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Newsstand: August 19, 2011
This Friday feels very Friday-ish, and that's probably a good thing. In today's news: a transit advocate wants to see TTC fare hikes, Doug Holyday accuses a union of spamming him, the saga continues for the two men accused of issuing death threats to the mayor, and there's been a messy but delicious road spill in Etobicoke.
Toronto’s top transit advocate thinks the TTC should have regular fare hikes to accommodate increases in operating costs, despite Mayor Rob Ford wanting to keep fares where they are. Apparently, running subways, buses, and streetcars costs money, and since the TTC doesn’t have much of that, raising the fare by 10 cents could put a dent in the transit corporation’s projected $85 million shortfall. We’re already preparing our “When I was your age, the subway only cost a toonie” speeches.
Poor deputy mayor and city councillor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre). He’s been receiving call after call from residents in his ward telling him not to close a local library branch that he has never supported closing. Now he’s accusing the library workers union of sending a recorded message to his constituents encouraging them to call him in protest of library cuts, even going so far as to put people through to his number directly. Which is actually a surprisingly good PR move for a union looking to save the jobs of its members in the face of cuts. And let’s just not bring up recorded messages of political endorsement, lest the kettle get wind of what the pot’s saying.
Robert Dunlop, the man who threatened to kill the mayor over social media and decorated a neighbourhood with pro-NDP slogans, might end up in the mental health system as opposed to the prison system. Meanwhile, the other guy accused of sending Ford a death threat claims to have no memory of making the call to 311 that got him in trouble with police, and insists he voted for and is a fan of Ford.
Speaking of Ford, storyteller Dan Yashinsky analyzes the mayor’s sweeping electoral victory and eventual fall through a narrative lens in the Toronto Star. It is, at the very least, evidence that someone else doesn’t like Rob Ford.
The streets are paved with cheese in north Etobicoke as a tractor trailer transporting the stuff rolled over last night near Kipling Avenue and Highway 409. Better hurry up if you want some, though, as response crews are already on the scene.