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Newsstand: March 4, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
It was the first day back at work on Parliament Hill yesterday. But instead of MPs delivering their “What I Did on my Prorogation Vacation” essays, we heard Governor-General Michaëlle Jean deliver an hour-long, six-thousand-word throne speech. Recovery was the name of the game, with plans to tighten government spending, freeze MP salaries, stimulate job growth, and welcome foreign investment in key industries like telecommunications. Considering Harper shut down the government for a complete “refurbishment” of his post-recession agenda, the speech’s true-blue conservative tone is hardly what the opposition had in mind. And calling our national anthem sexist? Now them’s fighting words. Clearly the speech itself offers a few more details, so click here if you’re in the mood for a little light reading.
Want more Harper harping? Watch for reactions to the 2010 budget to be announced later today.
Arguments over departmental cutbacks at city council are already verging on fisticuffs, and now Rocco Rossi is entering the ring. He had some choice words for George Smitherman’s outsourcing ideas we reported yesterday as he outlined his own financial plan for the city—even more outsourcing. As the campaign catfights steer the mayoral race towards the right, the Star thinks TTC privatization could actually work.
But even Rossi’s no match for Mississauga’s eighty-nine-year-old mayor, Hazel McCallion, who has formally challenged her rivals to try to beat her as she seeks her twelfth re-election.
A Scarborough man has died while on an excursion inspired by the reality TV show Survivorman. Police discovered Richard Code’s body in a marsh north of Huntsville yesterday, after he ventured out into the Muskoka woods last Thursday (just after this hit). He had with him only a few tools and no shelter or food, similar to the adventures of Les Stroud, which are documented on Survivorman. An avid fan, Code, age forty-one, had no formal survival training.
Toronto can’t get its own bikeshare program on the streets, but Mumbai, India, has created two new programs, Cycle Chalao and Fremo, costing as little as three rupees (seven cents Canadian) per half hour.
Well…if anyone’s interested, the, uh, Juno nominations were announced yesterday. Predictably, Michael Buble, Justin Bieber, and Hedley are favourites, alongside Nickelback’s album Dark Horse, which is somehow nominated for Best Rock Album after winning Album of the Year last year? Ugh, how many more days until the Oscars?
And, sadly, it could be almost as easy to miss the Paralympic torch as it passes through Toronto this Friday. Forty torchbearers will relay the flame around City Hall at noon, but here’s guessing they’ll get more blank stares than fanfares.