The South Bayview Bulldog

For television viewers who found themselves beginning to float on the Oh-liv-yah! excitement at this morning’s Olivia Chow announcement in St. James Town, a moment of  sobriety may have occurred near the end of the candidate’s speech. Her fervent declaration that “We are Toronto” to the roomful of mostly south-of-Bloor folks crowding the hall had a slightly worrisome quality. In a speech that was frankly heavy on hard-luck personal remarks, knee-deep in “compassion” for her core constituents and the motherhood issues of jobs and transit, do the centre-right voters of Toronto who live north of Bloor really know what they heard?  We are Toronto isn’t as scary as Take Back Toronto. That was David Miller’s now sinister cry. But the supporters who followed Ms Chow on CP24 certainly sounded like the same old NDP people who find it very hard to save a dime in the library budget or in equity relations. Privatized garbage collection? Forget it. There were some great slogans — “It will take heavy slogging, not easy slogans,” said the impeccably-dressed Ms Chow. In the Q and A, her tendency to simplify was not impressive, “We need to figure out how to move people faster” and “Respect for Scarborough”  fall flat. There was no mention of jets on the island. In fairness, Chow’s statements so far are no less enlightening than those of John Tory or Karen Stintz. The disgraced Rob Ford says he will privatize garbage collection east of Yonge Street. That includes South Bayview. Strange thing this democracy.

Cops are rightly very eager to bag this young thug seen working his dirty tricks on a passenger at the Castle Frank station last October. It happened around 1.15 p.m. Time of day is no guarantee that these guys are not at work.  In the four frames above the snatcher is seen upper left as he wheels, reversing direction. He has already sized up his victim as he walked by her. She is the elderly lady in the brown coat on the right. The purse snatcher heads back and grabs the woman’s bag knocking her to the ground.  Some think this thug was with an associate. When you look at the video, notice the man who goes out ahead of the purse snatcher. His subsequent behaviour is suspicious.  Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.

Olivia Chow will face the cameras tomorrow with a message for voters that she is experienced, compassionate and — count on it — concerned that you may feel packed like a sardine on the TTC. In other words, the campaign video embedded here reveals a warm politician who so far has a platform that is fairly conventional. Sure, you will say. Why should she be any different? Others in the mayor’s race however have got their warnings well rehearsed about Ms. Chow’s politics. We heard John Tory say today that his friend Olivia had never seen a public dollar she didn’t know how to spend.

Today’s late-winter storm has blown off to the east and left a load of wretched deep-drifting snow behind. The good news is that we are near the end and tomorrow (Thursday, March 13, 2014) will be bright and sunny. Even better, Friday will be sunny with a high of snow-bank melting 5 degrees Celsius. There were a million stories in the bundled up naked city and environs. CTV has tweeted pictures (right) of a Whitby bus and an overturned Ontario snowplow. Bottom we see Kim Cloutier and friend whose faces say it all. “What’s up with this storm,” they tweeted.  Commuters will expect a slow commute Thursday morning. Tonight TTC surface vehicles were struggling with route diversions. The City of Toronto issued an extreme cold weather alert Wednesday morning to alert the homeless to the sharp temperature drop in the evening, to -17C by day’s end. As a result, the city automatically opened up 26 shelter spaces. Environment Canada issued a wind chill warning for the GTA. It will feel like -30C overnight with the wind. Kids are already out of school March break this week and some university and college classes were cancelled because of the snow. The University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus closed  York University’s Keele and Glendon campuses closed at 2:30 p.m. Ryerson University remained open. 

Does this mean that Congestion, Gridlock and the Downtown Relief Line are just smoke sent up to make it look like people are working on something? Toronto Star