The Globe and Mail reports that wheels are in motion—though they’re turning very slowly at this point—for a 2024 Summer Olympic bid. Bob Richardson, the man who netted the 2015 Pan Am Games for Toronto, has assembled a crack team for Toronto’s third Olympic bid (the city lost the 2008 Games to Beijing and 1996 Games to Atlanta—yes, Atlanta). More recently, the Brothers Ford squashed any hope of a 2020 bid. There’s still no word on how the mayor feels about the going after the 2024 games, and a bid does need his approval to move forward. Of course, the arguments against hosting the Olympics are both well worn and relevant—they’re expensive, disruptive and a relative pain in the ass for such a short-lived party. But although Rob Ford will likely be a distant memory in 2024, he could still stand to gain from the bid now (for instance, say, subways and a stadium). Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »
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Kristyn Wong-Tam blasts Rob and Doug Ford for shooting down the Toronto Olympics bid—but do the brothers deserve it?
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Image: JoeyS4B)
Downtown councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam released an open letter yesterday calling out Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug for, among other things, rejecting a bid for the 2020 summer Olympics without so much as a nod to council. We also noted the Ford’s dismissal of the Olympics at the time, but we have to point out that we agreed with the Fords on this one. Of course, Wong-Tam’s argument isn’t simply about wanting the Olympics—frankly, we’re a little puzzled about why she chose that decision as a springboard for her diatribe—it’s about wanting a better, more democratic process for council.
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Rob Ford shoots down 2020 Summer Olympics bid put forward by a group of influential Torontonians
(Image: Patrick Hoesley)
Apparently the sport-loving Brothers Ford aren’t entirely indiscriminate in their love of big-time sporting spectacles. While the Fords are keen to bring a National Football League franchise to the Big Smoke, they aren’t so keen to see Toronto host the Olympics. A hopeful group led by local businessman Bob Richardson—and supported by Dalton McGuinty, the Canadian Olympic Committee and a group of influential Torontonians, including John Tory, Mike Harris and Paul Godfrey—approached the mayor’s office to get its blessing to bid on behalf of the city for 2020 Summer Olympics, but was promptly rebuked—albeit in a more polite manner than we’ve sometimes seen.
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A collection of Toronto’s top cricket talent announced: cue corpo-political schmoozefest
Late-night cricket at Moss Park (Image: Dan Dickinson)
Amid all the Bollywood hoopla leading up to Saturday’s International Indian Film Academy Awards, another celebration of another widely popular South Asian staple—the strange and wonderful game of cricket—almost went unnoticed. In a ceremony held at city hall on Friday, Adam Vaughan and Doug Ford teamed up to announce the final roster for the CIMA Mayor’s Team, a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and Rob Ford–backed collection of Toronto’s best teenage cricket talent. The team will be travelling to England to participate in the fourth annual Cricket Across the Pond event, where the squad will compete against the world’s best. But, of course, not before a good ol’-fashioned photo op on Saturday, where the gang—Fords et al.—took to the pitch for the Mayor’s Cup cricket tournament, an annual event since 2005.
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Yoga to become an Olympic sport? At one Toronto event, it seems like a real possibility
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Competitive yoga may seem like the ultimate oxymoron, but according to the Toronto Star, it’s all too real. The “sport” boasts international competitors and even has potential to be part of the Olympic games. Following the recently completed Eastern Canada Regional Yoga Asana competition in Toronto, the Bishnu Charan Ghosh International Yoga Asana Championship takes place on June 18 and 19 in Los Angeles. Founder of the Bikram yoga series, Bikram Choudhury, feels this is a step in the right direction for yoga—in fact, he’s advocated to Lord Sebastian Coe and the American Olympic Association to make yoga a competitive category in the Olympic Games. Just how vicious is a yoga showdown? “It’s not really like that,” Teshia Maher tells the Star. “The energy is not that way.”
Toronto fourth most livable city in the world: The Economist
The big easy: life in T.O. is relatively sweet (Image: Still The Oldie, from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
According to The Economist’s annual ranking of global cities, Toronto is the fourth most livable city in the world. Hogtown scored 97.2 out of a possible 100 points—a rating that considers a number of indicators under the categories of stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Each indicator is rated according to acceptability, and each category is given a certain amount of weight, all of which are then amassed to assess the locations around the world that have the best and worst living conditions. Toronto’s scores, after the jump.
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Toronto’s war on the streetcar claims another victim: the sky
Vancouver's spanking new Canada Line (Image: Robert Ashworth)
With Rob Ford’s mayoral victory, it’s become clear that Toronto can have mass transit only so long as it meets two important criteria: 1) it doesn’t interfere with car traffic in any way whatsoever, and 2) it costs less than Transit City would have. At least, that’s the impression we get from the news today, reported by the Toronto Star and National Post, that Metrolinx and the TTC are considering replacing the street-level LRTs of Transit City with elevated light rail lines.
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Battle of the Blades, Week 6: the good, the bad and the snuggly
The funniest thing about this week’s episode, by far, was the icy attitude that guest judge (and ’70s figure skating legend) Toller Cranston brought to the night’s otherwise cheery proceedings. We get it, T.C., you’re a champion. But this is a campy CBC reality show, not the Olympics, so take a chill pill. Guest judges are supposed to provide a celebrity factor and a fresh face (see Posh Spice on American Idol). They are not supposed to hand out the lowest scores of the night.
But enough about him. (Er, make that almost enough. Were we the only ones who got a kick when Cranston somewhat smugly pointed out that he’s living in Mexico now, like the Frida Kahlo garb wasn’t a dead giveaway.) This week, the remaining pairs channelled beloved big screen classics with mixed results. As always, we weigh in on who should stay, who should go and who should get it on.
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Q&A with Brian Burke, the no-nonsense Leafs GM, world’s best hockey dad and unlikely gay icon
(Image: Adam Rankin)
Last year must’ve been the most challenging time of your life, with the death of your son Brendan in a car accident in February. How did that experience change your perspective?
When you lose a child, you don’t go an hour without thinking about it, but I’ve got five kids from ages four to 29, and I’ve got to keep looking after them and looking after my wife. I don’t have a choice.
Just a week after he died, you had to attend the Olympics in Vancouver as the coach of the U.S. team. That must have been agonizing. Read the rest of this entry »
There were important things that had to get done right on the heels of the accident: the Olympics, then the trade deadline, followed by the draft. At the time I was grateful to be busy. Work is great therapy.
Gemini Award nominations announced: Flashpoint, chef Lynn Crawford, Top Model host Jay Manuel among nominees
Flashpoint, Durham County and The Tudors are up for best dramatic series
The nominations for the 25th Gemini Awards were announced this morning, with CTV scoring major points for its Olympics coverage (it received 13 nods) and original drama Flashpoint (15 nominations). Flashpoint will go up against Durham County, Republic of Doyle, Stargate Universe and The Tudors for best dramatic series.
Toronto celebrity chef Lynn Crawford (Ruby Watchco) earned a nomination for best host in a lifestyle series for her work on Pitchin’ In; she’ll battle silver-coiffed Jay Manuel (Canada’s Next Top Model) and Sarah Richardson (Sarah’s House). The After Show, The Hour, MTV Live and Spectacle: Elvis Costello With… are up for best talk series awards.
CBC dominated the best news anchor category with nominations for Ian Hanomansing, Peter Mansbridge and Diana Swain.
See the full list of nominees in the program and performance categories after the jump.
Seven Long Years: How will David Miller be remembered?
As a kvetchy, largely ineffective do-gooder ultimately undone by the unionists who helped elect him
(Image: by Frank Gunn/CP; photo-illustration by Gluekit)
Unless Joe Pantalone, the unrepentant David Miller acolyte, mounts a surprise surge, our next mayor will arrive at city hall on an explicit promise to do things profoundly differently than his (or her) predecessor. George Smitherman promises to do things differently with a degree of sobriety; Rob Ford promises to do things differently with a flame-thrower and a manic glint in his eye.
It’s timely, then, to recall Miller’s own rise to power. He was elected because he thought it was a bad idea to build a bridge across the western gap of Toronto Harbour, which is only 121 metres wide. Remember the fixed link? It was a burning issue in 2003. It was incompatible with a revitalized waterfront, Miller insisted. Much smarter would be to pressure Ottawa to deliver a rail link to Pearson airport. Read the rest of this entry »
Eleven reasons CBCers loved/hated Richard Stursberg
Stursberg has left the building (Image: Helenmoverland)
The CBC’s anything-to-boost-ratings executive VP Richard Stursberg has left the building (some say he was escorted out) after six years of transforming the CBC from the sober public broadcaster that offered Canucks wise political parody and educational features into the home of such slick shows as Dragons’ Den and the defunct MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives.
Like any network capitalist, Stursberg has his foes and followers. The Toronto Sun highlighted the network’s 52 per cent increase in viewers in an average minute and 34 per cent jump in overall market share since Stursberg started, while former CBC producer Howard Bernstein called him “the most disruptive and hated VP of CBC” in his blog post “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead.” Here, a roundup of the major changes at the CBC under Stursberg’s rule >>
The List: 10 things Alex Anthopoulos, the boy wonder Blue Jays GM, can’t live without
1. Live music
There is nothing like seeing a great band live. My first concert was Poison, when I was in Grade 6. My all-time favourite is Springsteen: I saw him twice at the ACC. If you haven’t been to a Springsteen concert, you haven’t lived.
2. My native cuisine
Obviously, I love Greek food, especially feta and olives. One of my favourite memories is my dad roasting lamb on a spit every Easter. In Toronto, I go to Kalyvia on the Danforth (420 Danforth Ave., 416-463-3333).
3. Raptors games
I love going to basketball games because I get to be a fan and relax, drink a beer, yell. When I’m watching baseball, I’m analyzing and thinking about how this applies to my job.
4. Hair gel Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not a big product guy, but I’ve been using KMS California HairPlay for a while—it gives me the kind of spiked look that I like.
Hogtown versus the world: how does Toronto’s G20 compare with previous summits?
"Do-little summit": Stephen Harper delivers his opening remarks while other world leaders presumably listen to World Cup coverage
The G20 summit has mostly wound down, and the result is pretty mediocre: for billions in spending and a few torched police cars, we got a statement that’s almost Zen in its blandness. The G20 leaders agree to work toward financial stability—but each one gets to decide what that means. They’re committed to economic growth—but different countries need different strategies. They agree on a bank tax—except for Stephen Harper and a few others, so not every country will have one. Reuters calls it a “do-little summit.”
Given that so little of importance has been settled, how does Toronto stack up against previous summits and global meetings?
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Ice gold: CBC fall season bets on Battle of the Blades and Men With Brooms
Doesn't get much better than Domi in hot pink (Image: CBC)
No one is surprised that Battle of the Blades, the reality show that turns loutish hockey players into pairs figure skating pros, has been signed up for a second season—Ron MacLean and Kurt Browning are set to host and so far NHLers Theo Fleury and Russ Courtnall are in. Last year, the show reached 1.7 million viewers, making it a huge success for the CBC. But the Ceeb is also betting on a second ice-level sport for its fall schedule, a TV adaptation of Paul Gross’ 2002 film, Men With Brooms.
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