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Sunshine List: how much Rob Ford, Paul Godfrey and Chris Spence earned in 2012

Rob Ford earned $173,869 including taxable benefits in 2012

Each year, Queen’s Park releases the sunshine list, a catalogue of all the Ontario public servants who made $100,000 or more—and, because the $100,000 threshold hasn’t changed since the list’s inception in 1996, that exalted group now contains nearly 88,412 members. (Were the benchmark tied to inflation, it would now be over $139,000, cutting the list to about 18,000 people.) Since most people have better things to do this long weekend than sift through tens of thousands of names, we put together this cheat sheet of 2012’s most high-profile recipients of public largesse.

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The Informer

Random Stuff

May 24, 2012 | 11:04 am

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Officer Bubbles is back—and he’s identifying rough cops from the G20

Adam Josephs, the internet-famous “Officer Bubbles,” is in the news again, but for keeping the police force accountable rather than starring in satirical cartoons. The Toronto Star reports that Josephs was a witness for the Independent Police Review director’s recent (and scathing) report, helping to identify the officers who allegedly roughed up freelance journalist Jesse Rosenfeld while he was reporting on the kettling incident outside the Novotel Hotel. According to TVO’s Steve Paikin, who was at the scene, two police officers refused to recognize Rosenfeld’s “alternative media pass” and restrained him, while a third punched him in the stomach and elbowed him in the back. Thanks to the witness statements and Josephs’ identification, Constable Michael Martinez will face a police tribunal hearing for using “unnecessary force.” Justice! Though Paikin and Josephs reportedly had a chat about Josephs’ Bubbles infamy when they ran into each other outside the Princess of Wales Theatre, we’re hoping for a reunion of both high-profile witnesses on The Agenda. [Toronto Star]

The Informer

Politics

September 27, 2011 | 4:10 pm

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Provincial Election Leaders’ Debate: The Drinking Game

Sure, this hasn’t been the most exciting election in recent memory (that honour has to go to last year’s bizarre municipal race). Heck, our public broadcaster has found the whole exercise so dull that it’s chosen to broadcast a hockey game instead of the usual election special on the main network. But tonight at 6:30—we desperately hope—all that will change as Premier Dalton McGuinty, cover boy Tim Hudak and potential king-maker Andrea Horwath go at it for the first time on live television. But if you’re still looking for a spoonful of sugar to help the wonky point-scoring medicine go down, we’ve got you covered. Here, our Leaders’ Debate Drinking Game.

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The Informer

Politics

September 27, 2011 | 3:25 pm

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Five notes on tonight’s (likely boring) provincial election debate

This snooze of a provincial election will soon be over, but there remains one major piece of business: tonight’s debate (oh, and voting). Of course, recent news might just provide the ammunition for an all-out slugfest. But, really, we’re more likely to see Dalton McGuinty, Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath sticking to their talking points with a steadfast resolve, while viewers inevitably watch a real slugfest—or Glee—instead. Then again, debates don’t have to be thrilling in order to influence an election, and the stakes are certainly high. With that mind, here’s the skinny on what’s being said about what tonight could mean for the election race heading into the debate.

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The Hype

From the Print Edition

July 29, 2011 | 1:15 pm

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Camera: Henry Kissinger, Brian Mulroney and other noted brains and statesmen at the Munk Debates after-party

(Image: George Pimentel Photography)

June 17. Last year’s verbal slugfest between former British PM Tony Blair and journalist Christopher Hitchens established the Munk Debates as a must-attend event for Toronto’s intelligentsia. This year’s showdown affirmed that reputation. Harvard pop economist Niall Ferguson and Chinese scholar David Li argued that “the 21st century will belong to China,” while Henry Kissinger and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria opposed the motion. Kissinger commanded the stage, then made his way down the hall to the VIP reception and ruled the room. Guests practically lined up for one-on-one time with the Cold War icon, including Brian Mulroney, Adrienne Clarkson and Michael Ignatieff, who yanked his wife Zsuzsanna away from a conversation with Steve Paikin to get at the esteemed statesman. But no one got as close as Zakaria. After it was announced that he and Kissinger had won, he flashed his TV-trained smile and surprised his debate partner with a man hug.

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The Informer

Business

June 28, 2011 | 2:16 pm

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Ontario’s e-waste recycling program is a “Soviet Union-esque” disaster

A big ol' pile of e-waste (Image: Curtis Palmer)

Okay, we’re not going to go quite as far as the critic who equated the provincially mandated Ontario Electronic Stewardship to the U.S.S.R. We’re pretty sure nobody’s accused Dalton McGuinty of turning TVO in to Pravda yet—besides, Steve Paikin wouldn’t let him anyway. But this weekend the Toronto Star reported that the initiative the government of Ontario spearheaded in an attempt to make recycling environmentally dangerous e-waste more eco-friendly is basically a big, fat failure.

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The Informer

Random Stuff

May 11, 2011 | 4:59 pm

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Five things we learned from last night’s garbage debate

We attended last night's garbage debate

Newbie councillor Josh Matlow has spent the last six months very carefully straddling council’s middle, taking a calculated stance on issues from taxes to the TTC to garbage privatization. Last night, in an attempt to provide some clarity for the voters in his ward—and perhaps his own thoughts—he invited fellow councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong and left-wing economist (they exist!) Hugh MacKenzie to debate the pros and cons of the latter. Adding to the evening’s star power, Steve Paikin agreed to moderate the debate—in part because he lives in the area and in part because it seems he’s constitutionally required to preside over any such forum he happens to attend. Unfortunately, the turnout was poor and the drama was low. But we did learn a few things—five of them actually. More after the jump.

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The Informer

Politics

April 13, 2011 | 4:40 pm

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Reaction Roundup: what the country’s saying about last night’s leaders’ debate

For two hours yesterday, Steve Paikin did his community service of herding the four cats party leaders onto a stage and forcing them to answer questions. The leaders—Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe—proceeded to ignore those questions and talk about whatever their aides told them to talk about. Throughout the night, Ignatieff would try to bring things back to “the original question,” sounding like he both respected voters and thought maybe his opponents were easily distracted. There were no truly devastating moments, though there were some odd ones: Ignatieff at times seemed to pause mid-sentence and give his internal CPU a reboot, while Harper at one point kept saying “Mr. Speaker,” which just reminds us of how practised these guys all are at shouting at each other.

The real debate, though, isn’t won on TV. It’s won in the minds of the pundits of the nation. How did the debate go on that front? Here, our roundup.

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The Informer

Politics

April 11, 2011 | 4:26 pm

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Five things Torontonians should look for in the federal election debates

This week, Canadians get to watch two debates among the leaders of the four official parties in the House of Commons—the English one is tomorrow night, and the French one the night after (apparently there’s a sporting event of some kind on, so the French debate was moved up a day). As with the last several English-language debates, Steve Paikin will be moderating the showdown, but unlike in 2008 this will be an entirely Green-free event. What can we look forward to when four white men get onstage and redefine “diversity” to mean “Jack Layton’s moustache”? Some ideas, tailored for Torontonians:

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The Informer

Random Stuff

December 24, 2010 | 12:31 pm

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Toronto’s five best and worst political moments of 2010

As 2010 winds down, we can’t help but think of what a crazy year it’s been in Toronto politics. The city has had the kind of election that will, quite frankly, be hard to describe to later generations. (“Well, Timmy, the mayor had forgotten about his drug possession charge because he was scared the reporters knew about his DUI.”) Even if we mostly strip out provincial and federal politics—no “Province of Toronto” talk or long-form census debacles—2010 was the year Hogtown’s politics went cuckoo for crazy puffs. So in the spirit of the holiday listicle, here are our choices for 2010’s five best and worst moments.

The Informer

People

November 2, 2010 | 3:37 pm

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Steve Paikin discovers his inner diva at Stratford

Steve Paikin raids the Stratford costume room (Image courtesy of TVO's The Agenda)

Who hasn’t longed to sneak behind the scenes of a big-time theatre production and pour oneself into one of the costumes (preferably something long and flowy)? A few weeks back, TVO’s Steve Paikin got to live that dream. The Agenda host took a break from being Canada’s best debate moderator to catch Dangerous Liaisons at Stratford. And because he’s Steve Paikin and you’re not, the good people at the theatre let him into the back rooms to pet the wardrobe (see left, although there are more photos up on his blog). We think he looks just fetching.

• Behind the Scenes at Stratford [The Agenda Blog]

The Informer

Politics

September 24, 2010 | 3:38 pm

1 Comment

Last night’s mayoral debate was one that voters should actually have watched

After approximately as many debates as there are grains of sand at Sugar Beach, Toronto voters could be forgiven for running as fast as they can from any more of them (at this point, though, we’d wager the candidates would run even faster if they could). But yesterday’s debate on the topic of the environment, hosted by the Toronto Environmental Alliance and St. Simon the Apostle Church, was worth seeing. Below, the highlights.

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The Informer

Random Stuff

June 27, 2010 | 3:47 pm

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The postmodern protest: for all the cops and protesters, cameras are the most ubiquitous things in Toronto this G20 weekend

Say cheese: a man snaps a picture of police in riot gear in downtown Toronto (Image: Aaron Leaf)

As the police surged into Queen’s Park last night to confront violent protesters, the front line wasn’t made up of the black bloc or demonstrators, but the media: hordes of photographers and videographers toting large lenses, alongside well-coiffed television correspondents reporting on, essentially, what was being done to them. But with the advent of blogs, citizen journalism and even Facebook, what exactly constitutes the media anymore, and how can anyone distinguish a reporter from a protester?

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