Northern Dancer Pavilion will grace Bayview Ave.

by  • 

Many notables were at the earth-turning for the Northern Dancer Pavilion at the Canadian Film Centre at 2489 Bayview Avenue south of York Mills Rd today (Wednesday, May 15, 2013). The CFC is housed in the former Windfields Estates, once the home of  industrialist and horse racing legend  E.P. Taylor. The home later became the genesis of the CFC when the organization was founded by filmmaker Norman Jewison. Now governments at all levels have contributed to the planned construction of the Northern Dancer Pavilion. It will provide a spacious addition to the CFC campus and permit the centre to expand its film, television, digital media, screen acting and music program activities. There will also be additional event space for the centre and surrounding community. The provincial and federal governments each contributed up to $3.25 million. The City of Toronto invested $1 million and CFC provided the remaining $1.5 million toward the total eligible project cost, bringing the total investment to $9 million. The building is named after E.P. Taylor’s famed Canadian thoroughbred Northern Dancer (1961-1990).  His fabulous racing career started with low expectations because he was so small. But then Northern Dancer began to win, and win and win. With jockey Bill Hartak aboard, Northern Dancer won the Blue Grass and Kentucky Derby, Queen’s Plate, Preakness Stakes and finished third in the Belmont Stakes. In his two years of racing, Northern Dancer won 14 of the 16 races he ran and never finished worse than third. At the earth-turning we see in the picture above (l-r) Slawko Klymkiw, CEO, Canadian Film Centre, Hon. Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour, Lucille Roch, Vice-Chair of the Board for the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Nancy Lockhart, (Chair of the CFC Building Fund), Lynne St. David Jewison, Norman Jewison, Founder and Chair Emeritus, CFC, Councillor David Shiner, Donald Ross, Gretchen Ross, and Christina Jennings, Co-Chair of the CFC Board of Directors and Chairman and CEO of Shaftesbury. Photo by Tom Sandler.

NDP takes Wynne to wall with unknown demands

by  • 

It’s all about doing things publicly, according NDP leader Andrea Horwarth. Of course, Ms. Horwath was not at all open about what passed between herself  and the Premier today (Wednesday, May 15, 2013). The tone of her remarks after a mid-day meeting sounded a little bit like she had just disciplined a naughty school girl who also happened to be Premier of Ontario. Reporters responded in disbelief as Ms. Horwath denied outright that she gave the Premier an ultimatum for NDP support of the Liberal budget. But nothing in Ms. Horwath’s school-marm act could hide the obvious. She has taken the Premier to the wall with demands that will be very hard for the Premier to accept — except and unless Ms. Wynne will do anything to avoid a general election. After the meeting, Liberal sources said that contrary to Ms. Horwath’s  claim the ball is in the Premier’s court, it is really in the court of the NDP.  In fact, the game is poker, not tennis. Let’s see who calls  who’s bluff. 

Vote NDP? BC voters get cold feet, re-elect Libs

by  • 

Reason to smile

Vote NDP? British Columbia voters get a serious case of cold feet. Weeks of polling information that predicted an NDP victory in yesterday’s general election turned to vapour as citizens actually entered the polling booth. Premier Christy Clark won a comfortable  seven seat majority majority for her party, although she also lost her own seat to a New Democrat by 700 votes or so. Ms. Clark remains premier (a handy feature of our parliamentary system) but will no doubt run for another seat in an early by-election. This would certainly be another case for the media to mourn just how it got things so wrong. Do they care about stuff like that in way-out British Columbia?   CBC

Will Premier fire Godfrey to save horse racing?

by  • 

Premier Wynne and Mr. Godfrey

Residents of Don Valley West will be watching their MPP carefully to see how she intends to shape her platform for a general election which seems more and more inevitable. A story today in the Ottawa Citizen by Joanne Chianello described the premier’s concerns about the direction of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). Specifically, the wholesale slaughter of the horse racing industry by Mr. McGuinty is troubling her. The story suggests quite strongly that she is considering replacing the architect of that move, OLG Chairman Paul Godfrey. It’s a tricky field because horse racing is not cheap. The public can’t afford to subsidize the purses. Such a reversal would however be very popular policy in rural Ontario.  Once again we see the folly of debt. It makes us do things we really don’t want to do. Also this week, the Premier said she is sorry about the gas plant scandal. Seven times.  It wasn’t exactly like the conversion of Saul on the Road to Damascus, but Premier Wynne was quite fervent as she spoke with TVO’s Steve Paikin.  Is it the same as an  apology? Do people care? And exactly what is she sorry for?  You may take it as you wish. 

Beating the killer BRCA-1 breast cancer gene

by  • 

Actress Angelina Jolie has revealed that she had a double mastectomy as a measure to avoid the high chance of developing either breast or ovarian cancer, or both. The remarkable news appears to be yet another advance in preventative medicine made possible by the charting of the human gnome. Ms. Jolie was told she was carrying the BRCA-1 gene, an almost certain sign that she would, like her mother, develop breast cancer. After the mastectomy, reconstruction and treatment, doctors say her chances of such an outcome have dropped from 87 percent to five percent. At the right, is a statement by Emma Parlons describing her experience. 

North York Community Council meeting

by  • 

North York Community Council is meeting today. This body makes recommendations to City Council from a large area of Toronto including East York, Leaside and points to the north and west. On today’s agenda there  are items of local interest.  One is the Request for a Leaside Area-Wide Traffic Survey. Also on the agenda is a late item about the demolition of properties for high-rise residential re-development at the northwest corner of Yonge and Strathgowan Ave. 

Granite Club plans to be heard at NY Council

by  • 

The landmark Granite Club at 2350 Bayview Ave. will place plans for a large expansion in front of North York Community Council today (Tuesday, May 14, 2013). The expansion calls for a 24,500-square-foot recreational facility and bubble, a 4,015-square-foot maintenance building and 6,620-square-foot single-storey pavilion with roof viewing area.  The recreational facility could be used for four tennis courts or a soccer field, according to the planning information. Existing homes at 2374 and 2378 Bayview would be demolished while the house at 2382 Bayview would be retained. 

Thumbs up from Hadfield on Russian landing

by  • 

Canada’s celebrity astronaut, Commander Chris Hadfield,  gives it a thumbs up as he is checked out after almost five months in orbit. In a unique and eventful tour of duty in the International Space Station, Hadfield revealed a complex and entertaining personality to the country — and to the world. From impromptu lessons on how to make peanut butter sandwiches to his plaintiff recording of David Bowie’s Ground Control to Major Tom, Hadfield, 53, became a household name in his native land.  His safe return tonight was executed in a crowded Soyuz capsule with two other astronauts,  American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko, crammed in there with him. Some have said Hadfield has the stuff of show business in him. Others see him as prime political candidate timber. We’ll see. Meantime, welcome back Chris. Well done. See and hear Hadfield’s Ground Control to Major Tom. 

Disbelief as Leafs lose 5-4 heartbreaker in OT

by  • 

Maple Leaf Square is a Street of Broken Dreams tonight after the Maple Leafs stunning loss in Game 7 of their quarter final series with the Bruins. The impact of a squandered three goal lead left fans in disbelief. Many were seen crying. One was quoted as saying time stands still when your heart of broken. Having lost the lead, Toronto had to face the energized Bruins in overtime. It was too much. Seasoned sports reporters are calling it a choke loss. Six minutes into the OT it was all over. Reflectively the Leafs are being given credit for mounting the challenge they did.  CBC

Bosma case propels cyber-sleuthing into high gear

by  • 

This is an interesting story about a matter of  very high public interest. Hamilton Spectator 

Metrolinx flip flop flips on tunneling under Leslie

by  • 

The Ontario agency charged with planning and overseeing the construction of transit, Metrolinx, has reversed itself a second time after complaints from the Leaside Property Owners Association. Metrolinx has now decided that the Scarboro Crosstown LRT will not be tunneled across the Don Valley and under the tributary that runs there. For cost reasons the underground route would have required the elimination of the Leslie St.. station. To build the station underground would have cost an additional $80 million. Now however, Metrolinx says the station will be built at surface level as ratepayers have demanded. In announcing this decision Metrolinx has apparently not mentioned a reason given to ratepayers at a public meeting in December as to why the line should go underground all the way to Don Mills. That concern stated unspecified issues with regard to the integrity of the foundation of the huge Scenic on Eglinton development on the south side of Eglunton Ave. E. if the tracks proceeded at ground level. Where this concern, if it was real,  has gone to is not known.  Previous post

Reporter and editor Peter Worthington dead at 86

by  • 

The distinguished career of Peter Worthington has come to an end. His eventful life spanned service in the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry during the Korean War to his eyewitness account of the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in a Dallas police station.  Mr. Worthington’s life and accomplishments are recorded in this obituary in the Toronto Sun.  He and his wife Yvonne were long-time residents of Moore Park and could frequently be seen walking through the Moore Park ravine and on the footbridge to Bennington Heights. Toronto Sun