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Newsstand: September 30, 2011
Always remember, Friday is just Monday minus 72 hours. How's that for pessimism? In the news: Mayor Rob Ford backs out of the political endorsements game, the TTC wants the public's help in naming new subway stations, and another city councillor turns her back on the mayor.
If you’ve been eagerly waiting by the phone to hear Mayor Rob Ford’s pre-recorded voice tell you who you should vote for in the upcoming provincial election, you may want to get up and go do other things. Like re-arranging your priorities, for one. Because Ford has announced he won’t be endorsing any of the three political leaders prior to the election on October 6. The mayor’s office isn’t giving a reason, but says it has nothing to do with the mayor’s support going from Ford Nation to something more like Ford Campsite, or Ford Rep Cinema When White Chicks Is Playing. We could keep going all day with the Ford Nation jokes, but there’s other news to cover. Like the unexplainable and deafeningly loud sighs of relief recently heard coming from Tim Hudak’s campaign headquarters.
The TTC wants your help naming the six new stations planned as part of a northbound extension to the Spadina subway line in 2015. Anyone who wants to help can do so by completing an online survey on the commission’s website. The TTC already has some names to choose from, but the truly inspired can suggest their own as well, preferably based on local landmarks. Some of the forerunners in that camp include ‘Houses,’ ‘More Houses,’ ‘Why Didn’t I Just Go To Ryerson?’ and ‘Toronto Is Back That Way.’
The Toronto Star has a nice little obituary for the relationship between councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre) and the mayor, which, until this week, was as healthy as any type of prolonged exposure to Ford can be. Which is to say, she voted the way he wanted. But then the veteran councillor criticized the mayor on Monday, voted against him 25 times on Tuesday, and found herself being dismissed by councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) as a fake conservative and David Miller crony on Thursday, which is the closest thing to being spat out the Ford administration’s back end currently available to municipal politicians.
An angry driver wants the City to license all cyclists after one of them vandalized her SUV (possibly for no apparent reason), while a cyclist is calling out a jogger for not stopping to help after the cyclist took a particularly nasty spill. Bottom line is that it’s high time we all started being nicer to each other in this city. Or maybe we should all be meaner, hopefully eventually plunging the city into a Road Warrior–like state of anarchy. Except with bikes.