White House Doesn't Have Phone Number For Local SPCA?

Not On Original Menu

Free the carts!

Sep 02, 2009 - 9:08 PM

John Fillion’s food-cart folly exemplifies the Miller government’s Achilles...

The Leftwing Media Asks......

How Did MSM Miss This

South Africa Outrage Now This......

CONSPIRACY THEORY

Masked men tossed Molotov cocktails through the basement windows of the Jamaican Consulate on Eglinton East on Wednesday (August 26) in an incident that caught the attention of the island nation’s foreign ministry but received next to no ink in T.O. papers. The Gleaner in Jamaica described the incident as a “firebombing.” The Jamaica Observer reported cops are probing possible links to “terrorism.” The RCMP’s investigating.

No Matter How Much Is Spent On Promotion Orrganizers Ignore Us

Let the Pan Am games begin

Mayor pumps Pan Am projects for priority ’hoods, critics jeer

By Paul Terefenko

Twenty Pan Am delegates, here to soak up our city’s pitch for the 2015 Games, may have given the GTA a foretaste of things to come.

More

Hw Should Have Been Promoted.......

Montana police officer who posted comment about putting 'stupid' people in jail resigns

Became A "Road Rage" Pedestrian When He Abandoned His Bike

Evolution of the road

Toronto, like many urban centres in Canada, has not found the answer to a safe coexistence between bicycles and motor vehicles. The death Monday night of a 33-year-old cyclist after a confrontation with a motorist and former Ontario attorney-general was, in the most outsized and terrible form, an example of the all too-common exasperation or contempt when cyclists and motorists meet. Sep 03, 2009

My Sentiments Also....

...and in also fairness Comrade Miller should share this with the idiots who gave the island squatters 99 year leases.

Matt Gurney on renaming the island airport: Take that, Mayor Miller

Posted: September 03, 2009, 7:04 PM by NP Editor

What's one guaranteed way to make it hard for Mayor Miller to shut down the island airport? Name it after a war hero. Word has come out that the Toronto Port Authority intends to change the name from the bland if accurate Toronto City Centre Airport to the much more patriotic and memorable Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

Good idea. Canada is all but out of WWI veterans, so doing something to honour arguably the most famous of them all will help keep our veterans in the public eye. Bishop has 72 recorded aerial combat victories to his name, and while some have attacked this figure as unverifiable, stories of his bravery and skill in battle were a major factor in sparking Canadians' interest in aviation between the world wars. He aided the Royal Canadian Air Force's recruiting efforts during the Second World War and was instrumental in establishing the training regimen for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, an enormous but all-but-overlooked element of Canada's efforts during the later, more devastating conflict. Ask a Canadian grade schooler to name a World War I veteran, and those who can will probably name Bishop.

Click here to read more...

Not everyone happy that Toronto Island airport to be renamed after Billy Bishop

Convicted? Itinerary: To Airport To Origin Of Original Country.

Deportation delays irk Minister

Changes may be needed to deal with criminals says Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney

Criminal again ordered deported

Deportation stay angers former MP

The Star Readers Speak Out.......

Time for Liberals to show the beef

Sep 03, 2009 04:30 AM

Comments on this story (73)

......so do the columnists:

Can master tactician Harper play three chess games at once?

Chantal Hébert
It has been said that Stephen Harper is his own best strategist: a master tactician liable to be a few moves ahead of his opponents.

.....and their editorial writers:

Not an election issue Sep. 04, 2009
There may be good reasons to avoid a federal election this fall: the polls suggest that the public doesn't want one and that the outcome would be a very similar Parliament to what we now have.

Let's Hear A Bravo For CBC

CBC executive producer Mark Starowicz describes the documentary as “an act of history and journalism.”

Brave CBC under fire on the Plains of Abraham

Sep 04, 2009 04:30 AM

Andrew Chung
QUEBEC BUREAU

MONTREAL–It's the battle no one wants to fight – except the CBC.

Canada's national broadcaster will mark the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham with a documentary on the decisive British-French conflict, months after threats from hardline separatists forced the cancellation of a planned re-enactment in Quebec City.

MORE

Common Sense Not In Liberal Lexicon

Jack Layton makes his position perfectly clear

Posted: September 03, 2009, 2:37 PM by NP Editor

Below is Jack Layton's response to Michael Ignatieff's declaration that the Liberals will no longer vote for any Conservative initiatives.

Please note that, according to Jack:

1. Even though it's the Liberals who are threatening, and the NDP who can nullify the threat, it's the Conservatives' fault that any of this is happening. Because, well, because they won the last election and keep trying to pass Conservative legislation.

2. Harper's choice is "an election or make parliament work." Apparently the "Make Parliament Work" switch is located in the PMO, so only the Prime Minister can flick it on. Liberals, NDP and Blocheads have no responsibility to "make Parliament work."

Click here to read more...

What's an election without issues?

By PETER WORTHINGTON

Here we go again folks!

As has happened periodically ever since Stephen Harper was elected PM, there's talk of an impending election. Ho-hum.

Last Christmas, into the New Year, in March, then in the spring when Michael Ignatieff was confirmed as Stephane Dion's successor to lead the federal Liberals ... on all these occasions there was talk of forcing the Tories to go to the polls.

Now we're at it again.

Reality is that there is no need for an election.

Yes, Harper has a large minority, and is theoretically vulnerable. But the country is being run well -- petty disputes and embarrassments, but nothing significant.

In this time of world recession, no country is as healthy as Canada -- thanks in part to our solid and safe banking system on which the economy and our future depends.

Compare our profitable five big banks with the U.S. where a record 72 banks have failed this year, 24 of them in July, and 400 others are on the edge. Americans with savings feel perpetually vulnerable.

A recent Nanos Research poll shows 53.9% of Canadians are not only satisfied with a minority government, but actually like minority governments which they feel forces rival political parties to co-operate and tend to business.

What polls indicate is that whichever party Canadians vote to govern them, it'll be a minority government.

Questions are raised by wise-asses -- who are fixated on such things -- as to where Ignatieff has been all summer? Why hasn't he been storming around, making noises and puffing about the need for political change in Ottawa?

An answer might be that Ignatieff is too smart to join the chorus. He probably knows the country is in pretty good shape, that the government knows what it is doing (with a few exceptions), and is doing basically what he'd do if he were PM.

When an election comes, he and his Liberals have an excellent chance to form the next government.

Cuddly

Harper isn't as cuddly a personality as some would like, but he's competent and doesn't fluster. This also applies to Ignatieff. Neither is a fuzzball.

About the only issue Liberals have had is reforming employment insurance (EI). It's true some reforms could make EI more equal across the country, but it's hardly a sexy issue to go to the polls about. Besides, even if Liberals think they'd win an election, they need support from the NDP and Bloc to force one -- and both these parties are likely to lose seats if Liberals gain.

So there's no reason to have a fall election except for media hype and the reality that once the country (and politicians) start talking about one, it becomes self-fulfilling.

Of course, it's the duty of political parties to plan for a worst case scenario. Even so, when Harper states -- as he did on his recent foray into Far North -- "I haven't met a single person out there who tells me we should be fighting an election right now," take the guy at his word.

I suspect if someone asked Ignatieff the same question he'd give the same answer -- maybe more academically framed, but in essence echoing what Harper says.

So let's relax, enjoy what's left of summer and hope those rascals we send to Parliament Hill who think they are our betters, put a cork in it and wear muzzles.

So Much For The Perception Of Democracy And Unions

Isn't Democracy about the right to free speech......

Councillor's rejection of strike deal nixes Labour Day invite

By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

Call it the Labour Day blackball.

Cyclist In-activists Will Be Shouting Harrassment,,,,,,

Coming soon: a bicycle crackdown

By TAMARA CHERRY

When's the last time a cyclist was ticketed for careless riding, running a red light or riding along a crosswalk?

No rules bar drunk cycling

By TAMARA CHERRY, SUN MEDIA

You can get in trouble for not having a working bell on your bike, but legally, there is nothing stopping you from drinking 40 ounces of vodka and cycling along Toronto streets.

A Big Thank You To Mike Strobel For Putting Cyclist Wingnuts In Their Place

Bryant crash not cyclists vs. cars

By SUN MEDIA

It's time to turn the temperature way down on the tragic death of Darcy Allan Sheppard.

A 'living street' isn't dominated by cars

Sep 04, 2009 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume

The appalling death of a cyclist following an altercation with former attorney general Michael Bryant reminds us of the desperate need to humanize this city and learn to share its public spaces.

Of course that includes getting serious about bike lanes, an idea we have discussed endlessly in Toronto but about which we have done almost nothing.

Separate laws for bikes, cars

By MIKE STROBEL

"This should fill you with joy, you snivelling coward," writes D.F. Mills.

Attached to the email is an article about three injured cyclists.

Sheesh. Is that the two-wheeler world's idea of friendly debate?

Snivelling? OK. Coward? No way.

You need guts to criticize the bike lobby in this town.

Mills, among others, was upset by yesterday's column about the Michael Bryant incident.

The former attorney general's Saab and courier Allan Sheppard's bicycle collided in mysterious circumstances Monday night on Bloor St., near Avenue Rd.

This not only left Sheppard dead and Bryant ruined, but touched off a powder keg.

Let's face it. Motorists and cyclists generally hate each other.

For this, I argued, we can thank the social meddlers at City Hall. They have politicized bicycles and declared war on cars.

Look at other burghs, they say.

LIKE OUR FREEDOM

Beijing and Ho Chi Minh City come to mind. They swarm with peddlers, pedlars, pedicabs, mopeds, pedestrians and other impediments.

But they're Communists crammed into tiny spaces, so swarms are their natural way of being.

Not us. As much as the lefties at City Hall wish otherwise.

Nope, we like our freedom, our individuality.

And for our huge, silent majority, commuting by bicycle isn't practical.

So quit trying to force us.

And don't demonize us. We're just trying to get to work.

Where I come from, majority rules. That's us drivers.

Besides, cars are getting greener. (And what about the pollution from bicycle factories?)

But, hey, let's all get along. We drivers are not against bikes. They have their place. Just not with us.

Take Bogota, Colombia. Its web of bike paths, CicloRuta, will reach 500 km by next year -- most of it off-street.

Bogotavians, or whatever you call them, can pedal to any work district, park, school, showbiz venue, sports complex or bus depot. All without rubbing bumpers with any four-wheel brutes.

Bike use rose 38% from 2001 to 2004, as CicloRuta spread, but injuries dropped 9%.

We could do the same. Look at a map. Start with hydro right-of-ways. One runs through the heart of Scarborough all the way to the Don Valley.

Build a bike path there -- and on every available open space. Parks, waterfront, industrial lands, river valleys. A wholly separate cycle grid. Hundreds of klicks.

Downtown, limit bike lanes to streets that make sense, where they won't restrict traffic.

And separate them with safety barriers.

STAY OFF ARTERIES

Back lanes, mostly. Stay off Jarvis, Eastern and other arteries.

But even Yonge St. might work. New York has done it with Broadway.

Yonge is more shopping bazaar than traffic artery. One less car lane won't hurt.

But not in winter!!!

The lunacy of bike lanes on Canadian streets in mid-January astounds me.

So does the way cyclists can wobble about with nary a clue of safety or rules of the road.

They cut us off, clip our mirrors, menace pedestrians and travel without lights -- because they don't know any better.

Let's require training before letting these nincompoops pedal off. Maybe it's even time to licence cyclists.

At least insist they have proper brakes. Some, especially couriers, ride fixed-gear bikes. It's macho. No brakes. Yessiree. That's heartening.

SEPARATE LAWS

And, duh, should they be allowed to pedal drunk? Technically, it's not against the law.

Allan Sheppard was drinking before he collided with Michael Bryant.

I know if Bryant was tipsy, he would now be scum of the earth. He'd have nil defence.

So we need full, separate laws for cyclists. Bike-friendly cities like Amsterdam have them.

A few other things to show cyclists we love them: Bicycle garages. Bike lifts, for steep hills, like they have in Norway. Racks on the TTC. Public showers. (Ever sit beside a guy who cycled to work from Grimsby?)

Oh, and let's train cyclists in other uses for their middle finger.

Might Improve Spelling Skills.....

...possible P-A-N-D-E-M-I-C

$$$$ Offset

Blog Meandering

Savor the irony...and understand the liberal hypocrisy

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toronto-auto-safety-crusader-held-for-cyclists-death/

Sounds intentional to me and therefore should be murder in the first degree.

Posted by jerry at 12:58 PM 0 comments

Tying To Figure Out What I Missed......

The next logical step in the campaign

From the people who's stupidity knows no bounds.

h/t

***Update: The WWF issues a statement, distancing themselves from the campaign "It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day."

Wonder Woman on September 02, 2009

If This Doesn't Make You Sick........

Woman charged with attempted murder after baby beaten

WINNIPEG - Winnipeg police are "scratching their heads" over why a 19-year-old women allegedly abducted a baby girl from a house party and brutally beat the child's head against a city sidewalk. 2 September

Stranger warns mom about crying child before slapping toddler

Police say a man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a Wal-Mart slapped her several times.

Jack's 15 Minutes......

NDP Leader Jack Layton set to offer Harper a lifeline

SUDBURY, Ont. - Michael Ignatieff says there's no turning back on his decision to try to sink the Harper government this fall, but the NDP is set to offer a lifeline. 2 September

»Related Article: Economists say a federal election unlikely to derail Canada's economic recovery

»Related Article: Bloc leader open to toppling Tories

This Should Be Decided By The SCC Not HRC

Hate-speech law violates Charter rights, tribunal rules

Decision in favour of right-wing webmaster Marc Lemire fuels Internet censorship debate Sep 03, 2009

There Is More To Canada Than Hockey, Soccer And Cricket

Body Italian

Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and Mail

It's not quite curling on dirt, but it's close. Globe and Mail cartoonist Anthony Jenkins captures the caroms and clacks – and the exaggerated twitches – of a game of bocce with bragging rights on the line.

Iggy Moment

Kelly McParland: Canada to pay the price for Ignatieff's needs

Posted: September 02, 2009, 1:35 PM by NP Editor

Read any of the billion or so punditary prognostications about Michael Ignatieff that have appeared since he became Liberal leader (maybe it's 2 billion by now— I quit counting in July) and you may notice a common theme.

For most of his 10 months on the job there's been one overriding question: When will he force an election? Delve a bit further and you'll notice that the answer to that question centres greatly on what's good for Mr. Ignatieff, rather than what's good for Canada. There's rarely, if ever, any suggestion that the country needs another campaign. Indeed, his party has no specific program to offer the country as an alternative to the ruling Conservatives. We don't know his position on a whole range of issues, except that he says whatever the Tories are doing is wrong. We don't know what he'd do instead. He has some big-picture ideas, like building a high-speed railway for $18-billion, or planning a big bash for Canada's 150th birthday in 2017, but he's decidedly foggy about more immediate concerns.

We do know, though, that the Liberals need an election. And Mr. Ignatieff needs an election. For their own benefit.

Click here to read more...

Jeff Jedras: Ignatieff breaks the cycle of bluster

Posted: September 02, 2009, 11:48 AM by NP Editor

You can agree with Michael Ignatieff’s declaration Tuesday that the Liberal Party will no longer support the Conservative government when parliament returns this fall (possibly triggering a fall election) or you can disagree with it, but one thing is for sure: going into the fall, the Liberals have succeeded in radically altering the dynamic, putting the other parties on the defensive for the first time in years.

Through nearly four years and two leaders now, the Liberals have been locked into a seemingly unending cycle: talk tough about holding the government to account, and then find some way to back out of risking an election at the last minute. It has become as predictable as the rising of the sun in the East.

It allowed the Conservatives to refrain from having to take the Liberals seriously or consider offering meaningful concessions to maintain their minority government. And it allowed the NDP and the BQ to have their cake and eat it too. By quickly declaring their intention to vote against throne speeches or budgets they haven’t even read yet they consistently left the Liberals to hold the bag and be the ones to support the government, or not. It allowed them to avoid the election neither of them has wanted (polling numbers don’t bode well for the NDP in particular) while painting themselves as the only true opposition to the Conservative government. Nice work if you can get it.

Click here to read more...

Anti-Smoking Is A Cottage Industry So......

...they have to keep YELLING in order to put bread on their table.

Smokers don't listen. So quit yelling.

Posted: September 02, 2009, 4:00 PM by NP Editor

In order to smoke these days, you have to wilful to an extraordinary degree.

You have to ignore all the studies, tests, treatises, experiments and other documentation that show there is a very good chance smoking will lead to a long, painful and lingering death. You have to be able to suppress any temptation to ponder what it will feel like, lying there in bed, coughing your lungs out as you wait for the cancer to finally kill you.

Click here to read more...

Jack And "The other guy" Are Ressurected

I know How Barney Feels.........

Layton locked in truck suspended underwater

John Ivison:

Jack Layton, the NDP leader, is in a precarious situation and spent yesterday searching for a political picklock with which to enineer his great escape.

Why Is Bryant The Only One Taking Personal Responsibility

Kelly McParland: Bike lanes have nothing to do with Bryant

Posted: September 02, 2009, 6:30 PM by NP Editor

As my friend and colleague Peter Kuitenbrouwer points out in his appeal for better biking facilities in Toronto, there is much we still don't know about the confrontation that resulted in the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard. But there's little in what we do know that suggests more bike lanes would have made any difference.

Several newspapers have tried to sort out what happened between Sheppard and Michael Bryant on Monday night. The picture they paint is this: Sheppard was a man with an alcohol problem, who'd fallen off the wagon and -- just an hour before his run-in with Bryant -- been ordered by police to leave his girlfriend's apartment and not come back, even though at least one onlooker thought he was too drunk to ride his bike. He took off down Bloor Street and somehow got into a minor collision with Bryant, who was out celebrating has wedding anniversary with his wife. The dispute quickly escalated and ended with Sheppard clinging to the car as Bryant careened down Bloor Street, screaming and bumping into objects until Sheppard was knocked off, fell under the wheels and was killed.

Click here to read more...

Gee! What an astute Revelation

Turn the running the city over to the private sector......Councilors would make sure your garbage is picked up, your tree gets trimmed, streets are clean.......

With or without Games, city needs improvement

Royson James
On days like this, when a lapse in judgment like the deadly confrontation on Bloor St. evokes so many tragic images, one staggers toward...

The Star Readers Rate Iggy......

....and let's not forget this is the bastion of the left. They supported McGinty, Miller, et al. After almost 9 months as federal Liberal leader how would you rate Michael Ignatieff's performance?
Better than expected
	611	12%
As expected
	1494	30%
Worse than expected
	2757	56%

It Is Not Just The Island Airport........

Time to allow jets to land at the island airport
Bob Hepburn 70 min. ago

For decades, the Toronto Island Airport has been a quaint but wasted asset for the city, operating far below its full potential.

Comrade Miller Playing To His Constituents

Community And Their Spokepersons Fall Silent When Police Arrive......

Shooting shocks 'good community'

By IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIA

The toughest task for parents in an east-side Toronto public housing complex where a man was slain yesterday was telling their children, a tenant spokesman said.

Hmmm! Where Have We Heard This Election Promise Before.....

..wasn't this part of the campaign run by another Liberal stalwart; Dullton Mcginty?

Ignatieff vows to erase deficit with no new taxes

Everyone Is Taking A Hit!

Twits......

Stimulous And Recovery....Operative Attitude

They Are The Leaders Of Tomorrow........

....and Oamba's legacy.

Obama’s classroom campaign: No junior lobbyist left behind

By Michelle Malkin • September 2, 2009 05:02 AM

Photoshop: Leo Alberti

My syndicated column today digs a little deeper into President Obama’s September 8 speech to schoolchildren. The school guides now featured front and center on the www.ed.gov website were developed by the White House Teaching Fellows — a group which includes several activist educators as you’ll see below.

Downplaying academic achievement in favor of left-wing radical activism in the public schools is rooted in old neighborhood pal and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers’ pedagogical philosophy. It was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge way when the two served as board members of the educational foundation — and it is the Washington Obama way now.

***

MORE

McGinty Hiding HST Behind "Scandals"

Dalton's Scam Posted 9/1/2009 1:00:00 AM

Why are your rights being sacrificed for those of business?

We’re supposed to accept the new DMT --- Dalton McGuinty tax --- because it’s good for business. By blending the GST and PST, not only will business be able to reduce paper work, it will be able to deduct provincial taxes along with the federal ones in that great government shell game of Input Tax Credits.

It’s more of this BS trickle down theory. If we cut taxes for business, then they’ll prosper and create jobs for us.

Except it doesn’t work that way! Free trade was supposed to help the average Canadian. All I did was hold down Canadian wages, encourage companies to move to Mexico and tie our economy to the failing, has been US economy..

We were badly burned and now we’re supposed to buy the same guff again, knuckling under to fat cat business interests while ..

[ Read full post ]

Same Old

Waiting For More Details But At This Point It is SICKENING

Baby found covered in blood, hospitalized after attack in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG - A young man who interrupted a brutal attack on a baby says he'll never forget the sight of the child being beaten in the street. 1 September

"Scandals" Are A MSM Product.......

.....but in reality it is normal practice and the reason people promote "scandals" is in retaliation because they didn't have the opportunity to take part. It is only scandalous when the other person does it!

Racism Is Colour Blind

South African's refugee case causes backlash against ‘racist' Canada

Ruling grants white South African refugee status, citing claimant's ‘convincing proof' that he was beaten and unable to find work because of his race Sep 02, 2009

African National Congress calls Canadian refugee decision racist

OTTAWA - A decision by a Canadian immigration tribunal to grant refugee status to a white South African who claimed he was persecuted because of his colour has caused a backlash against Canada and made international headlines.

One On One

Bryant's story shocking and sobering – but also far too common

Christie Blatchford

Details that suggest cyclist had been drinking may help former Ontario Attorney-General muster a solid legal defence – but is there room for a moral one? Sep 02, 2009

• The victim: Charismatic courier had history with police
• Adam Radwanski: An overachiever's supreme self-confidence shattered
• Online discussion: Safe cycling in the city

Iggy Is Back! Remember Iggy?

John Ivison: Real-world signs don't point to fall vote

Raphael Alexander: Can Ignatieff sell Canadians his $18-billion train?

Don Martin: Ignatieff seeks your vote to remake 2017

Kelly McParland: The Liberal leader who cried wolf

A Message To Bike Couriers......

......spend 30 minutes around many of the busy downtown spots and watch how well bike couriers adhere to the HTA.

Bad infrastructure, adrenalin adding to car-bike tensions

A combination of scant bike lanes and the high adrenalin of bike riders as they brave heavy traffic makes cities such as Toronto prime .

We need to share the city's roads

64 min. ago

The latest altercation between a car and a bicycle on Toronto's streets has left cyclist Darcy Allan (Al) Sheppard dead and former attorney general Michael Bryant facing two charges of criminal negligence and dangerous ...

Streets don't have to be a battlegound
Kyle G. Brown 64 min. ago

We should not regard the horrific death of a cyclist as a one-off event to be dismissed as the act of a lone motorist.

Continuing Saga

Too many young lives cut short
by Carol Goar

I Agree But It Is Too Little Too Late

Why Smitherman, Caplan must go

By SUN MEDIA

It's time for Premier Dalton McGuinty to make a compelling case for why David Caplan and George Smitherman -- the two men who have headed up the ministries responsible for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and eHealth since 2005 -- should keep their jobs.

Sweeping The Crumbs For Support

NDP could save Tories from the fall of defeat

By PETER ZIMONJIC, ALTHIA RAJ and KATHLEEN HARRIS, National Bureau, Sun Media

The NDP could save the Conservative government from a fall defeat if the Tories make strides to boost pensions, slay bank and credit card fees and help the unemployed.

TRUTH SLEUTH: Your guide to a potential fall election

By Christina Spencer, Sun Media

What did the federal Liberal leader say?

Good Morning World! Wake Up To Reality

Eventually McGinty's Incompotence Had To Surface

Something rotten at Queen's Park

Sep. 01, 2009
The unanswered question after yesterday's dramatic housecleaning at the government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. is just how much more there is to this story.

Could Of, Would Of, Should Of, So What!

I must of missed the post postmortems of other cities that hosted these events and how the citizenry benefited on a permanent basis.....

Protesters can spoil more than a Games bid TheStar.com - Columnist - Protesters can spoil more than a Games bid

September 01, 2009

Royson James

The sad, sweet sound of protest hung in the air around Varsity Stadium yesterday, even as the scoreboard flashed the sign welcoming an evaluation team in town to weigh the merits of awarding the 2015 Pan American Games to the Toronto region.

The voices did not punctuate or offend. Sandwiched between chants, drumming, African-American spirituals and rants against privatization and the perils of rampant capitalism, the dissent barely registered.

Mass media, cued to record the anticipated noncommittal musings of the evaluators, hoped for a spark of anger or rage from the protesters – anything with a hint of emotion, something that might suggest the fight matters.

We've got protest songs, a measured and responsible answer to the mini-Olympics that could be coming to town. The Pan Am Games barely register in people's minds. So it's little wonder that the protests opposed to the Games carry so little weight.

The protesters have one major problem: Toronto has not benefited from missing out on world's fairs and Olympic Games.

Dissidents would say the city avoided massive debts. They forget we missed out on massive infrastructure improvements.

The prevailing view is that Olympic bids and such massive efforts serve to distract a city from its priority – which is to make life better for its citizens. No mega projects, and city hall would, presumably, get its priorities right. Wrong.

John Clarke from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is well practised in the argument: "The record of these extravaganzas is such a horrible one, a hideous one," that the debate is one-sided. Athletes' villages built for events like Olympics and Pan Am Games result in gentrification, higher housing prices, dislocation of homeless people, social exclusion and other ills, he says.

"Hey, hey, hey ho, the Pan Am Games have got to go."

That message was particularly loud in the early 1990s, during the run-up to the bid for the 1996 Olympic Games. Bread Not Circuses was the protest group of the day, and it did not go quietly. In fact, bid leader Paul Henderson still blames the group, and the help it got from then-city councillor Jack Layton, for sabotaging Toronto's chances.

Toronto did not get the 1996 Olympics and it did not get the housing others demanded. In fact, the net effect was worse. The 1996 Games would not have given us all the housing protesters wanted. But losing the Games got us nothing.

If there is a link between the mega projects and public assets and priorities, it seems that without the catalyst of the mega projects, public investments and improvements move at a snail's pace.

Fast-forward to Toronto's bid for the 2008 Games. One of the very first projects approved by all three levels of governments, to boost Toronto's bid, was the remake of the subway platforms at Union Station. The TTC and others had been concerned for years about overcrowding at the busy station. In fact, in 1998, Year 1 of the amalgamated city, they took then-mayor Mel Lastman on a tour of Union Station to show him how potentially dangerous it had become.

But nothing happened. Until the bid for the 2008 Olympics, when money suddenly appeared from Ottawa and Queen's Park to fast-track the Union Station renovation.

Well, no Games, no Union Station subway platform fix. For years. Design concept was approved in 2004. Artwork, 2008. Tender is set for November. Completion? 2014. Without the catalyst of the Games, the project has languished. Nothing moves municipal or provincial or federal agendas along quicker than an international deadline.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Another Super Hero Fitted With Advertising Sandwich Board

Disney buys Marvel for $4-billion

Comic book powerhouse will help Disney gain footing with young male audience

Comrade Miller And His Executive Clowns To Decide Toronto's Historical Perspective

Toronto scraps museum project, plans to raze site instead

I Wonder If This Feeling Applies To The Jobless

More Canadians feel work is taking over their life

With Labour Day approaching, a new poll shows some of the ideals this holiday is meant to celebrate are falling by the wayside.

You Are Not Alone Rick....Many Feel The Same Way But.....

The operative word is MOVE!

......I wonder if it is not a plot to get Miller's critics to move and let the city be run by the unions, island squatters, waterfront condo owners, social in-activists, evironuts, etc.

All is not well in the realm of King David

By RICK MCCLOSKEY

A week in David Miller's kingdom:

Monday

I realize I must renew my car licence.

Having moved my business to Mississauga from Toronto a few years ago to economize, I decide to renew it in Mississauga near my office. The lady informs me the privilege of living under King David will cost an extra $120 for 2 years.

She offers an opinion that paying more to sit in gridlock seems ironic to a suburb dweller but, hey "that's up to you."

I feebly smile with no reasonable snappy retort coming to mind.

Tuesday

I take the afternoon off work to go for a bike ride.

No problem, you think, King D is bike friendly.

I head down the Humber bike trail from Etobicoke to the lake. Much of the way towards the end, I am bumping along, dodging holes, cracks and joggers on a path barely wide enough for two.

I come home in rush hour along the Annette St. path from High Park and realize I am the only one in the bike lane for miles, while traffic is packed into one lane and barely moving.

Hmmmm, I love to bike but does this make sense?

Wednesday

I must put out the blue bin.

I notice all the houses (townhouses) in my neighbourhood now keep their blue (and grey) bins at the top of their driveway. Very attractive.

Thursday

I make a shopping list.

I see on the list, a note from my wife: "Buy kitchen garbage bags" Hmmmm. We used to get plastic bags at Loblaws, put our wet and dry garbage (not the recyclables, God forbid) in it, put them in the garbage bins and they were gone.

Now, we use cloth shopping bags, buy plastic bags from Glad and put them in the very same bins.

I also realize the Glad bags suck. They are not as good as the old Loblaws bag.

Today I left my cloth bag in the car, bought 15 cents worth of bags with my groceries and will happily fill and send them away.

I am now paying Loblaws for a service that was free, using the same number of bags and doing nothing for the environment.

I actually saw King David at a local restaurant with his family recently.

Not wanting to be rude and disturb his family, I resisted the temptation to approach.

His wife went to the washroom on the way out and the King stood by the bar and said hello. I responded and suggested I was unhappy with the new taxes he had levied.

He responded I should "speak to my councillor."

I responded: "Why would I speak to him ... when you won't?"

My councillor is on the black list and not part of any committees as he is vocally opposed to the mayor and his minions.

Well, life under King David is different alright.

My next move is to relocate myself near my business and leave the rest of you subjects to fend for yourselves.

I have lived here all my life, paid my taxes, supported local business, employed city people and am polite to old ladies.

Clearly not a subject King David cares about.

Frustrated in Etobicoke

(but not for long),

Rick

Were The "Tasteless" Comments Made In Both Official Languages

CBC gets 'knuckles rapped' for tasteless broadcast

By ALTHIA RAJ, NATIONAL BUREAU

CBC broke the rules by airing tasteless and abusive racial comments, Canada's television watchdog said yesterday as it ordered the public broadcaster to offer an "unqualified" apology.

Conspiracy Theories Abound.....

....not our style but hits and donations up.

Signs 'not our style', Toronto Party says

By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

The Toronto Party has been inundated with requests for signs that call Toronto Mayor David Miller an idiot.

Fillion Is A Good Example Of Miller's Flunkies......

.....don't address the issues; attack the critics! Call in Restaurant Makeover.

A La Cart criticism doesn't cut the mustard

By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

City Hall's efforts to diversify street food offerings is not the bureaucratic nightmare the media and some councillors would have you believe, according to the pilot-project's loudest champion.

McGinty Promised You Change.......

......I will bet that you didn't know that the changes would involve a multitude of broken promises, new taxes, OLC, eHealth, etc. etc.

Lottery brass scratched

By JONATHAN JENKINS, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU

You paid for their dinners, and you paid for their Weight Watchers afterwards.

Full Story