Category Archives: Provincial Election 2022

Missing In Action

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Tomorrow, August 19, is the deadline for candidates to file nomination papers in order to run in the October 24th municipal election race. On Monday the 22nd, the city clerk will certify the nominations, making everything official. After the Labour Day weekend, the campaign will begin in earnest.

Barring any last minute, out-of-the-blue entries, I think it’s safe to say, Toronto is staring down at the most desultory civic election since, perhaps, 2000 when Mayor Mel Lastman rolled to re-election in the 2nd post-amalgamation campaign, handily defeating environmental activist Tooker Gomberg with nearly 80% of the popular vote. Continue reading →

A Weak-Willed Strong Mayor

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Lest this begins to look like a retreat to the familiar, a purely Toronto municipal politics blog, the second such item in three days, you can put your mind at ease. Nothing but pure fluke. Just a happenstance of circumstance as they say, and if they don’t, they should. The torpid weather. An annoying struggle with another piece of writing. Some rather exceptional matters in and around City Hall. Continue reading →

Forget It, Jake

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It’s an easy trope, the old person bumbling with some electronic device. The unwieldy TV remote, a black brick with buttons, useless in finding The National with Knowlton Nash. Long snaking grocery store line-ups as an elderly customer taps futilely away. “Here?” “No, here, ma’am,” “Here?” “Why don’t we try and insert your card, ma’am, and then enter the security code.” “The what?!” (As a matter of fact, since you’re asking, I can’t use the self-checkout because I’m buying beer here.) Text messages and their endless series of identical screen shot attachments. “Give me your phone for sec, grandpa.”

Ageist? Almost certainly. But in my ripely mature defense, being old allows me great latitude to indulge in a little mockery of the aged. Continue reading →