Columnist Jim Travers dead at 62

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Well-known columnist Jim Travers has died in Ottawa. He was 62. Travers died after a long illness and surgery at a hospital in Ottawa. Jim Travers was national affairs columnist for the Toronto Star, a position he had held since 1999. From 1991 to 1996 he was Editor-in-Chief of Southam’s flagship paper, the Ottawa Citizen, remaining there until Conrad Black’s purchase of Southam. Moving to the Toronto Star in 1997, he was first named Ottawa Editor and then Executive Managing Editor, the paper’s top editorial job, based in Toronto

Sunflowers from Canada Post today

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It’s not Spring but Canada Post is trying. Your postal counter at Shoppers or in the shop in Sunybrook Plaza is issuing the first of a series of stamps today. They feature flowers starting with the sunflower stamps above. Canada Post writes: “It’s the first time that flowers have been a theme for Canadian stamps and this new series will definitely not disappoint. Just in time for summer, these bright, vibrant flowers smile at us from very colourful blue backgrounds. Sunflowers have a special place in Canadian history, being a source of food and oil used by Native Americans right down.”

Axed GM dealers get OK for class action

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The shock expressed by Mark Brennan, owner of Brennan Pontiac-Buick, came back to mind today as the Ontario Superior Court certified a $750 million class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 200 former GM dealers who lost their franchises in 2009. “Judicial economy will be promoted by the aggregation of the claims of the class avoiding multiple trials and potential duplication of fact-finding,” Justice G.R. Strathy wrote in the decision, dated Tuesday, March 2, 2011. At the time, Brennan told dismayed customers that the decision had come as shock. He said Brennan’s was an unfortunate victim of GM’s decision. He offered empathy to those who lost a place to shop for a car and all those who used Brennan as a service centre. The lawsuit is being led by Trillium Motor World of Scarborough. David Sterns, one of the lawyers for Trillium Motor said the decision gives the dealers a chance to mount a recovery. “The elimination of the dealers was a man-made disaster for hundreds of family-owned businesses forced to pay the price for GM’s financial problems,” Sterns said in a statement.

Shawn Brady plays himself at McSorley’s

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Thursday night Shawn Brady (left) will play McSorely’s Tavern from 9.30 to closing. It’s billed as an all-request acoustic classic rock show. On this occasion Brady will be himself but he is also well known as “Bono” (right) in the band Elevation Canada, a successful tribute band to U2. Shawn Brady famously once told an interviewer: “I lead a double life. During the day I work in a hospital helping elderly people and directing physiotherapy services, at night I have leather pants on and sing my guts out, it’s quite the contrast.” At McSorely’s he will put on a “one-man acoustic show (which) encompasses the entire History of Rock from the 1960s to the present day.” Sounds like fun.

Sport Swap will open at 1541B in April

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This chilly Wednesday sees the sign up at 1541B South Bayview announcing that Sport Swap, the pre-owned sports equipment business, will open its new store in April. There has been much interest in the Sport Swap move and just when it would happen since the story was first revealed by the South Bayview Bulldog on February 8, 2011. All posts here. We look forward to the opening.

Gerda hood-winked nearly everyone

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Some will remember the titillating tale of Gerda Munsinger, the German femme fatale who ensnared a Canadian cabinet minister, Pierre Sevigny, in a sex scandal in the early 60s. The death yesterday of Bob Reguly recalls how Gerda hood-winked all of Canada into thinking she was dead. Everyone, it seems, except Bob Reguly. As her affairs were being revealed in Canada Munsinger slipped out of the country and landed in Munich. There she and friends constructed an elaborate hoax that she was dead. Much better play dead than face the press, she thought. There were even stories of trips to her grave. But Reguly some how got wind of her deception and tracked her down. His world exclusive for the Toronto Star is legendary. She was born in East Germany and married for a short period to American soldier Michael Munsinger. Gerda came to Canada in 1955, when she was in her mid 20s. She worked in Montreal as a maid, a waitress and as a hostess at the “Chez Paree” nightclub.

Union targets Shoppers Drug postal desks

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The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has set a goal of unionizing the folks you deal with behind the postal counter in hundreds of Canadian drugstores, including Shoppers Drug Mart. According to CUPW, there are more than 2000 such counters across Canada and the number is growing. The “pharmacy post offices” have been part of Canada Post’s divestiture of bricks and mortar post offices. The union says that so far it has organized 211 employees in Montreal and Saskatoon at other pharmacies.