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Weekend Newsstand: April 9, 2011
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.
Mornings are a special time, for frolic, fun, and play. Don’t you wish you had a morning every single day? Surprise—you DO! On this, the finest of mornings, we revel in campaign trail delight, and dream delicious dreams of street food that doesn’t come in a bun.
Yesterday was a big GTA day for the prime minister, what with releasing his party’s platform in Mississauga and meeting Bollywood star Akshay Kumar in Brampton. The Conservative platform vows to eliminate the federal deficit by 2014–2015—a year earlier than planned. That’s a fairly significant change from the timeline they produced less than a month ago when they released their budget, and one they say will be achieved by cutting government gravy (and here we thought only Calgary had the prime minister’s ear). But one wonders—if “everyone” agrees we need to trim the costs of government, as Harper suggested, why didn’t he try to do it in the last five years he’s been in charge?
In other news, the Harpers followed in what is now a long tradition of dancing awkwardly, when Laureen joined Kumar on stage and broke out some sweet moves. We’re not sure why Stephen didn’t join. He loves folksy fun!
Could the residents of all the new lakefront condos tip the voting scales away from the NDP in Trinity-Spadina? This fear has been flying around New Democrat circles for a while, and with 27 new occupied highrises since the last election, it could have some merit. The Toronto Star says the well-off, suburban-bred singles who live in these buildings have little in common with the people who make up the rest of the hip downtown riding. With NDP candidate Olivia Chow just scraping by in the last few elections, it will be interesting to see whether condo-town tips the scales for her main competitor, Christine Innes.
Mayor Rob Ford said Friday that he has no plans to endorse any federal political candidates except for Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, a long-time Ford family friend. Flaherty’s riding is in Oshawa. That is all.
And, in much more delicious news, the city is trying to make things easier for food vendors as the trial period of the disastrous Toronto A La Cart program winds down. The program frustrated vendors, who said the mandated carts were expensive, unsafe, and impractical. Most have dropped out, and the few who remain say they aren’t even close to paying off the debts they incurred from joining the pilot program. The proposed changes will allow them to continue selling food out of their carts after the pilot project ends, and will allow food vendors to sell things other than hot dogs elsewhere in the city. Now that’s a platform we can get behind. Hot dog!