Morning Brew: Pizza Gigi's gets a new sign (sort of), Toronto teacher in Japan says government is no help, MLSE up for sale, pedestrian tunnel would save passengers four minutes at Billy Bishop Airport, and Lottomax jackpot still unclaimed
Good graffiti or bad graffiti? Late last week, a comic with some spray paint decided to write an additional and perhaps appropriate sign on Pizza Gigi's behalf. Somehow I think it'll be been spray-washed before Rob Ford's graffiti troops send out a removal notice.
Toronto teacher, Phillip Ilijevski, who currently lives in in Japan, says the Canadian government is "providing no help" to Canadians wanting to know if they should leave the damaged country. The advice Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade are giving: watch the news. "Someone should know what to do," Ilijevski told the Star. "You expect the government should know, when you're overseas. That's exactly what the (hotline) is for." Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Priya Sinha said the Canadian embassy in Tokyo is working to contact all 200 citizens registered in the area of the earthquake and has contacted more than half of them. There are an estimated 11,000 Canadians in Japan.
So it looks like those MLSE sale rumours were true. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan said in a statement Saturday that it's exploring the possibility of selling its 66 per cent majority share of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. MLSE owns among other properties the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA's Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC of MLS. The unverified asking price is $1.3 billion, making it the largest sports sale in Canadian history.
A new report released says a proposed-$50 million pedestrian tunnel linking Toronto's waterfront to the Billy Bishop airport will save air passengers about four minutes of waiting time before their flights, compared to using the ferry in which passengers wait over nine minutes. The community group against the island airport says the report raises questions about the need for a tunnel and a waste of public assets.
Be prepared: the Ontario provincial election is going get to dirty. The newest ad campaign, sponsored by Working Families, lampoons Conservative Leader Tim Hudak as a Bay Street drudge who'd surely weaken environmental and safety laws in an ad-campaign starting today. The commercial in itself is a little goofy, including a cheesy fist bump, but Working Families ads helped to defeat Conservatives Ernie Eves and John Tory in the 2003 and 2007 elections.
IN BRIEF:
Photo by Martin Reis in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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