Preville on Politics

March 2007 Archive

The Toronto Lexicon, Entry No. 4

Posted on March 23, 2007 by

Budget day (bud’jet daë) n 1. The day of the year when a government discloses how it spends its money, following which, for the remainder of the year, it would prefer to change the subject. 2. The day of the year when political talk is cheapest, as media outlets force-feed the airwaves with a relentless supply of information and opinion that far outstrips demand, and that clarifies little about the workings of government. 3. The day of the year when money can fix problems for a generation until next year. 4. A day of the year, just like all the others, in which the City of Toronto is short of funds.

The Toronto Lexicon is an ongoing project by this blog to provide precise and accurate definitions of terms as they are used in local political parlance. Tune in for regular additions.

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Blog, interrupted

Posted on March 23, 2007 by

This weblog goes on vacation all next week. Back again first week of April. Then we get to tackle yet another budget — the city’s. Whee…

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Toronto the gullible

Posted on March 20, 2007 by

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Let me get this straight. Last Friday, Mayor David Miller and his TTC Chair Adam Giambrone unveil Transit City, a laudably ambitious plan featuring some nice graphic design courtesy of Spacing magazine’s Matthew Blackett. But there was a catch—the same catch as always.

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Speaking of budgets...

Posted on March 19, 2007 by

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This morning’s Star featured a good piece by Donovan Vincent about city councillors’ annual expense tallies, naming council’s big spenders and penny pinchers. It’s one of those for-the-record stories that any decent city paper must publish, so kudos to them. But oh, how I wish newspapers would wake up to the reality of the Internet and tell readers where they can find the list for themselves, so they can look up their own councillor. Continue...

Get thee north of Steeles!

Posted on March 19, 2007 by

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Peter Kent has switched ridings. Last time, he ran in the heart of Old Toronto and lost. This time he’s hightailed it to the 905. Which tells you everything you need to know about how the Tories perceive their electoral chances within Toronto city limits.

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But did he buy a helmet?

Posted on March 19, 2007 by

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This is silliest twist on tradition since this guy wore these back in 1979. Wonder if he’ll actually wear them in the House.

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The Toronto Lexicon, Entry No. 3

Posted on March 16, 2007 by

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Pothole (pót:høl) n. 1. A locus of severe roadbed decay. 2. A public policy device promoted by City Hall through its refusal to pay for repairs, and intended to increase public transit ridership by making city streets unfit to be traveled alone.

The Toronto Lexicon is an ongoing project by this blog to provide precise and accurate definitions of terms as they are used in local political parlance. Tune in for regular additions.

Image credit: www.bikelanediary.blogspot.com

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Census versus reality

Posted on March 15, 2007 by

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Riddle me this, Poindexter: in my neighbourhood housing prices are through the roof, you can’t walk the Danforth without dodging a stroller every ten paces, and it’s impossible to get daycare for kids. So how can it be that, according to the census, my federal riding, Toronto-Danforth, has one of the fastest-declining populations in the country?

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I census that something is amiss

Posted on March 13, 2007 by

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If you’re a numbers geek like me, you won’t want to miss out on the census figures released this morning. I always like to go straight to the source and play around with the numbers (actually, the real source is here), but you can also get summaries here, and here, and wherever else Google will send you.

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Tony Ianno, the comeback kid

Posted on March 12, 2007 by

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It’s March break week at city hall, which means all’s rather quiet in the clamshell. No matter—lots of other stuff to talk about, like federal politics, with a budget next Monday, and an election that could be as little as five or six weeks away. You read it here first: Tony Ianno says he’ll be seeking the Liberal nomination in Trinity-Spadina again, in the hopes of reclaiming the seat he held for about a dozen years before losing it to New Democrat Olivia Chow last year.

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Trashy ideology

Posted on March 9, 2007 by

A few things about council’s decision to have city workers replace the private sector to collect curbside garbage in the former City of York:

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Nathan Phillips redux

Posted on March 9, 2007 by

First, read this.
Then read this and this.
Finally, read this.
As a public service, I will spare you my own opinion.

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Front Street explained

Posted on March 8, 2007 by

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Councillors Adam Vaughan (Ward 20 – Trinity Spadina) and Gord Perks (Ward 14 – Parkdale High Park) failed in their bid to kill the Front Street Extension, the most talked-about non-existent road in the city’s history, which would pave Front Street from Bathurst to Dufferin and link it to the Gardiner Expressway. Curiously, a final decision about Front Street has been put off until council can debate whether or not to tear down the Gardiner.

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The Toronto Lexicon, Entry No. 2

Posted on March 8, 2007 by

Architecture (r:kí tekt’urr) 1. The art and science of designing buildings and public spaces. 2. A competitive global sport in which teams (“firms”) compete in matches (“design competitions”) for supremacy. In Toronto, architecture is second only to hockey in popularity, counting legions of fans and numerous columnists who specialize in the sport, not to mention the many uninformed columnists and bloggers who cannot resist sharing their opinions on it. Since architecture, like figure skating, is a judged competition, matches rarely have a definitive outcome. Debate among fans can rage long after the project has been built, even when its built form bears little resemblance to its initial winning design. (See also Libeskind, Daniel.)

The Toronto Lexicon is an ongoing project by this blog to provide precise and accurate definitions of terms as they are used in local political parlance. Tune in for regular additions. Continue...

Getting Dufferin straightened out

Posted on March 8, 2007 by

The most car-friendly measure approved in yesterday’s capital-budget vote: the little-talked-about elimination of the Dufferin Street Jog, which will straighten out the convoluted mess where Dufferin intersects with both Queen Street West and the railroad tracks, putting in its place a normal, unremarkable, boring intersection on the border that separates Adam Giambrone’s and Gord Perks’ wards.

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Blowers blow, says Michael Walker

Posted on March 7, 2007 by

Amid the leaden twelve-page agenda for the March 5 and 6 council meeting, one item stands out: Councillor Michael Walker (Ward 22 – St. Paul’s) is bringing forward a notice of motion to restrict the use of leaf blowers, with an eye towards banning them outright. I’m told by some veteran press gallery wags that it’s a rite of spring: Walker proposes this motion every year, and every year it gets shot down. But maybe this idea’s time has finally come.

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Moscoe’s machinations

Posted on March 7, 2007 by

Councillor Howard Moscoe (Ward 16 – Eglinton Lawrence) tabled a Motion to Piss Off Liberals yesterday, amending a vote on a child poverty report to include support for a $10 an hour minimum wage. The debate lasted for most of the afternoon as councillors lined up to speak in support of the motion. Michael Thompson (Ward 37 – Scarborough Centre), who is often associated with council’s right wing, brought a hush over the room when his turn came to speak, choking up as he described the plight of the city’s black youth.

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The Toronto Lexicon, Entry No. 1

Posted on March 7, 2007 by

Billion (bíl’-yen) n 1. The cardinal number equal to 10 to the power of 9, most frequently used in reference to money. 2. A lot of money. 3. Not nearly enough money, esp. when it refers to money provided to the city by other levels of government. 4. The minimum amount of money Stephen Harper must spend in order to convince Torontonians he believes in public transit.

The Toronto Lexicon is an ongoing project by this blog to provide precise and accurate definitions of terms as they are used in local political parlance. Tune in for regular additions.

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My Toronto

Posted on March 6, 2007 by

Welcome to Preville on Politics. I’m your host, Philip, and I’ll be taking you into the nooks and crannies of politics in Toronto, whether at the municipal, provincial or federal level. That’s terribly broad, I admit, but I couldn’t bring myself to narrow it down. The way I see it, Toronto is, first and foremost, a government town.

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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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