The South Bayview Bulldog

The re-listed and re-priced home at 82 Divadale Dr. in north Leaside has sold for its most recent listed price, $2.8 million. The custom home has a built-in garage on a 33-by-135-foot lot. It  was listed under $3-million for several months this year. As the Globe and Mail reports Monday, the home was re-listed with another agent, who gave it  “a lower price and newer look, from a dark exterior paint job to a staged interior to match the modern architecture.” There were 17 private showings with some hit and miss bidding but it sold for asked price of $2.85-million.

82 Divadale Drive

An all-party committee of seven MPs has produced a report recommending a referendum to see if citizens want a Parliament that is elected by a proportional voting system. Such an electoral scheme would potentially elect dozens of MPs from one-issue or special interest parties. The outcome is frequently called a “pizza parliament” after Italy’s proportional legislature. The committee is recommending the government adopt a mixed system in which some MPs would be elected from electoral districts, as they are now, and some would gain office based on the proportion of the popular vote gained by their party.

LIBERALS NOT INTERESTED?

There is no reason to think the Trudeau government is ready for any of this. After campaigning on election reform last year, the prime minister and other cabinet members have talked down such change. Any referendum would inspire fierce division. Those who support proportional voting say it is more democratic. Those opposed say it tends to make the major parties less inclusive and can also produce a parliament in which there are so many voices that there is no accountability. In the extreme, it is possible for radical or nuisance parties to gain a seat in Parliament.

DEFINE DEMOCRACY

The issue is important for parties which typically lose. Their complaint raises the question of what responsibility the country has to see they win.  Others reply that the idea everyone can win an election is irresponsible. For those who care to think about it, the matter requires a clear definition of what we mean by democracy. The conventional notion, reached without a lot of discussion, has concluded that democracy means a pizza parliament. But it need not. Canadian Press

The Ontario government spent nearly $50 in 2015 on what the auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, calls self-congratulatory advertising and it continues to do so.  In her annual report released Wednesday Lysyk also says there was $30 million similarly spent the previous year. As noted by CBC Legislature reporter Mike Crawley in the Liberals pushed through a bill in 2015 that changed the rules on government advertising, drastically watering down the auditor’s powers to reject ads that serve to promote the party in power. Also Canadian Press 

The City has closed the Wilson West Parking Lot at the Wilson station with no additional alternative parking for subway commuters who need to take their cars to the station.  Drivers found the lot at 75 Billy Bishop in North York barricaded this week as developers get ready build., Evidently the City thought that a parking lot at Yorkdale station would be open by now but it is more than a year away.

[1] EY Fire – Residential Bessborough Dr b/w Broadway Ave & Annesley Ave R321 P125 R134 P131 A321 C13 [321]

— Toronto Fire FIRE (@tofiref) November 30, 2016

Toronto Police are warning of a series of home break-ins in Midtown, including Rosedale and South Bayview by burglars who apparently use a ladder to enter by second storey windows. They occur during “evening hours”.  One such recent break-in was Sunday, November 27, 2016, where two people broke into a home in Rosedale. The same suspects are also believed to have broken into several other homes in the midtown area throughout November

WATCH FOR VEHICLES AND PEOPLE

Residents are asked by 53 Division police to safeguard their homes by:keeping an exterior light on after dark, keeping windows secure and alarms functional and on. They are asking residents to report any suspicious vehicles or persons, and to check existing security camera video and report any suspicious behavior captured at their residence.

The TTC’s new LFS buses are made by Prevost in Sainte-Eustache Quebec. The vehicles are coming on line in a paint style that mimics the new streetcars from Bombardier. Prevost is also an old Quebec firm formed in 1924 but these days has parents named AB Volvo of Sweden

https://twitter.com/bradTTC/status/804046701438889984

A woman has died in a house fire on Elmhurst Ave. in North York. The victim, 47, was discovered in the home when firefighters arrived to deal with a two alarm fire. Her age had previously been estimated to be about 70. The fire marshal is investigating. No cause has been given.

The BIA's winter planters have arrived. We will have solar lights on the planters soon too. pic.twitter.com/4BCVcsCUgi

— Bayview Leaside BIA (@LeasideBIA) November 30, 2016

The aircraft that crashed in the Colombian mountains killing 77 people apparently ran out of fuel before reaching its destination, the capital of Medellin. The pilot of the chartered plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team told air traffic controllers his tanks were empty. AP says a chaotic audiotape from the air traffic tower records the pilot of the British-built jet repeatedly requesting permission to land due to a “total electric failure” and lack of fuel. Investigators find it a likely explanation because the plane did not explode or burn on crashing

Parks will be created from land acquired after the demise of the Glebe Manor Lawn Bowling Club and from half of the property once owned by Manor Road United Church. The date of the meeting at Maurice Cody gymnasium is Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Sam Oosteroff

MPP Sam Oosterhoff, 19 years, met the media at Queen’s Park Wednesday. Osterhoff is the PC member for Niagara West-Glanbrook and he has social conservative roots. Now it seems he will become the party’s unwilling poster boy for everything that many deeply oppose. The Toronto Star reports that Oosterhoff insisted he believes in evolution and denied adamantly that he is a homophobe. He may have trouble with how that word is defined. Then there was the question that signals there will be no peace for the kid from Niagara: “Will it be your position not to take a stand.”  Maybe. Nice picture though.