The South Bayview Bulldog

Large turnout for candidates meeting at William Lea Room

Councillors Jon Burnside and Jaye Robinson slugged it out on the issues as identified by those who attended the candidates debate at Leaside Arena Tuesday night. The two incumbents are thrown into competition with each other by the reduction in the number of wards which was legislated by the Ford government. Mr. Burnside represents the old Ward 26, Ms Robinson the old Ward 25. Now they are contesting the new Ward 15, Don Valley West. Questions from the audience were read by moderator Brian Athey, past president of the Leaside Property Owners Association, which sponsored the debate. They asked how the candidates would deal with the increased number of constituents in the larger ward, what would be their priorities, did they favour a hand gun ban in Toronto, privatized garbage collection east of Yonge St. and cycling issues. Candidate Tanweer Khan joined the panel although two other candidates Minh Le and Nicola Streker were absent

PRIORITIES

Jaye Robinson said her local priorities would be traffic infiltration of Leaside, development (which she called aggressive over-development) and the threatened over-capacity of Leaside schools. Jon Burnside also cited traffic and referenced the referendum he sponsored in North Leaside where, as he said, “the people spoke.” He emphasized road safety and the need for photo radar and more police. He named development and what he called the ongoing relationship between Leaside and Thorncliffe Park to avoid the  “regionalization of poverty.”

City News is reporting that tenants of a Flemingdon Park apartment owned by the Minto Group have been ordered by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to pay back withheld rent immediately. Many ternants have been on a so-called rent strike since August 1. At that time they had also receive notice of an increase. The striking tenants had applied for an adjournment so they could make their arguments against Minto, but the LTB denied the request. At the hearing on Monday, the board ordered the tenants to pay their outstanding rent in 11 days on average, barring extenuating circumstances of face eviction.

Donna Strickland

Nobel panel makes announcement

Professor Donna Stickland, of Waterloo University, will share in the 2018 Nobel Prize for physics. Strickland will split half the $1,000,000 award with Gerard Mourou of France with whom she collaborated in an article on the development of ultra-short optical pulses used in eye surgery. The other half will be given to Arthur Ashkin of the US. The Guelph-born Strickland, who is an associate professor at Waterloo, told the academy she was left in disbelief when she got the call from Stockholm notifying her of the win, saying she thought it was “crazy.”

Hilarious video here of a runaway horse galloping into a bar in Chantilly, France. Then it gallops back out. Punch line? None, except the wallop in those hooves. No one was hurt and later they were telling horse jokes. You know, a guy comes into a bar and moans that he can’t tell his horses apart. The bartender says he should measure their height to see if one is taller than the other. The excited guy comes back next day and says it worked. “The white one is taller than the black.”

The Coalition Avenir Québec (or Coalition for Quebec’s Future) has won the Quebec general election Monday. CAQ won 74 seats out of 125 with the Liberals (31) and the two separatist parties (total 19) being laid low. There is much astonishment among writers at the outcome, citing the measure of change after a 15 year Liberal reign. The CAQ has the word coalition in its name but seems less like a coalition than a fresh mainstream movement, centre right and focussed on the economy. It was founded by former Parti Québécois (PQ) cabinet minister François Legault and businessman Charles Sirois; Legault serves as party leader. The party membership includes both Quebec nationalists and federalists. Legault has said it will never endorse a referendum on sovereignty, but more autonomy if necessary — with Wikipedia

Carol Wrigley has posted pictures to the Leaside Chit Chat Facebook page of the 40th anniversary (class of 88?) Leaside High School Reunion gathering over the weekend. She thanks Mike and Simon for helping to put the event together at the Amsterdamn Barrel House. Steve Young came all the way from Vancouver to attend. School spirit. Stand faithfully one and all.

Apple Fest moment as mayor talks to tot/JTory

Sarah and Claire’s Food Drive at Longo’s/Mark Jodan@mojorising

Riot of gourds at Summerhill Market/Bulldog

Leaside Block Party

Candidates meeting Tuesday

Mayor Tory took a stroll along Bayview Ave. Saturday and had this talk with a tiny constituent. It was a very nice Apple Fest Day. Upper right, Mark Jordan was along with daughters Sarah and Claire Sunday at Longo’s. They set up in the familiar corner of the store where the pizza is made. Yum. Mark reports they sold out of Longo’s Neighbour-In-Need Bags in aid of the Daily Bread Food Bank Drive. Below that, glorious gourds abounded at Summerhill Market Monday as that pumpkin time of year approaches. At bottom right a reminder of the Leaside Property Owners Association all-candidates meeting Tuesday night at Leaside Arena. At bottom left, get ready for the Leaside Block Party on Saturday, October 13.

A Lawrence Park resident, Tamara Gottlieb, has told Post City that her garage was ransacked and bicycles and scooters stolen over the dinner hour on Saturday, September 8.  The door had been left open after a day of play and gardening. The garage was unattended for about 30 minutes. A check of a neighbour’s surveillance video revealed two boys checking out the garage and then returning moments later with seven or eight others. The neighbor said she had been menaced by the boys as this occurred. There are apparently many witnesses to the boys riding about on the stolen bikes and scooters. Through witnesses and other videos the boy were traced to the McDonald’s at Avenue Road and Roe Avenue. Witnesses there recognized descriptions of the boys and identified two of the scooters that were stolen from Gottlieb’s garage by their sparkly aqua-blue hue. The story does not say if police were called but the entire matter is within 53 Division.

Everyone is a genius Monday morning. Donald Trump had typically smarmy words of compliment for Justin Trudeau. There are some pundits saying that this silly old NAFTA worry wasn’t even a real issue. Uh-huh. We note that Trump didn’t promise Monday not to apply arbitrary tariffs against steel and aluminum. He only mumbled that he didn’t think it would be necessary. Then there’s the name. Four consanents followed by a vowel. If this were a souffle it would come out of the oven tasting like a flat tire. How about UMCANA?

Peter Nygard

Putin fan

Samantha Markle

Peter Nygard, Canadian fashion phenomenon and curious macho man, has had his luxurious Caribbean estate seized by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas. It is the latest step in a 25-year battle with his neighbors and the island government over a relentless pursuit of a larger beach through dredging. Here is one of many videos attacking Nygard. The face at centre is a Russian store clerk as he speaks lovingly about Vladimir Putin and the inspiring 2019 calendar just on sale featuring the former KGB agent. Yes sir Mr. Putin sir. Lastly on the right is Samantha Markle in a British television interview as she speaks sadly of her efforts to apologize to Meghan. Another clip here.

Governor’s Bridge

U-R stretches across midtown

The affluent neighborhoods of Moore Park, Rosedale, Deer Park and Summerhill may yet again find themselves outvoted, this time in the municipal election. These areas are now part of Toronto Ward 11, known better as the federal riding of University-Rosedale. U-R, as it known, stretches from the streets of Governor’s Road on the east, across Moore Park and then down and west all the way to Ossington Ave. There are eight candidates declared in the riding, most notably incumbent Mike Layton from the old Ward 19 and proudly endorsed by the Toronto and District Labour Council. He is very likely to be strongly supported by voters in U-R living in the densely populated neighborhoods west of Spadina.

DEBATE SET FOR OCTOBER 3

Otherwise, candidate Nicki Ward is working hard to achieve a profile. She will be one of three candidates invited to a debate October 3 at Rosedale United Church. Also present will be Mr. Layton and candidate Marc Cormier. Many in the east half of U-R had looked forward to being part of the unborn Ward 34, which paired it with the Danforth. That was not to be when the number of wards shrunk from 47 to 25. In previous elections, Moore Park and Rosedale were part of the long ward stretching south to the lake. The Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam, had (and has) many friends in the north end, but it was not her natural constituency. And so it seems possible the winner in this election will once again rely on neighborhoods outside of South Bayview for a victory.