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Newsstand: February 9, 2010

roxanne_newsstand_coffeeshop.jpg
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.


In a story that national affairs reporter Linda Diebel probably didn’t expect to write, Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) has publicly apologized for having a messy, angry, and dysfunctional transit agency secret affair with Kristen Lucas, 20, while living with his longtime “political” partner, Sarah McQuarrie. Giambrone concealed both women’s existence from the other. Among the less personal details are Lucas’s claim that Giambrone let her in on the TTC fare hike early and that his campaign staff showed the Toronto Star an email, which they called “threatening,” that was allegedly a forgery being passed off as Lucas’s own work. Mostly, though, she makes a strong case that Giambrone can be pretty douchey to date and leans heavily on stale, insufficiently TTC-based pickup lines. Bet he’s glad the TTC decided against running these.
Sticking with the TTC, the rumoured work-to-rule campaign from yesterday is “reportedly” underway. That is, we’re not totally sure whether it is or not. But we think it might be. The campaign is the (reportedly) stillborn brainchild of a group of employees trying to get some job action started without the support of union boss Bob Kinnear. Meanwhile, John Cartwright, the president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, brought to the table one of the most sensible statements yet. “I worry this feeding frenzy on the TTC will end up lessening the pressure on politicians at all levels to seriously find resources on transit,” said Cart­wright, in what was arguably as much an attempt to coax TTC management and union workers into working together as it was a shot fired at the unnamed politicians involved in municipal transit.
Noel Gallagher will be coming to Toronto to speak at the trial of the man who tackled him at the 2008 Virgin Festival. That man, Daniel Sullivan, admitted to decking Gallagher, but the trial has been held up so that Gallagher could give a victim-impact statement about the attack, which left him with broken ribs. Dose has a YouTube video the actual victim impact (just after 1:30).
Toronto, along with Vaughan, Mississauga, and Hamilton, has been cheated out of $1.5 million in loose change by the firm they hired to roll their parking-meter coins and drive them to the bank. Each of the four city’s governments only recently learned that they were not the only ones whose parking-meter revenue had large, unexplained shortfalls. Toronto is missing $320,000, while Hamilton is out about a million dollars in—and we want to emphasize this—small change.
And the Toronto District School Board may have slightly miscalculated in threatening to punish trustee Josh Matlow for breaking rank to speak publicly against the board’s decisions. TDSB Chair Bruce Davis argued that twenty-eight dollars per attendee is a fine price to pay for a professional development day if it results in better classrooms—and he may be right, but he’s also buried in the middle of the article. Up top, with supplied photo beside, is Matlow and his outrage at the expenditure of $350,000 for a one-day conference at the ACC.

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Comments

  • http://undefined Peter K

    Next we’ll find out that Giambrone has been cheating on the TTC with his car.

  • http://undefined bustermove

    What a Giamboner. i guess her is trying to dispel those gay rumours…

  • eller

    Perhaps he’ll reconsider the decision to accept Ashley Madison as an advertiser after all.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    How to End Your Mayoral Bid in One Easy Step (And Cruelly Insult Your Girlfriend While You Do It!) by Adam Giambrone.
    Allegedly.
    I am continually amazed by the ability of men in power to self-sabotage with sloppy, easily documentable affairs.

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

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  • http://undefined joeclark

    Parking-meter coins.

  • http://undefined Andrew

    The worst thing about the story is the mental image of Adam Giambrone having awkward nerd sex. I bet he uses Transit City double entendres.

  • http://undefined luvtoronto

    “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” Pierre Trudeau
    He’s still a strong candidate. Personal affairs are personal affairs. He has shown strong leadership. He’s been Chair of the TTC for over 3 years without one major scandal attributed to him. The E-Health Scandal was on Smitherman’s watch and is far more worrisome as a political track record than this!!!

  • http://undefined Andrew

    Of course, it’s not the fact that he boned a 19-year-old on the side, it’s the callous, ridiculous, and bald-faced lies he told so that he could keep boning her.

  • Darren

    Handsdown the best comment to date!!

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick Metzger

    How could Giambrone be capable of such unfeeling deception and betrayal of the people who’ve supported and stood by him through thick and thin? Oh, wait, he’s a politician. Carry on.

  • Darren

    And the fact that he admitted to her that his living arriangments were solely for show and to enhance his political future.
    He mixed his political goals with his personal life, and therefore its free game

  • http://piorkowski.ca/ qviri

    Privatize the parking meter coin collection!

  • Darren

    In regards to the age. 19??? I’m 32, and I would never dare. I have some friends who love going to the Brunnie once in a while just for the 19-21 crowd. We all can pass as ourselves off as 24-27 if we had to, but I don’t and nor would I think its appropriate for me to be getting involved with someone who has 13 less years of life experience.

  • toronto_llb

    I am not impressed with his token apology.

  • http://undefined Peter K

    The Trudeau quote goes out the window once you run for public office. If you are asking people to entrust you with their votes, you have to expect a deep examination of all aspects of your life.
    In this case it shows weaknesses in his maturity and decision-making abilities. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is not unique to Giambrone in the realm of politics.

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick Metzger

    Agree, I’m not inclined to give him a pass on this one.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    Brilliant FacePalm

  • Meg Campbell

    Thanks for pointing out that error, Joe. It’s been corrected.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    His apology insinuated that he never had sex with her, but he probably prepared it before realizing that text messages and Facebook notes were saved. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Giambrone’s camp today…

  • http://undefined davedave

    Most hilarious part of it all is you could ignore this whole situation and still discount him for mayor for a pile of other reasons.

  • http://undefined davedave

    19 = adult
    32 = adult
    live and let live, dude

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    girlfriend(s).

  • http://undefined tripper

    It’s good gossip but I’ve never understood why this kind of stuff matters. Some of the world’s greatest leaders have been complete dogs in their private lives.
    Anyway, he’s handling it all wrong. He should just be a man and own up to it, a la Letterman. That’ll get him points for having integrity if nothing else.

  • http://undefined toronto_llb

    I don’t think its possible to transfer the blame to anyone else. I guess in future he’ll have to mind the gap between his personal ethics and professional ambition.

  • http://undefined eller

    Adam Giambrone: Ride the Rocket

  • http://undefined hudson

    >I am not impressed with his token apology.
    Classic.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    I’ve noted a number of people trying to pull the “oh, come on we’re Canadian, this shouldn’t be an issue” reaction to todays news, both here and on twitter. I think it’s fairly safe to say that, as a consequence of having explicitly stated that ‘Partner Sarah’ was a political expedient, Mr. Giambrone has unilaterally forfeited the right to be defended in this manner. Any defense of his behaviour along the above-noted lines of “Aren’t we past caring about affairs, etc.” smacks, under these extraordinarily laughable circumstances, of Enzo Di Matteo’s recent attempt to smooth over his incorrect outing of Giambrone as gay by blaming the media and society in general for not being open minded enough an an excuse to not apologize for lazy journalism. The analogue today is: To anyone who would choose to downplay Giambrone’s gaffe by asking “Aren’t we all past caring about affairs, etc.”, ask Adam, because he doesn’t appear to be.

  • http://undefined friend68

    Aside from the judgments of his personal choices (though voters get to decide for themselves what they will care about and base their choices on), there seems to be just so many more poor decisions, finalized by the amazing one to choose to run for mayor, thinking that you could keep this skeleton in the closet.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    My comment was erroneously posted in Reply to Marc’s (oops.)
    I’ve noted a number of people trying to pull the “oh, come on we’re Canadian, this shouldn’t be an issue” reaction to todays news, both here and on twitter. I think it’s fairly safe to say that, as a consequence of having explicitly stated that ‘Partner Sarah’ was a political expedient, Mr. Giambrone has unilaterally forfeited the right to be defended in this manner. Any defense of his behaviour along the above-noted lines of “Aren’t we past caring about affairs, etc.” smacks, under these extraordinarily laughable circumstances, of Enzo Di Matteo’s recent attempt to smooth over his incorrect outing of Giambrone as gay by blaming the media and society in general for not being open minded enough an an excuse to not apologize for lazy journalism. The analogue today is: To anyone who would choose to downplay Giambrone’s gaffe by asking “Aren’t we all past caring about affairs, etc.”, ask Adam, because he doesn’t appear to be.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    exactly!
    How did he think he’d get away with this? He even asked her to keep quiet, and she seems to have said ‘No.’ And that was in December?

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    argh.

  • http://undefined panko

    Adam, meet Tiger.

  • smasharts

    Actually, the Trudeau quote goes out the window because of the original context in which he said it. His comment was in response to laws which covered what two consenting people did together in the privacy of their bedroom.
    In the case of a politician, I think it is true that it becomes fair game. What I object to is the salacious details. The news media, and the Star in particular, get off on describing the details of the affair as if they are fact – but in reality they are only “he said, she said” comments from both parties, as well as their acquaintances. This is no way to report a story. If Giambrone had an affair on his long-time partner, and he admits it, then that is the story – not the stupid texts and the 3rd hand hearsay. Once he admits it, then we, the voters, can decide how much it will affect the way we vote or the way we view him.
    He is not Tiger Woods after all.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    He’s not qualified to be in charge of the city, the TTC or … his own personal life. Is he saying that his relationship with McQuarrie is just a façade?
    And why the hell are we still using coins for parking meters?

  • http://undefined Ben

    It’s a great day for Torontoist. The comments here are hilarious, as was the Greg / Bob Kinnear post.

  • http://undefined nitroMiner

    The exception being This:
    Do you not see the disparity? Money and power vs one with much less money let alone power.
    If daddy Giambrone thinks this is just an affair, he’s deluded and so are you if you think the same.
    This isn’t a May-December tryst. It’s about someone in power taking advantage over an easily impressed younger adult.
    This archaeologist is digging some very young bones. Something is wrong with this candidate – using his position of power to His advantage – in a supposed ‘relationship’ no less.
    Creeper alert.
    Makes one wonder what kind of Mayor you could expect. [shudder]

  • Malcolm Tucker

    Giamboner’s a strong candidate? For dogcatcher, maybe.
    Smitherman’s not fit to clean up after dogs either.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Sex is power. Female prowess is also a very powerful thing.
    Reading the back and forth between them, reads to me as though she had quite a bit of that over him.
    I get what you`re saying though. I think it’s chapter 1, page 1 of the feminist handbook no? Applies here? Can you show how it does? I can’t seem to find what “power” he has over her, other than dishonesty.

  • http://undefined dowlingm

    He sort of did (allegedly) cheat on the TTC, since the issue that should resonate most strongly against his holding public office is the assertion by Ms. Lucas that he disclosed confidential TTC information.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Just an observation. Previous to this incident, most people labeled Adam as “too young”, some also thinking he was in his early to mid 20′s. Now that incident has happened and the tone is: “what an old perv”.
    lol. People.

  • Darren

    He did what?????

  • http://undefined Ben

    It’s an interesting dichotomy, but the context is totally different.

  • http://undefined friend68

    I’m noting in a few comments (in other places) that some seem to be making the case that since he’s not married, he is still single, making his dalliance a minor matter. In a society that no longer requires the marriage stamp of approval on a relationship to make it a committed one, I can’t see it as much less of a betrayal when they’ve been living together for some time, and she was significant enough to join him on stage at his announcement.

  • Darren

    Thats not the whole picture. She willingly went into that relationship thinking he was single, when he wasnt.

  • http://undefined Justin

    I don’t think there’s any exact change Giambrone can make to his campaign. He’s just holding everyone else up at this point and should just exit through the rear doors.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Adam’s pick up lines (I’m making these up as I go)
    Want to ride the rocket?
    Want to see how high I can hike my fare?
    Mind the gap
    Move to the back
    No passback

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Hence his dishonesty being the only power play here.
    I’m responding this this comment:
    “Do you not see the disparity? Money and power vs one with much less money let alone power.”
    Which seems to conclude that his power was what he used in order to HAVE the affair in the first place.

  • http://piorkowski.ca/ qviri

    I will go ahead and disclose some more confidential TTC information: fares will raise again within five years.
    Remember, you heard it here first! Well in advance!

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    I realize the 2 aren’t mutually exclusive, more of an observation of human nature. It’s just funny that the age of the 2 seems to be getting a lot of attention (elsewhere, not here) but the issue itself isn’t (seemingly) as shocking to people.

  • http://undefined EricSmith

    Is he saying that his relationship with McQuarrie is just a façade?

    No, that’s just what he tells the undergrads.

  • http://undefined aukele

    We can tell.

  • http://undefined x_the_x

    I’m not sure how unequal the power balance was here in hindsight. She pretty shrewdly went to the media to tank his career.

  • Pan Von Sol

    The next train is: in the station.
    giggity

  • http://undefined Darren

    Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned

  • http://undefined Peter K

    No “scandal” but plenty of examples of incompetence.

  • http://undefined b.a.p.

    Sarah Thompson gets my vote. I’ve already forgotten
    A dam Giambrone

  • http://undefined b.a.p.

    I have already forgotten A dam Giambrone.
    Sarah Thompson gets my vote!

  • Darren

    She had my vote so far. Its her’s to lose.
    Hopefully the media can give her some decent exposure so we can see more of what she has to say

  • http://undefined Darren

    I found Adam’s next love interest. And she recently lost her car, so she will need to use the TTC;
    http://gothamist.com/2010/02/03/woman_busted_using_mannequin_in_lie.php