The South Bayview Bulldog

Joe Oliver

Joe Oliver, the MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, will be Canada’s new Finance Minister. Mr. Oliver will replace Jim Flaherty.   He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and worked as an investment banker, starting his career with Merrill Lynch. Oliver, 73, has also served as the executive director of the Ontario Securities Commission, and the CEO of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada. Eglinton-Lawrence was created in 1976 from parts of Eglinton, St. Paul’s, York Centre, York South, and York West. Federally, it was represented by Liberal Joe Volpe from 1988 to 2011, and by Mr. Oliver since the 2011 federal election. On Toronto City Council, the western half of the riding is represented by Josh Colle (Ward 15) and the eastern portion by Karen Stintz (Ward 16).  w/Wikipedia

An early crowd of about 300 wandered along the parade of placards on tripods at the Metrolinx information meeting held Tuesday night in the William Lea Room at Leaside Gardens. The meeting was sponsored by John Parker (Ward 26) though it appeared to be a fairly standard Metrolinx meeting, much like the kind held elsewhere in the vicinity of South Bayview. Residents came to marvel and argue about the transit project known as the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rapid Transit. There were instructional cards on the pace of work, cutaway views of the stations at Bayview and Laird and point by point explanations of how Metrolinx will try to help us cope during the forthcoming mess. One catchy bullet-point from the provincial transit authority was that tunnel boring from Brentcliffe Rd. to Yonge Street will be completed by 2016. A few people thought this was nonsense but in fact it doesn’t seem too unlikely. The joker in the pack, as some might say, will be the station construction at Bayview and Laird (and Mt. Pleasant by the way). These structures will stretch hundreds of feet both above and below ground. It will be necessary to “cut and cover” everything built below ground at these sites. It is a process that will frequently bring traffic and commerce to a dead halt through these intersections. It was ever thus in such construction. As has been noted elsewhere in the Bulldog, the Bayview stop will have a main station on the site of the McDonald’s on the southeast corner. A second entrance will be built in the Metro parking lot. In a reversal from early planning, there will be no entrance from Sunnybrook Plaza. This change may reflect the desire of the plaza’s owner, Rio.Can, to keep its re-development options open for this corner. At Laird, both stations, west and east of Laird, will be on the south side. The main entrance will be on the southwest corner where the small strip mall housing the Great Canadian Bagel now sits. A secondary entrance will be built to the east of the Pier One building in the parking lot of Rio.Can’s Leaside Shopping Centre. 

Canada’s internationally respected Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is resigning that post and leaving the cabinet. He will return to the private sector, he said. Mr. Flaherty released  a statement late Tuesday saying he feels fulfilled. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement of his own, saying he had accepted Flaherty’s decision “with great reluctance.” Flaherty said the decision to leave politics is unrelated to his health, but is instead simply “the right decision for me and my family at this time.” Flaherty, the member for Whitby-Oshawa has suffered for some time from a painful skin disease.  It is apparently not fatal but is very uncomfortable. Flaherty’s replacement will be named Wednesday.  

A resident of Scarth Road (Rosedale) reports to police that between 8.30 and 10.30 p.m. on Monday, March 17, 2014, a mink coat was removed from a restaurant in the area of Yonge Street and King Street East.  This is not a nice St. Patrick’s thing to do. 

Mayor Ford has had another one of his “You may be perfect but I’m not” moments outside City Hall Saturday. He was blithering away and unloading vulgar verbal stink bombs in front of kids. The story is all complete from reporter Natalie Johnson except to say that whatever the mayor’s bleeped outburst some bystanders found it hilarious, as you can tell from loud guffaws off camera. It’s instructive that the lady whose 13-year-old shot this video opened her shouted remarks to the mayor by saying she thought he was “awesome.” Certainly. And the mayor used his “I guess you don’t drink” trick on Ms.Johnson but she didn’t fall for it. We were only a moment of petulance away from — all together now — “You may be perfect, but I’m not.”  

Josh Matlow (Ward 22) has announced that Toronto has signed a ten-year lease on the Hodgson Senior Public School Ice Rink on Davisville Ave. The rink is one of a few artificially supported outdoor rinks in the city and has been out of use this season– at least officially — because of needed repairs to the aging facility. But with the Toronto District School Board’s agreement to lease the rink, the City will now proceed with an estimated $2 million in repairs. It expects to have Hodgson Rink back in service for the fall of 2014. The lease also has a two year notice clause which means it seems likely that the rink will be in service for at least 12 years. It sits on TDSB property and Hodgson is an aging structure. Built in 1915, it’s nearly a century old. The future of the present school building probably can’t be predicted much beyond the term of the lease. Any decision to replace it or make major changes would probably mean the end of the rink at that site. 

Three are dead and two in hospital after apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in a Brampton Home. Propane heaters were brought into the house to keep it warm after the furnace stopped working over the weekend. CBC

A Lawrence Park home on Daneswood Road was broken into March 15, 2014 between the hours of 6.24 p.m. and 8.28 p.m. Those precise times suggest an alarm system recorded comings and goings. Let’s hope there’s a video capture. Removed was a quantity of jewellery and watches.  Also in 53 Division, a resident of Hillhurst Boulevard reports that between March 7, 2014 at 1 p.m. and March 14, 2014 at 6 p.m. entry was gained to the premises by forcing a window. Removed was a quantity of computer equipment and watches.