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Newsstand: January 8, 2009
In case there was ever any doubt, now it’s official: George Smitherman is making it official. He’s apparently going to be crossing the requisite Ts and dotting the requisite I’s at City Hall today to make him a for-real-and-for-true mayoral candidate. Let the furious monkey comments begin.
But who’s going to be the John Tory to George Smitherman’s…um…George Smitherman now that, well, John Tory is no longer in the running? How’s about Karen Stintz? Um…no. “I made a decision earlier on I was going to focus on the issues and nothing has changed for me,” said the Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence councillor. “Whoever the mayor is, they’ll have my support.” Just look at her love affair with Mayor Miller all these years.
In other council news, remember when we told you about how city council apparently broke the law by agreeing to increase the yearly salary of Councillor Adrian Heaps (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest) the exact amount that he required to cover his costs after losing a defamation lawsuit? Well, someone’s going to have to increase twenty-one more salaries, because that’s the number of councillors being sued for this momentary lapse in judgement. In its notice of application, a political group called the Toronto Party for a Better City claims that “a councillor’s conduct as a candidate predating the term of office is activity outside of the office of councillor,” referring to the fact that the incident for which Heaps was sued occurred when he was only a candidate for office. When asked if he was worried, Howard Moscoe (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence), one of the councillors served yesterday, replied that he doesn’t “lose any sleep over this kind of thing.”
And finally, in case you like to read about things that have nothing to do with politics and showboating, Humane Society media darling Trevor Smith was led out in handcuffs yesterday to the beat of clicking flashbulbs, charged with two counts of personating a peace officer and one of perjury. Oh, and OSPCA agent Mark Beauchamp was arrested on one charge of obstructing a peace officer. But dude! Tre Smith! In a world where former reality TV stars are being arrested…well, is that any kind of world in which to live?