City
Morning Brew: Smitherman on Skates, Parking Enforcement Officers not Following the Rules, Shark Tank Talk, Falling Tools, Ads too Risque, Drunken Snow Blower
Photo: "M.R.Kane" by minus 33, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
George Smitherman will officially enter his application for mayoral candidacy this morning and will also show off his skills on ice skates. Should we treat this public appearance like we do the groundhog's on Groundhog Day? If Smitherman falters on his skates (or falls), he loses the election, but if he sticks the landing on a triple-axel attempt, he wins. Hopefully there will be no flashbacks of 1994 today.
Ever park in a roadside "no parking" area because you know you're going to be just two minutes to pick up your pizza, and the whole time you have to constantly pop your head out to make sure one of those parking enforcement officer's cars doesn't drive up? Apparently they think that they themselves don't have to worry about parking illegally, and the Toronto Sun is holding two of them accountable after reporters observed two parking enforcement cars parked illegal while the officers had sit-in lunch nearby.
Who doesn't find sharks fascinating? Talk of the proposed Ripley aquarium at the base of the CN Tower is getting more and more interesting, and word is that if approved, we may get a really impressive walk-inside-the-tank shark exhibit.
A construction worker some 40-storeys above the ground dropped a tool, which fell through a glass skylight of the atrium at First Canadian Place. No one was injured in the incident, but I'm sure butter fingers is getting a pretty good scolding from his bosses.
Apparently Mississauga and Calgary are too prudish for Virgin Mobile's kinky advertising. The ad in question features a photo of a man grabbing a woman's ass and the phrase "hook up fearlessly," which has proven to be too much for some people. I wonder how people will react when a planned similarly-themed ad, featuring two men kissing, launches.
And here's a weird story coming out of Barrie. A man was arrested and thrown in jail to sober up after being found completely wasted drunk, pushing a snow blower in the middle of a busy street, during rush hour. Either he was so intoxicated that he didn't know what he was doing, or he was trying to make some sort of ill-advised, civic-minded statement about the efficiency of the city's snow removal.
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"Calgary Transit spokesman Ron Collins said they wanted to avoid anything that might be seen as sexual exploitation of either men or women.
"The two ads that were removed, we found them to be quite provocative," said Collins. "It's just not the place for this kind of public advertising.
"A mom, for example, with an eight-year-old girl, we don't feel that they have much choice other than to have to look at it."
So, they're going to ban all fashion ads, all hair product ads, and most movie ads?
Prudes. I am as left as they come but this sort of prudish behaviour drives me crazy. So many people would happily ban things for everyone, just because *they* don't like them. Won't Someone Think Of The Adults?
The irresponsible, corrupt politician shuffled out the back door from being Health Minister. Slick, McGuinty, think we didn't notice?
It was under Smitheman's watch, the eHealth spending scandal spun Out of Control, including favouritism [Auditor General Jim McCarter's report-wasted $1 Billion of your tax dollars! between 2003-2008] completely bails out of the Provincial Government to make a mess in Toronto.
We should be grateful? LOL.
"I'm not concerned. In the life in politics ... some time periods are better than others," —George Smitherman.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/707853
for starters.
and your entrée [from informedvote.ca]
http://informedvote.ca/2009/11/10/george-smitherman-avoids-further-backlash-for-ehealth-scandal-by-running-for-toronto-mayor/
Great, a bully comes to town and everyone drools all over the guy?
I Think Not!
Watching Smitherman posture and rant is a case study in bullying. I have seen him rudely and angrily dismiss relevant questions on policy, his actions and his party's action as if he doesn't owe us peasants anything. He probably doesn't feel the least bit responsible for the E-health debacle under his watch. Also, remember the garbage strike? He supposedly "helped out". All I saw was him smiling for the cameras and a bunch of young volunteers actually doing the clean-up.
I've seen Jaws 3 (in 3D last summer at the Fox!) and it didn't turn out too well