City
Morning Brew: Glen Murray wins Toronto Centre, City Defrauded, Another Pedestrian Hit, Chili Cookoff
Photo: "Fruit Crates" by John Elmslie, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Toronto Centre residents are seeing red this morning. Liberal red. Perhaps unsurprisingly Glen Murray won yesterday's byelection with 47% of the vote. The NDP's Cathy Crowe garnered 33% of the vote while the PC's Pam Taylor collected 15.4%. While McGuinty and Murray bent over backwards praising each other, Crowe, despite a strong showing, was accusing the Liberals of buying the seat with the last minute $15 million for Toronto Grace Hospital. Guess we'll see what residents think when we all go to the polls soon(ish).
The city lost $600k to fraud last year, thanks to unscrupulous employees. Some were of the relatively pedestrian 'submit false medical bills for reimbursement' variety but over $300k comes from one employee who collected fees from residents to upgrade their water service. Of course that's all a drop in the bucket compared to the over $100 million an auditor found in lost cash.
I've just learned perhaps the easiest and best way to get out of a parking ticket: drive away before the ticket is placed on your car. But if councillors have their way you won't be able to do that for long. Apparently $5 million worth of tickets were canceled due to drivers pulling away, which really just tells me ticket writers don't show much leniency when drivers are near the car.
Another pedestrian hit by a vehicle this morning. At this time the extent of the injuries is unknown, but if they're serious I'd expect another round of finger pointing between drivers and walkers. Can't we all just share the road nicely?
Nothing like a good old chili competition to prepare for Super Bowl Sunday, and for the second year in a row Mike Callaghan took top prize. In other Super Bowl news advertisers are putting their ads online in advance of the game, trying to hook the online audience. But will Big Game watchers (who maybe have made their own, non-award-winning, chili) be able to see the all important commercials, or will we just get decidedly lackluster Canadian (commercial) content?
That those of us in Ontario drink milk poured from a bag is gaining worldwide noteriety thanks to a YouTube video gone viral. I'm still not accustomed to milk in a bag (I didn't grow up here) and in addition to the funny looks those used to jugs are giving us, apparently Britons are fighting an industry shifting to bags. In case you're not sure, instructions for how to prepare a bag for us are in the video below.
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You never learn. After all of the stupid and idiotic things that Glen Murray said during his campaign, you morons still vote him in???
I mean, they literally had to remove him from the public, because he kept shooting himself in the foot.
Ah, screw it. Morons can't understand reason.
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
Also, arguing politics on the internet is about as useless as trying to count sand on a beach. Go and discuss your point in person, at rallies or better yet, with the leaders themselves on their webpages.
Calling voters idiots and morons that can't understand reason on the BlogTO comment page isn't exactly going to turn any heads or change the fact that he was elected. Get over it. There are more important things to care about than politics.
Graham, I hate to say this -actually, I don't, you are an Idiot!
If you don't know that Glen Murray is simply another puppet in McGuinty's cabinet, then once again, you are an Idiot!! All you had to see was the smug look on McGuinty's face at the Glen Murray celebration, and you knew right away that we got screwed... yet again.
I think even McGuinty is surprised at the stupidity of Torontonians (and Ontarians, happy now?).
And for a person who says that arguing politics on the internet is useless, it seems funny to me that you would do that exact thing. Almost McGuinty-like even, in terms of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite.
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
I was also not arguing politics (as I feel it's a fools game, anyway). I was just pointing out that McGuinty was not just something that Toronto voted for, but also the GTA, Kingston, Ottawa, Cayuga, Bobcageyon, Timmins, Thunder Bay etc.
Furthermore, if only the independently-wealthy were eligible to serve, it would just mean we'd be even more overrun with old rich white men than we have now.
But I still like blogTO. Not everyone here is a jackandcoke jerkoff.
And hey! Milk Bags aren't recyclable! The city's recycling list says to throw them away.
Comments like 'she didn't even come to my door' tell me that many didn't have the inkling to drop into any politician's office. As if knocking at your door is a sign of a good politician.
I'd rather they not come knocking at my door - I could be in the middle of something or just kicking back after a long day.
With comments like <i>"Get over it. There are more important things to care about than politics."</i>—Graham, is it no surprise you get the politician you deserve?
Folks in Rosedale showed up to vote - you can bet on that. Others may have the attitude 'what's the use', which is a sad assumption and is responsible for low voter turnout.
Bet they don't even teach Democracy, community involvement, voting and the power of many in schools, do they now?
GO SAINTS!!!
At least we won't be subject to Tebow's Mom's lies and anti abortion ads. Jeebus! She was in the Phillipines - imprisonment for the woman who undergoes the abortion, as well as for any person who assists in the procedure.
How's that for choice.
Screw you James Dobson's Focus on the Family and CBS for promoting hate against women, denying them their right to do what they choose with their own bodies. Paternalistic dinosaurs the lot.
jackoff and coke - GYOFB. and stay there.
I personally find this very convenient.
Yes yes... I bet you are the same people who feel that the public were out of line for taking pictures of useless TTC employees.. Blaming the public for pointing out the TTC's failures. How dare they?!!
You are exactly what's wrong with our society today. People who are scared to speak up about injustice and stupidity.
Well, good for you. If you can't take public comments in a public forum, then maybe you should just go back to hiding under your bed and pretending that everything is ok.
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
I grew up in Quebec. We had milk in bags.
In Bangkok you can buy coke/pepsi/etc in a baggie. So you're carrying around this baggie with ice and pop with a straw jammed in it. It's weird.
cheer up! It's Friday!
You're funny. LOL!!
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
Accepted. :) (see, a smile)
http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/
That's more than I get from the TTC most days!!
lol
The only thing that really recycles well are Aluminum cans. Everything else generally uses more energy and resources to recycle than it did to produce the first one.
And even then, it usually gets downcycled (which may take less energy). The biggest issue is contamination. Glass for example doesn't get turned back into bottles because when it gets tossed into a blue bin/recycling truck/facility, it tends to break and mix with glass of all sorts of different colours and styles which is damn near impossible to sort (and the more intensive sorting you do the more energy you use). What -does- get turned into bottles is non-consumer recycled glass. Manufacturing plants or small industry that uses glass and can reliably separate the colours (Assuming its not all clear).
The other big thing is cost. The raw materials for glass are cheap as hell. Mixed coloured glass is essentially worthless and probably 75+% of this ends up in the landfill even though you thought it was being recycled. Most of the other 25% will end up being used for industrial purposes, such as in asphalt.
And to top it off, most glass bottle producers don't -want- to use recycled glass. It's not as reliable, not as uniform, and sometimes not even as cheap.
i.e. McGuinty doesn't have to make the roads safer, but he does have to appear to making roads safer. (cell phone ban...but it's okay to use a headset, pitbulls, "stunt racing")
I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid, it's just the unfortunate issue of it being "politics" when it's really just management. Also, the "old white rich man" comment is pretty racist. if you substituted any other race or gender for white, it would not be tolerated.
Remember this: liberals = E-HEALTH, TAXES, HST, NEW COMMUNISM, CASH GRABS, and of course....TAXES.
YOU have the power to remember and to say NO.