The South Bayview Bulldog

Not so optimistic

Keep the ring?

Prime Minister Trudeau says he’s ready for the end of NAFTA if no satisfactory deal can be achieved with the US. As reported by Associated Press Mr.Trudeau “remained bullish” but was “ready for anything.” Entirely by chance, former Prime Minister Harper was at a panel discussion in  Washington at the  same hour as  Trudeau met Trump Wednesday. Harper was not optimistic about a satisfactory agreement in light of deep damage done to the US economy by free trade generally. But he said he did not know what might happen. Others at the panel were also unable to offer a prediction.

Annual Apple Day this weekend

Isabella Franco

Draw first, then write

Geoff Taber

Smarttrack

Saturday is Scouts Aapple Day across the area and on Bayview Ave. Please be sure to donate. Top right, Isabella Franco of the East York Skating Club will compete in the Pre-Juv Ladies Freeskate at Barrie Oktoberfest this weekend. Good luck Isabella. Centre left, the kid’s drawing is from a tweet by Rolph Road School Room 23 @MsPlumbsClass where teacher writes that her wards are: “Learning the strategies of good writers. Good writers draw first, then write. I can’t wait to read these stories.” Us too Ms Plumb. Thanks for the insight. Lower right, a scholarship has been established in honour of the late Geoff Taber at the U of T’s Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management. Mr. Taber, a Riverdale lawyer, died with his family in a fire that tore through their cottage near Peterborough on Christmas Eve 2016. And finally, the poster proclaims Mayor Tory was busy Tuesaday in East York polishing up the image of his Smarttrack project. Smarttrack.to

Scarborough native Mike Myers

Hardly a star

Speaking Shrek

Mike Myers for mayor? Frankly, it’s a reminder that headlines ending in a question mark are usually answered “no.” But as one-day wonder news stories go, the long-shot chat campaign to enlist Scarborough-born comedian Mike Myers as a candidate for mayor is as good as any. It is found in the pages of Inside Toronto this week. The chances of this candidacy are not helped by the radio silence from Myers himself to all entreaties to speak up. Robert McDermott, the leading proponent of this effort, says there is genuine support seen in the group’s door-knocking sessions.  They call themselves, rather dramatically, the Separatist Free Scarborough Movement. Not quite as explosive as Catalonia leaving Spain. It’s no secret that there was enormous resistance to amalgamation in 1998. De-amalgamation would be seen favorably in many places, including East York. But the big job will be to convince Kathleen Wynne, or someone like her. In Canada, Cities, even the enormous ones like Toronto, do what the provincial governments tell them to do. Remember tolls on the parkway?
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Diane Lebouthillier: “It wasn’t me”

Much more

Canadian Press say the federal government seems ready to do away with the petty policy scheme that would have taxed employees for discounts they get at work. National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s office said Wednesday that the government will pull the new wording at the heart of the debate from the Canada Revenue Agency website. She said the CRA made the original decision to change the wording not her. “This document was not approved by the minister and we are deeply disappointed that the agency posted something that has been misinterpreted like this,” said a statement.

The Toronto and District School Board will ban the word Chief “out of respect” for Indigenous peoples. The TDSB chief of social work will now be the manager of social work, for example. The gods are laughing. Chief

DeVier Posey at Card Show

Where to put the combined police station

Awesome coming

Mios Raonic at Leaside Tennis Club

Argonauts wide receiver DeVier Posey will be at the Toronto Card Show Sunday in the Amsterdam Brewery meeting room at 45 Esandar Drive. To the right, a further reminder of the Awesome Sale at Leaside United Church this weekend. It starts Friday afternoon and finishes up Saturday morning. Below left, a meeting was held Tuesday night with another planned for October 17 to discuss the best location for the merged 54 and 55 Divisions police station. The prospective locations are now reduced to the East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave., the former Danforth TTC garage at 1627 Danforth and the current 55 building at 101 Coxwell Ave. The Danforth East Community Association (DECA) has information. Then finally, a last look at the great time had by members of the Leaside Tennis Club when Milos Roanic came to visit.

The alarming frequency of fatal gas-and-dash crimes seems to be statement about how easy it is to steal gasoline but also about the perilous impulse of conscientious gas station attendants to try to physically stop the thief, even at the risk of their lives. Many say gasoline should be pre-paid and maybe so, but petroleum firms can surely do better at educating their employees not to try to stop such thefts. In past decades police and bank staff used to shoot it out with bandits. Now common sense reigns. No amount of money is worth it. City News reports here on a notorious local trial and a new fatal case of gas-and-dash near Edmonton.

City Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Justin Di Ciano along with members of the public at the Ontario Municipal Board fighting the City’s plan to expand the number of wards from 44 to 47. CBC

I have news

Child’s joy

Tannah Butterfield

The joy of a child is caught on camera as she learns that she and her younger sister and brother will be adopted by the foster parents they have come to love as mom and dad. The girl seen here is Tannah Butterfield, at school in South Utah when she was told the news that the Fishers were approved in court as her adoptive family.

With mom and dad Fisher

Her sister and brother