Wynne fires Paul Godfrey as chairman of OLG

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Paul Godfrey has been fired by Premier Wynne as the head of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation with a decision by the Ontario government to head in a different direction on gaming.  The cabinet secretary Peter Wallace has been appointed interim chairman. It appears that the eight-member board of directors at the OLG has resigned in solidarity with Paul Godfrey. At a news conference this evening, Mr Godfrey, 74, told reporters that the chemistry between himself and the premier was just not right. Mr. Godfrey said that he knows the premier is not comfortable with gaming (gambling) but there is no way Ontario can do without it because of the money that is generated.  It seems apparent however that the Premier’s distaste for big-time gambling, including its impact on the horse racing industry, will now require a completely new structure at the OLG.  As   fallout from the Godfrey dismissal, Mayor Ford has cancelled a meeting for Tuesday at which council would have debated the casino issue. The mayor said the matter is now dead. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said he spoke to Godfrey Thursday afternoon and thanked him for his service. “Mr. Godfrey led a significant turnaround in the operations of the OLG. Based on his extensive career in public office and in the private sector, Mr. Godfrey brought seasoned leadership and deep commitment to his role as Chair of OLG,” Sousa said in a statement. “The Government of Ontario appreciates the commitment that Mr. Godfrey has made as Chair of OLG, and thanks him for the significant accomplishments made during this period,” he added.  

Panda exhibit set to open Friday at Zoo

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Click for Video Page

The much-awaited Panda exhibit will open this weekend (Friday) at the Toronto Zoo. There was a VIP reception today and only one of the two panda deigned to come and chew bamboo. That was the male, Da Mao (inset). Er Shun, his mate designate, stayed inside.  The zoo has said it expects the pandas will draw an estimated 300,000 visitors during their first year in Toronto. After their time in Toronto, Er Shun and Da Mao will be heading to Calgary for the final half of their Canadian visit. The Toronto Zoo has not hosted giant pandas in almost three decades, the last time being a months-long stay in 1985. Harper announced that the pandas were coming to Canada while he was on a trip to China last year. Originally, Er Shun was supposed to come to Canada with a different panda named Ji Li. But that changed when testing revealed that both were female. That’s why Da Mao ended up coming to Canada instead. CBC Video

Couple narrowly escapes Bayview-York Mills fire

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A harrowing escape for a man and woman in a fire about 1 a.m.  in a house at 157 Gordon Road in the Bayview Avenue and York Mills Road area A woman 65-year-old woman was trapped in an upstairs bedroom and man was found collapsed on the lawn.  “We had a report of a woman trapped. We started (an) immediate rescue protocol,” District Chief Kaarel Betlem with Toronto Fire Services told CP24. Betlem said three firefighters searching . They found the woman and got her out. The woman and her husband, who police say was found on the front lawn of the residence suffering severe burns to his upper body, were both taken to hospital. In phone records the home is said to be occupied by B Antheunis.  Picture shows burned out rear of the home through the front door

Wealthy lawyer in PM’s office gave Duffy $90,172

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright wrote a personal cheque for $90,172 to pay back Senator Mike Duffy’s living expense, CTV has revealed. The government has confirmed the gift of the money from Mr Wright, a wealthy businessman and lawyer.  “Mr. Duffy agreed to repay the expenses because it was the right thing to do,” Harper’s spokesman Andrew MacDougall said in a statement. “However, Mr. Duffy was unable to make a timely repayment. Mr. Wright therefore wrote a cheque from his personal account for the full amount owing, so that Mr. Duffy could repay the outstanding amount.”  

Northern Dancer Pavilion will grace Bayview Ave.

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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.