CancerAids! Bringing Brevity To The Spoken/Oral Word...

Christie Blatchford: Testing the limits of civil discourse

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“Ahhhh,” my friend Mary said cheerily early one morning this week around the kitchen table where a bunch of us have coffee before our run, “CancerAids.”
I’d been telling the group about the deluge of ghastly email I’ve been receiving about a recent column, and was in mid-description of same when Mary interrupted.
“CancerAids?” the rest of us chorused. Read More »

You Have To Wonder Why Mother Nature Is Not Mourning?

So far "she" has sent down two deluges of rain to wash away people's messages of mourning...

John Moore: Why people are mourning Jack Layton

Blatchford is right that our society overflows with false sentimentality. But she missed that, this time, it’s not false.

Jack Layton’s death has precipitated an outpouring amongst Canadians. In Toronto, the public square in front of city hall where he served as a councillor has been blanketed in a rainbow of chalk-written tributes. People who never met the man have wept. They will likely turn mourners away at his laying in state.
For some this is all a little overwrought. Ground zero for that perspective would be my friend Christie Blatchford’s column in Tuesday’s National Post. Christie’s greatest skill is her ability to not only take the public pulse but to interpret it. She’s one of the few print columnists who can prompt you to say “Exactly!” out loud while you read her. But her column on the keening accompanying Jack Layton to his final rest has provoked a ferocious pushback. True, the column was “liked” on Facebook by thousands but it has also drawn a record number of flaming online comments and countless emails to Christie, many she tells me opening with the salutation “Dear C–t.” Read More »

Brown Bag, Street Vendor...

 U.S. street-food successes inspire mixed results in Canada

The street food tradition has thrived in big American cities for years, from Portland to New York to L.A. In Canada, efforts to expand the street-vending scene appear less organic — and less successful.

...another bureaucracy, in concert with city politicians, added to the recipe for failure by creating a system that is expensive for vendors,   locations that have to be moved because of construction, etc. and

My Week: Breakfast of curmudgeons

Sunday. Gregor comes over for breakfast. “What’s with the cutlery wrapped in a napkin?” he asks. “You running a Greek diner?” “I thought it would be fun,” I say, no longer having fun. “Fun? What do you know about fun? Let me guess:

Reflections About The City Many Love To Hate...

Dave Bidini: Toronto is a city that irks with its quirks

Toronto sucks. It sucks because my friend Jim’s apartment sprung a leak and there was water

Okay Muskogians...

...we will show you "world class"

Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch

Late-June summit could cause trouble for commuters, island airport users and baseball fans, as well as downtown residents Apr 02, 2010

So What? We Are No. ! At Home!

Toronto Is Becoming World Class City

Let The Cash Registers Ring......

Drive-by shooting leaves 1 dead, 4 injured

Police investigate fatal downtown hit-and-run

Toronto wins hosting rights to World Pride week

TORONTO - Ontario's first openly gay cabinet minister is among those beaming with pride after Toronto was chosen to host the World Pride event in 2014.

There Is An Old Adage ......

...I don't care what people say as long as they don't stop talking about me!

B.C.'s billboard pokes fun at Toronto

"Come on folks. It's a joke. If you folks in the big smoke can't get a chuckle out of this, then..."

wildrice77

B.C.'s billboard pokes fun at Toronto
TheStar.com - Canada - B.C.'s billboard pokes fun at Toronto

KATHRYN MORTON PHOTO

Billboard campaign in B.C. pokes fun at the city everyone loves to hate.

August 18, 2009

Petti Fong

VANCOUVER–They're mocking Hogtown again.

A new billboard campaign in British Columbia for Coors Light declares the beer is "Colder Than Most People From Toronto."

The slogan caught Newmarket resident Kathryn Morton by surprise.

"That's pretty insulting to such a large group of people," she said. "We hear stuff about Toronto people all the time but we couldn't believe anyone would put it on a billboard."

Morton, who grew up in Kamloops, where she said it was common for people to make fun of Toronto, saw the ad on a camping trip a couple of weeks ago. Her 16-year-old son Stuart spotted it first.

"He realized the political incorrectness of it. What bothered us was we saw the Olympic logo on the billboard. This isn't a great way to bring in people to the province."

But marketing expert Paul Cubbon said it's likely the people behind the billboards wanted to generate talk.

Making fun of Toronto is a unity issue that ties together everyone who doesn't live there, a strategy that has been used for years.

What has changed, said Cubbon, who teaches marketing at UBC's Sauder School of Business, is the speed at which localized ads can move outside their target area via cellphone cameras, YouTube videos and Twitter postings.

"I thought the ad was humorous," said Cubbon, who saw it last weekend while driving through the Okanagan. "Everyone out here likes poking fun at Toronto."

Beer marketing campaigns usually play up regional differences, Cubbon said. But ads can offend just as easily as they amuse.

Last year, Ford Canada dropped its campaign "Drive It Like You Stole It" after critics objected to its glib message, especially in western cities like Winnipeg, which has a high rate of auto theft.

Coors Light brand marketing manager Adam Moffat said he has heard complaints about the beer ad from one or two people.

"It was from Torontonians visiting the Okanagan who saw it and they thought it was curious," he said. "What we've told consumers is we're sorry and apologetic if we've offended anyone."

Read How Conventioners Rate Us

Toronto's conventional wisdom

by Kenyon Wallace

Aug 17, 2009

It may not be the biggest convention Toronto has ever seen, but it has the potential to give the city one hefty financial kick.

There Was A "Toronto" Before Incorporation

ELIZABETH SIMCOE/ONTARIO ARCHIVES

This watercolour, "View From York Barracks 1796" by Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of our first lieutenant-governor, John Graves Simcoe, looks east from Fort York towards what is now downtown Toronto

Simcoe Day: A celebration of founders and families

Ross Fair
Aug. 03, 2009

Several months ago, Toronto did something quite odd: it made itself younger. By celebrating the incorporation of the City of Toronto in 1834, all but the most careful observers were left with an impression that Toronto is only 175 years old.

Toronto is

6% 743 votes

The centre of the universe

31% 4182 votes

Not quite, but still a world-class city

22% 2919 votes

Nothing but latte-sipping lefties

42% 5647 votes

THE place other Canadians love to hate

Are We Goingh To Let Vancouver Beat Us Again.......

.......drug use, prostition, alternative lifestyles, Olympics, etc.

Night of gunfire in Toronto
By JENNY YUEN, SUN MEDIA
There was gunplay in both the west and east ends of Toronto last night

Blue Ribbon Panel Solution To Toronto Problems

A lot of the solutions seem to be getting city politicians and bureaucrats less involved.......

Solid blueprint for a better city

54 min. ago

Having fresh eyes examine a problem has seldom produced more conspicuous benefit. After starting last fall, with just four months in which to work, a blue-ribbon panel assigned to find efficiencies at Toronto City Hall ...

POINT OF VIEW: Can Miller follow directions?

The words of Mayor David Miller, after receiving the Blueprint for Fiscal Stability and Economic Prosperity from a panel of six prominent Torontonians, inadvertently said it all.

Full Point of View 'Real opportunity to change'

Everyone Seems To Be Bailing Out On Toronto

The feds have said NO! Dalton McGinty is saying NO but he has given a backroom green light to Comrade Miller and his lackeys to royally screwed the people of Toronto while the city unions can expect to see wage increases that exceed inflation. But then we will have to watch and see what side of his mouth McGinty is speaking.

Premier rejects tax increase despite GST cut
Robert Benzie Nov. 07, 2007

There will be no increase in the provincial sales tax to help struggling...

You have to wonder why no one wants to "help" Toronto but you have to ask yourself how many private enterprises would stay in business if they allowed their account receivables to fall behind 12 years........

Deadbeats catch break

City to let unpaid parking tickets ride
The city is giving a break to deadbeat motorists who failed to pay parking tickets issued between 1988 and 1995 -- as long as they owe less than $300.

Just another example of mismangement.........

GIGO

Garbage in ... garbage out By SUE-ANN LEVY Last garbage day, around 9:30 a.m., I just happened to look out the window as the city truck working my new midtown neighbourhood pulled up in front of the house. The CUPE garbage collector emptied the green bin, tossing it like a football back onto the driveway. Then the truck pulled away, leaving our big garbage bin sitting there full. I dashed after the truck to find out what was wrong, comically dragging the unemptied bin behind me. "You're not supposed to leave the bungee cord on (top)... that's the rule ... you should know that!" said the collector, berating me with a few other choice words. It was only after I hastily removed the bungee cord and pulled off the lid that he conceded to take the trash. I've seen the city's garbage workers at their best and worst in the few months since I moved into a house from my previous Yorkville condo. I couldn't believe using a bungee cord was against the garbage rules, but the most recent collection calendar confirmed it was so. The city's director of collections, Rob Orpin, explains garbage lids can't be tied down "for productivity and safety" reasons because they take time to undo and can catch on a worker's clothing. Now, Orpin is a helpful and responsive fellow. But I had to especially laugh at the "productivity" comment as it likely took the collector twice the time to berate me. Still, I'm now experiencing the same problems I've heard in the past from many others. Coun. Frances Nunziata said yesterday she's received "hundreds of complaints" since the city of York switched its $4-million private contract for garbage collection to in-house six weeks ago -- leaving the city with only 20% of its garbage pickup contracted out (only in Etobicoke). It shouldn't take a Harvard economist like our mayor to ascertain that any workforce -- private or public -- will be a lot more productive and perhaps have a better attitude than I witnessed last week if they're forced to compete. So when Rob Cook, executive director of the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA), bravely came to City Hall yesterday to show how Toronto is "out of step" with most Ontario cities in keeping the bulk of its garbage pickup in-house, he was positively correct -- despite efforts by David Miller apologists and New Democrat MP Peggy Nash to attack his efforts. Cook cited a new OWMA study that says the city could save at least $10-million a year by contracting out 100% of its residential waste and recycling collection -- as is now being done by all muncipalities in the GTA except Oshawa. Based on the OWMA figures, the city's average residential (single family home) collection cost per tonne is $110.98, compared to a low of $70.19 in Richmond Hill and a high of $97 in Pickering. Cook said the OWNA arrived at $110.98 by taking the city's 2003 figures (the last published numbers!), adding in wage increases in the CUPE contract and higher fuel costs. His figures also suggest productivity is far higher in the private sector. "It's taking two-plus (garbage collection) employees in the public sector to do the work of a private sector employee," Cook said. He said the big frustration is not having updated numbers (including green bin collection costs) to allow for an "informed" debate. "Until the city puts the numbers on the table, we don't exactly know where we are." So I went to public works committee chairman Glenn DeBaeremaeker and asked him to provide the figures. After bureaucrats huddled for a few hours, Orpin contacted me at 4 p.m. yesterday to say that the present blended residential pickup cost everywhere in Toronto but Etobicoke is around $103 per tonne. He didn't have a blended rate for Etobicoke, but said the cost to collect garbage is about $70 per tonne; for green bins about $82 per tonne and for recycling about $95 per tonne. Cook laughed when he heard those figures. He said city officials "can slice and dice" the numbers all they want, but the bottom line is they should routinely be made available as part of an annual report. He questions claims by some councillors that $4 million has been saved by contracting back in the city of York's garbage six weeks ago. He wonders how the city managed to mobilize enough trucks. Did they just happen to be sitting around ready to move into York? "It's voodoo economics," he argues. "To me, that's just a reflection of the absolute waste and inefficiency in the system."

I Didn't Know This....Did You?

The Perfectly Competitive City

September 18th, 2007

Procurement problems plague the City’s ability to pay for goods and services at a competitive rate.

Their bonding policies chase business away. The City makes it so hard to do business. Sure it is easy to enter the City’s bidders list, but in order to secure any work they expect unreasonably high insurance; thus the supply is reduced.

Economics 101 tells us that when supply is constant and demand is reduced the price per unit increases.

In simple terms, they can have a million dollar contract out for tender and if you’re the winning bid they require a “letter of credit” or bond for the amount of the contract or sometimes even more. This L.C. can be held in escrow for several years after the work is done.

Why would any business person agree to such terms, unless the profit margins are really high?

And indeed, the profit margins are often excessive because of this high barrier to entry.

The City’s procurement policies are in effect the anti-thesis of a perfectly competitive market place; hence, the city ends up paying a premium for many many goods and services and services.

Posted in Uncategorized

Hazel & I Agree. Miller Got Conned By McGinty,,,,

.....and Lastman and Miller conned the citizenry of Toronto with no new property tax years. Property taxes, residential & commercial, should truly reflect what it costs to run the city rather than hide behind tax increases based on inflation. If they truly reflected the cost of running the city the mayor and city council would have to justify how they are spending our money.

Miller messed up: Hazel TheStar.com - GTA - Miller messed up: Hazel

Toronto mayor began too late justifying tax hikes to residents, McCallion chides

September 19, 2007

Phinjo Gombu
Staff Reporter

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion says the criticism Toronto's mayor is facing over community centre cutbacks is the result of not doing his homework before proposing new taxes to solve the budget crisis.

McCallion told the Star's editorial board yesterday that Mayor David Miller failed to explain to citizens the potential impact of service cuts before he tried – and failed – to get council to approve new taxes, and he is now trying to do so after the fact.

"Before you go and say, `I want more money,' you'll say, `I've looked at this service ... there's duplication here, or could be savings here,'" McCallion said, describing how Miller should have done things.

"Then you go to the people and say, `Look, we've looked at our entire operation and we think we can get these savings, but we still need (this) amount of money for us to continue to give you the services you need.'

"(Miller) is doing it now, after he went to the people and asked for a tax increase," McCallion said. "That's the cart before the horse, in my opinion."

McCallion's harsh words on Miller's handling of Toronto's fiscal woes came on a day when it appeared unlikely he would garner enough support to hold an emergency debate this week on two controversial taxes worth $356 million a year.

The debate was deferred in July until October. Miller had hoped to propose that some services could be restored if the taxes were approved.

McCallion expressed sympathy for Toronto and the fiscal challenges forced on it by the province's hurried amalgamation of five cities. But she also said Toronto is a victim of its own choices.

She suggested the city was duped into welcoming new taxing powers when Queen's Park drew up the City of Toronto Act – powers not given to other municipalities.

"I don't want any more ability to tax people," McCallion said, saying she prefers to rely solely on the property tax base – but with all the costs of downloaded social, health and other provincially mandated services removed from it.

"If you go to the province and say you need help, they'll say, `You have the right to tax , go ahead. Raise the money that way.'

"Toronto fell for it."

Mississauga's long-time mayor also said that Toronto's politicians, going back to Mel Lastman, contributed to the city's current fiscal woes by promising the impossible – namely that they would not raise residential property taxes.

So! What's New

Friday, September 14, 2007

Another bout of panhandler violence in Toronto

Derek Leonard, 27, of no fixed address, is facing assault charges after allegedly attacking a man who would only identify himself as David near Spadina and Dundas streets.

David says he told Leonard not to touch his vintage vehicle when he approached it and offered to clean the windshield. David says Leonard then banged on the vehicle, jumped in and began beating David on the head.

Toronto's lenient attitude toward vagrancy has turned our city streets into a war zone between those who work and contribute, and those who don't. Whatever their reasons for being on the streets, it does not give them the right to attack others. Not other homeless, and not the general public. There is too much untreated mental illness out there, and with a progressive lefty mayor not willing to admit the problem and tackle it head on, it is only going to get worse. We've already had a murder. What more has to happen before the mayor is willing to clean up our streets?

posted by RightGirl # 8:34 PM

The City Above Toronto

Vaughan has been kicking our ass for years as a place to start a business and a place to live and this is just another example of why......support their local businesses and and the city rewards them. At the other end of the spectrum when you look at Toronto.....

Credit goes to Vaughan

While Toronto residents may soon be paying the city new controversial taxes, those in Vaughan will have a chance to lighten the financial burden imposed by their municipal government.

I Can Afford The Extra 30 Cents A Day

But it brings up a couple of questions. What is the TTC doing to cut expenses? Will Comrade Miller rollback the increase when he gets his new revenue tools (taxes)?

TTC is still off the rails
Heck I could have missed yesterday's "emergency" TTC meeting and still have written the latest instalment of the soap opera known as "How to Rescue the Red Rocket."
Full Column

The Fish Always Stinks At The Head

Every major columnist in the GTA has come to the same assessment and you have have to wonder what it will take to make the citizens of Toronto take to the streets demanding the recall of Miller and/or appointing a provincial mediator to run the affairs of the city.

The Post editorial board: Toronto's problem at the top

Toronto is often the subject of derision in other parts of Canada. The city has a reputation for arrogance. And its leaders habitually demand more money from the provincial and federal governments, claiming that their city is the engine of the national economy, and so what's good for Toronto is good for the country. It is an attitude that causes people in the rest of Canada to roll their eyes. But as Toronto's City Council descends into a political circus, with a Mayor accused of acting like a dictator and histrionic councillors nearly coming to blows over fiscal issues, Toronto's woes are no longer a laughing matter. Indeed, the shenanigans that lately have come to dominate city council are rendering the city's government dysfunctional. The city's descent into political confusion began early this year, when Mayor Miller proposed new taxes that would raise $350-million annually, monies that would be used to fill what the Mayor claims is a $550-million-plus budget shortfall caused by the downloading of provincial services on to the city in the 1990s. Mr. Miller's main tax proposals entailed a new land-transfer tax that would eat into the equity of homeowners when they sold their homes, and a tax on vehicles. At the same time, the Mayor made no effort to rein in spending, encourage much-needed privatization of city operations, confront the unions, or put City Hall's own house in order. When Mr. Miller brought his proposals before council, a majority there decided it was better to defer the vote to raise taxes till the fall and, as an alternative, attempt to shake down Ontario's provincial parties for more money while they vied for votes in the Oct. 10 provincial election. In July, the vote on increasing taxes was deferred and Mayor Miller immediately demanded $34-million in cuts to city services, a politically unpopular move that was interpreted as payback for council's refusal to play ball. Mr. Miller instructed the city manager, a civil servant, to make the cuts herself, rather than city council. This resulted in proposals to reduce a range of services, including those offered at community centres and libraries that disproportionately serve seniors and young children. Further rancour resulted when it was learned that the full-time union staff at the affected facilities (represented by CUPE 416, whose members are strong supporters of Mayor Miller) will still be paid their regular wages, even though they will not provide the same services. This left many Toronto residents believing that Mayor Miller wants to use kids and seniors to force through his tax increases -- even as he coddled union workers by giving them, in essence, money for nothing. Adding more fuel to the fire was the undemocratic way the proposed cuts to services were arrived at. Toronto Councillor Michael Walker went so far as to hire an experienced municipal lawyer from one of the country's top firms to determine if the Mayor could bypass council and ask the city manager to amend the budget and cut services. The legal opinion was unambiguous: "The City of Toronto Act, 2006, specifically prohibits the city manager from making these decisions because Section 22 of the Act prohibits the delegation of those decisions to anyone." The Mayor's response has been to brush off the legal opinion, saying the city manager is "acting within her authority." On Monday, the revolt against Mayor Miller began to spread across city council. As the crisis deepened, where was the mayor? Blue-skying about climate change at an environmental convention in Utah. Toronto needs a mayor who can rise above the pettiness that is taking hold of Toronto council, who respects democracy, and who can build consensus. Mayor Miller could begin that process today by refocusing council's attention on its core business -- policing, transportation and cost effective community services driven by a commitment to achieve value for money. It's not just the Mayor's future that is at stake if he fails, but Toronto's too.