Definitely. There's also a pretty small (but perhaps growing?) Angolan community as well.

IIRC the DRL was barely on the radar before Byford started advocating publicly for it. Before that, the only people talking about it were transit nerds and a few planners. It certainly didn't come up often during the 2010 municipal campaign beyond brief mentions in some council candidates'...

Wouldn't Bloor make more sense than Dupont? Presumably, a tunnel could be built under Wade Ave. connecting the new GO station to the subway at Lansdowne. With frequent service, the Barrie line with stations at Bloor and Eglinton could provide a West End rapid transit connection between the...

I had a chance to talk to Ward 18 candidate Alex Mazer this afternoon at the Dundas West Fest. I'm impressed with what I've seen from him so far. Hopefully he can get enough of the progressive vote behind him to give Ana Bailão a run for her money.

Re: the debate, I imagine the outcome will depend more on who blunders the most. I certainly don't expect any slam dunk performances from this lot. I can't recall an election in recent memory that has featured such a lack of public speaking skills on the part of the leaders. They all seem to...

I'm really liking this revised proposal. A warning that the following is extremely subjective, perhaps to excess, but here goes. I never hated the original design. To me, it seemed to have this hyper-masculinity about it that was incredibly alluring. I saw some echoes of the Futurist Manifesto...

Cut 100,000 jobs, eliminate 100,000 commuters. Gridlock solved!

I don't want the transit system I rely on put in the hands of a government that may not (and certainly doesn't need to) win any seats in the 416. The people who say these kinds of things seem way out of touch with what's going on in the rest of the province - especially re: the Tories' base...

I'd like to see the City of Toronto, the province and the federal government get together to enshrine some sort of "Charter of the City of Toronto" into the constitution. A city with our size, with a government of our size, ought to be more than a mere creature of the province. We need a...

If he's the same Gilbert Correces I found on Facebook, he's Filipino, not Italian.

Ha! Home sick as a dog and zonked out on medication. Seemed to make sense when I was writing it. :P

If the calls to his cellphone can go through without dialing a "1" before the number, we can assume that he's still in the Toronto area and not in Guelph, at the cottage, etc.

As far as city politics go, of course. The lines dividing the left, centre and right are blurry - as they will always be in a system without party politics - but you can't seriously be suggesting the left dominates council at this time. Granted, council has had a moderating influence on the ever...

Should we not also consider how much we get back (directly and indirectly) in government services? In most of our lives there will be periods where we pay more in tax than we receive back in services, but there will also be periods we're damn grateful for the trade-off. So, to take your...

I think we ought to abandon this "fiscal conservative" thing. One can be fiscally responsible without being a conservative, just as one can be a recklessly irresponsible conservative. Cutting spending in the short term may lead to larger long term costs (see investments in infrastructure over...

I'm in Davenport feeling the same way. I'm hoping the NDP does well enough to remain relevant, but poorly enough to force a re-think of the retail populist strategy they've developed over the past few years. I've heard rumblings that most of the Toronto NDP caucus didn't want this election, so I...

The Globe is reporting that the Catholic board will make a bid on the TDSB properties here. Personally, I'd rather see that than a condo development at this site. I hope that the public park mentioned in the article includes the basketball courts at the Southwest corner of the Bloor/Dufferin...

Transit was always the responsibility of the Metro government. The 416 suburbs and the TTC network (both surface and subway) expanded simultaneously and are deeply embedded in each other. There's an ecosystem there that would almost certainly prove disastrous to dismantle. Besides, the way the...

The community councils don't exactly follow the old municipal boundaries. IIRC, a not insignificant chunk of the old city is covered by the North York CC. EDIT: I just saw this info was already posted. Sorry!

The latest poll from Ipsos Reid has the Conservatives down to third place with only 29% support. The Liberals are down as well, now tied for first with the NDP at 31% apiece. It could be an anomaly of course, but it looks like Mulcair may be handling the Senate scandal better than Trudeau...