news
Newsstand: June 12, 2010
Illustration by Clayton Hanmer/Torontoist.
Police chief Bill Blair held a news conference yesterday where he stepped up and broke down the $122 million police budget for the G20 summit. The lion’s share—$82 million—will go to police salaries, with the rest being spent on ancillary expenses like sound cannons and accommodation for out-of-town cops. Blair pointed out that the cost will be covered by the Feds and not the police budget, so it’s not like it’s coming out of your pocket, unless you pay federal or local taxes.
With money saved from not having to look after the summit, police booted a mob of celebrity-addled teens from Queen and John streets yesterday, where they were lined up for wristbands to get them into the MuchMusic Video Awards. The cops sent home more than eleven hundred fan-kids stricken with Bieber-fever and Cyrus-virus, as well as several dozen adults who thought they were waiting for the iPhone 4G.
A new Ipsos-Reid poll found that 56% of Canadians think an NDP–Liberal merger is a bad idea, with the concept being most popular among NDP supporters (55% pro) and least popular with Conservatives (15% pro). Only 2% of those surveyed favoured the idea of splicing together Jack Layton’s and Michael Ignatieff’s genes to create a giant mustachioed academic with wings.
Millions of Canadians with high hopes and no statistics courses lined up to buy tickets for last night’s seventy million dollar Lotto Maxx draw, but the big fifty million dollar prize went unclaimed. The odds of winning the jackpot on a five dollar play are about 1 in 28.6 million, or in layman’s terms, you just pissed away five bucks.
Even though you didn’t get the fifty mil, there is a consolation prize—HST “transition” cheques intended to offset the effect of the Harmonized Sales Tax went out to Ontarians this week. Some people—well, the Toronto Star anyway—are unhappy because the cheques are accompanied by a letter from Premier Dalton McGuinty pitching the virtues of increased taxation. Be aware that Dalton was not writing to you personally and you do not need to friend him on Facebook.
Disappointing headline of the week, from the Sun: “Rossi jabs Smitherman during Chinatown tour.” Verbal jab, pfffft—this is why Toronto politics are so boring!