neighbors were fairly confident too, but apprehensive. “I hope that tree survives,”said one. It was a sentiment everyone echoed. But finally, about 1 p.m. after careful checking of all the links, the fully anchored crane and the position of trees, wires and rooflines, the whole lift happened in a matter of about a minute. Here we see the 2,500 pound pool rising above trees and homes, swinging across neighbors yards and into the Cape’s prepared backyard at 16 Colin. Below, we see the pool before it was taken off the trailer and the whole Cape family, smiling happily to know that the pool had landed safely in their yard. Thursday, July 10, 2014
Bayview-York Mills snarl as truck rips down wires
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Hydro and emergency workers have cut power to the downed wires at Bayview Ave. and York Mills Rd. and have freed a dump truck driver who had been trapped in his truck. It isn’t quite clear what happened but somehow his large truck brought down a hydro pole. The collapsed wires were draped over the big vehicle and they also were touching two cars. Now happily, everyone is out safely but you can count on a very congested time around this intersection as work begins to get the wires back up where they should be. Photo: CP24 via Twitter
Pudsey the Dog could make it on Bayview
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You may fall in love with this canine ball of fluff. He’s a candidate for the smart dog walk along South Bayview but right now Pudsey is busy starring in his own movie, Pudsey the Dog, The Movie. Pudsey came to stardom when he and his teenage owner and trainer Ashleigh Butler appeared on Britain’s Got Talent. Here we see the agreeable puffball and hear Ashleigh tell his story. Movie opens this summer in United Kingdom.
Via service cancelled by freight derailment
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A freight train derailment near Brockville has shut down the Via rail line between Toronto and Montreal. It has caused the cancellation of all Ottawa-Toronto and Toronto-Montreal Via Rail routes. Via passengers affected by the derailment are being carried by bus. The derailment does not appear too serious and may be cleaned up by the weekend.
Implosion spectacle set for 7 a.m. Sunday
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| Sir John Carling Building |
Sunday morning at 7 a.m. will see an implosion spectacle in one of the most scenic parts of Ottawa. The Sir John Carling Building, an unwanted federal landmark dating from 1967, will come crashing down with the detonation of a series of smartly-placed explosive packages. The obsolete office tower overlooks lovely Dow’s Lake. It’s demise is being called the biggest blast in the capital’s history. Such superlatives might tempt political wags but we will leave it alone. Sunday’s demolition will be executed by a U.S. demolition team skilled in such work. Eric “master blaster” Kelly of Advance Explosives Demolition Inc. of Idaho will push a button detonating about 400 kilograms of dynamite in an intricate sequence of small, controlled explosions within the 11-storey structure. Watch for it.
65 people (so far) running for mayor of Toronto
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Toronto is still four months away from the general election of 2014 and already there are 65 people registered as candidates for mayor. One of them is Happy Happy. He or she may or may not make you happy. And as the polls for support indicates, there maybe 62 of these folks who have no chance whatsoever of winning. Most amazing of all is the keen desire to be a candidate when most people can hardly be bothered to vote. It’s hard to guess just where the candidate list will top out by October 27, 2014. In South Bayview, a number of councillors are running unopposed. Josh Matlow (Ward 22) and Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) are all alone in the race for their positions. In Ward 26, John Parker, two-time incumbent, lawyer and long-time resident of Leaside, has opposition from Dave Sparrow, Jon Burnside and former Parker assistant, Velshi Ishrath. In Ward 27, Krystin Wong-Tam will face three opponents, as of this date. Traditionally, this ward yields a bumper load of candidates. As many 15 is not unusual. Those now in are Benjamin Richter, Pat Roberge and Jordan Stone. In Ward 29, Mary Fragedakis has two opponents, so far. They are Dave Andre and John Papadakis. The war drums are pounding out in Ward 16 where Mike Colle is facing opposition from nine would-be councillors. The City has produced a very good interactive page where it is keeping track in real-time of who is in and who is out. Take a look here.
Decisive World Cup tilt an absolute scoring oddity
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It’s going to be Argentina versus Germany on Sunday for possession of the World Cup. In a European football oddity that is just too much, neither team scored in regular time today. The hefty number of markers that settled the match came solely from penalty rounds. Final score: Arg 4, Ned 2. Amazing. It’s like the Jays and Yankees hashing out a 0-0 nine-innings with an hour of batting practice. Netherlands and Brazil will settle for what’s left on Saturday. Nice account of today”s game here in the Telegraph (London)
Identity of car fire victims is confirmed by OPP
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As police suspected, the deceased persons found in a burned out car last Friday are a Mississauga man, Samuel Masih, 36 and his two sons. The OPP is being very circumspect about what happened but their cautious information leaves little doubt that they think Masih was responsible for the death of the boys and for the fire. The linked story here suggests Masih and his wife Brintha Shanmugalingam were preparing to divorce. Todd Coyne, Brian Platt, Toronto Star