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Morning Brew: Jack Layton's son running for city council, Conservatives won't change national anthem, a Fixer without anything to fix, Michael Bryant case put over until April 14, Adam Giambrone still exists

Posted by Derek Flack / March 6, 2010

Toronto SkylineJack Layton's son is following his father by entering politics and running for city council. Michael, the current deputy outreach director for Environmental Defence Canada, rode his bike to a press scrum at Trinity Bellwoods park before heading to city hall to file his papers. Initial reports made it sound as though his first encounter with the press went a little awkwardly, but today's summaries make little mention his refusal to answer questions in French (this is Toronto, after all) and his generality-laden announcement. I went to high school with Mike, so even if this first outing was a bit rough, I know he's a charismatic guy who'll soon be nailing his dealings with the press.

The Conservative government won't be changing the lyrics of our national anthem after all. As the Conservatives quickly found out (though most people already knew), the demographic most opposed to changing the anthem is the one that provides the base of Tory support.

I always feel a little silly criticizing the sources I link to here because they provide the news that fuels the column. Not only that, I generally like the Star's weekly installment of the Fixer. Today's, however, is a bit of an enigma. Looking into a reader complaint about a portable toilet that's been sitting by a community garden near Jane and St. Clair over the entire winter and its potential cost to the City, the writer finds that the rental company has merely forgotten to pick it up. I think at that point I would have scrapped the (non)story. But, hey, I'm linking to it -- so what does that say? (Hint: slow news day...).

The case involving Michael Bryant has been put over again, but this time for a short period. Insofar as the Crown has indicated that "disclosure is now in essence complete" the criminal case against the former Ontario attorney-general will commence April 14, 2010. That won't be a slow news day...

And because I'm yet to be convinced that the My City, Your City project won't be a touchy-feely mess, I'll instead highlight this article by Michael Valpy, which serves to remind us that Adam Giambrone has not, in fact, fallen off the face of the Earth.

Photo: "toronto skyline bokeh" by -stacey-, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Discussion

7 Comments

EricM / March 6, 2010 at 12:42 pm
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WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER LAYTON!!!! We have seen what the NDP had done to the city.
George / March 6, 2010 at 02:20 pm
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The whole Changing the National Anthem lyrics, was nothing but a cheap American style political ploy. Instead of the public being focused on the prorogue and the issues that it was aiming to itself hide, they used this stupid idea of changing the anthem lyrics to get the media and the public focusing on this one talking point. Like the Harper conservatives would ever really truly be questioning changing the anthem lyrics.
Jenny / March 6, 2010 at 03:30 pm
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Point to George and Eric. Anyone else the the youtube of Jack last weekend? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11zIvtJ6jak&;feature=player_embedded#
Mark Dowling / March 6, 2010 at 06:17 pm
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In fairness, I'm not sure why Michael Layton was expected to respond in French - unless they expected him to have his father's command of the language, but then Jack grew up in Montreal didn't he?

Out of 2,400,000 Torontonians, just over 30,000 had it as their mother tongue according to 2006 census.
Andrae Griffith replying to a comment from EricM / March 6, 2010 at 07:53 pm
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So... if you are a bad (insert any career) then your kids WILL be terrible at (that same career).

Vote based on his policies, not who he's related to!
jeff / March 8, 2010 at 08:23 am
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such a 'progressive' act.
jeff / March 8, 2010 at 08:23 am
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we don't need another family member at the public trough.

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