The South Bayview Bulldog

Canada Bread, perhaps the oldest name in bread-making in this country, has been sold by its parent, Maple Leaf Foods to Grupo Bimbo,  the largest bread-making company in Mexico. The price was $1.83 billion. Canada Bread is baked in Toronto and 21 other factories in Canada and the U.S. and United Kingdom.  The 103-year-old firm owns famous names such as Dempsters, Bon Matin and others. Maple Leaf Foods has had an interest in selling Canada Bread for some time so it can concentrate on its core meat packing business.  Shares of Canada Bread have surged 22 percent since October when Maple Leaf said it was mulling the sale. The purchase builds on Grupo Bimbo’s large U.S. acquisitions in recent years and strengthens its position as the top bread maker in North America. Bimbo has expanded its footprint in recent years, acquiring Sara Lee Corp’s North American bakery business for $959 million in 2010 and buying Hostess Brands Inc’s Beefsteak bread brand last year. Many will be mislead by the Mexican company’s name. The English language slang word bimbo has no recognizable connection with the same word in Spanish usage. According to the company history, it was coined in 1945 by mixing the words bingo and Bambi and has a somewhat child-like connotation. Today, Bimbo is synonymous with bread-making in the Spanish speaking world. Twitter

Police and EMS were called to South Bayview Ave. at Belsize Drive Tuesday evening (February 12, 2014) to attend to a collision. The call went out at 7.04 p.m. after a car that had been parked in front of Dollarama took off quickly. A car in the northbound lane swerved to avoid the first car as it pulled out. As bad luck would have it, the second car collided with a southbound vehicle. One man was apparently shaken up but no serious injuries have been reported. 

There is much indignation around the social (but not entirely congenial) media tonight because Premier Wynne’s  Ask Me Anything session on Reddit is judged to have been a bust. Premier Kath (Don Valley West) answered but ten questions and left. But really, what did anybody expect? However unhappy one might be with the Premier, she is the head of a big government and frankly sitting in her office tapping out replies to thousands of queries is a silly way to spend her time. If she had tried to answer all of them, or even just the serious ones, she would have been there until Dalton McGuinty Day 2015 (Family Day to some). Now the media is dutifully relaying her written whimsy about “modernizing” Ontario liquor laws. Oh? We’ve seen this movie before Kath. The Reddit AMA was a political gambit, after all. The Premier wanted to seem available and with it to young Ontarians of the Bell and Rogers flying fingers generation.  The PC Party took the occasion to make a one-year video lampoon, left above. 

What Reuters calls the Conservative “uneventful spending plan” leaves Prime Minister Stephen Harper well-positioned to offer tax breaks and other initiatives in the run-up to an election.   Reuters 

Conservative government puts in place a fund to help municipalities face things like floods, ice storms. 

City crews are working at Bayview and Finch but it isn’t clear just when the road might re-open after Sunday’s watermain break. Twitter is alive with unhappy people stranded, delayed or waiting. 

Jensen Ltd. is recalling Jensen Cheese brand Old Cheddar Cheese (white) due to possible Listeria contamination. The cheese was sold locally at Pusateri’s, Harvest Wagon on Yonge St. and Whole Foods in the Hazelton Lanes. 

The Toronto Fire Department made an early morning call to an older two-storey apartment on Yonge St. at Glengrove Ave. this morning (Tuesday, February 11, 2014) after residents complained of a strong smell of gas. About two  dozen people were evacuated to TTC buses but have since been permitted to return to their units.

The Olympic medal count, logically enough, is a media phenomenon.  Just as likely, each broadcaster tends to hype up the home team’s collection.  CTV