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Newsstand: September 6, 2011
Back to school! Back to school! Prove to dad you're not a fool, by reading Newsstand. In the news: The Ex is done, the Labour Day parade was actually about labour, Olivia Chow rules out a leadership bid, and we bet you can't guess what Giorgio Mammoliti is saying now.
The Ex is gone, and with it summer. And our youth. Today is “back to school” day for some. Replete with new pencil crayons and the best packed lunches mom will muster up the energy for all year, little ones on their big buses march off to school to begin the year anew. And with those little ones marching off towards their big dreams, traffic could be increased by up to 20 per cent today, so remember to plan ahead and watch out for packs of children crossing the street. Alas, for others it is simply “still at work for now and the rest of our lives” day. But just because you have a job does not mean you can’t eat Gushers at lunchtime.
The end of The Ex also means it’s time for a parade, a Labour Day parade. Hundreds came out to march in their union T-shirts and non-union T-shirts to commemorate the achievements of the labour movement thus far and remind us of the fights still to be won. And marching right along with them was the memory of former federal NDP leader Jack Layton. Orange was everywhere, and Jack’s children marched the route alongside interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel.
Jack’s widow, Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow, has ruled out a bid for the party’s leadership and is also refusing to endorse any candidates, saying that would be “unfair.” Watch the whole interview in which Peter Mansbridge makes Chow sit in the rain and answer very direct questions, and she stays classy through and through.
Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) is the kind of Rob Ford supporter that is really into agreeing with Rob Ford these days. He filmed the dyke march to show Rob Ford. He started a Facebook group just to talk about how great Rob Ford is. But now Mammoliti is shocking and confusing us all by speaking out against layoffs for front line paramedics and firefighters. More than that, Mammoliti is pushing to hire more paramedics, because he says we have a shortage. Giorgio Mammoliti said this.
And Vaughan is trying to become a real place by building a downtown. The city above Toronto, the city of Vaughan in its current form just sprawls around with no intensified centres, so enter the new “Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.” At Jane and Highway 7, where the Spadina subway extension will end up, Vaughan now plans to build a five-condo residential development called Expo City. Sounds like a pretty good plan, Vaughan.