Photo of Carolyn Bennett by Jerad Gallinger/Torontoist.

If residents of the midtown Toronto riding of St. Paul's were to have an official motto this election, "Keep calm and carry on" would be it.

The World War II-era slogan, a copy of which sits prominently on the desk of Lynne Steele, campaign manager to Liberal incumbent Carolyn Bennett, is good advice in any election. But the words have taken on a new significance in recent days, which have seen Grit supporters in St. Paul's and the neighbouring constituency of Parkdale–High Park (profiled yesterday by Torontoist) targeted by criminals in a rash of politically motivated vandalism.At least thirty residents displaying Liberal signs have had their houses spraypainted, cable and phone lines severed, cars keyed, and brakes sabotaged. In the most serious incident, vandals cut the brake lines on the car of Bennett's official agent, causing him to careen through a stop sign and narrowly avoid slamming into a bus. And on Monday, several Liberal supporters received anonymous phone calls making the chilling proclamation: "Take down your sign or you're next."

Voters are doing their best to keep calm in the face of this political intimidation, Bennett said yesterday in an interview with Torontoist, "but people are just shocked, really sickened by it, and it hasn't really gone away. People just don't want this in Canada."

"I don't think it matters what sign was on anybody's lawn," she continued. "This is a horrific attack on democracy."

Local residents of all political stripes are standing together in the face of these attacks, and Bennett has received more than one hundred new requests for Liberal signs since the first incidents were reported. Some supporters already displaying signs have boldly asked for even larger ones, and a few residents with no intention of voting for Bennett are requesting signs nonetheless, outraged at those who would use violent means to take away their neighbours' democratic rights.

"If people think that this works, in terms of intimidating people, it isn't," concluded Bennett.

Two blocks away from Bennett's Eglinton Avenue West campaign office, crossing guard Eve Christodoulou said that she will vote Liberal, threats of violence or no.

"It doesn't matter what [the vandals] are doing," Christodoulou declared. "Whatever they want to do, they're going to do it anyway. But they're not going to change the mind of people who want to vote for somebody."

Keeping calm and carrying on. That's Toronto. That's true grit.

Bottom photo by Jerad Gallinger/Torontoist.

Photo of June Macdonald by Jerad Gallinger.

Proportional representation fans have got to be disappointed this election.

Less than a year after Ontario's mixed member proportional representation referendum and with only months to go before British Columbia's second crack at single transferable vote, hopes were high that the issue would finally come to the fore on the national stage. But in a campaign dominated by two other E’s, the economy and the environment, electoral reform has been shoved aside once again.

Cue Fair Vote Canada, the nation's most prolific advocate of proportional representation. FVC's network of grassroots volunteers is working hard this election to spread the word on why changing the way we choose our leaders is critical to the future of Canadian democracy."I think the viability of our country depends on it," says June Macdonald, Past President of Fair Vote Ontario, a member of Fair Vote Canada’s national council and co-founder of FVC’s Toronto chapter. "I truly believe our country is not doing as well as it should if we had a proportional system. People are becoming disengaged, less and less people turning out to vote."

"The system also depresses the number of women running," Macdonald continued. "In most proportional countries more women run and get elected. And that means that issues of interest to women, and of minorities as well, don't get the same kind of clout when decisions are being made."

"This is one of the most disproportionate systems in the world. So a change has got to be an improvement over what we have. We don't have a true democracy."

With three of the four major national party leaders—Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May—in favour of some kind of proportional representation, Fair Vote's job should theoretically be pretty simple. So, aside from a single mention by Elizabeth May in the English leaders' debate, why is electoral reform completely off the radar during the current campaign? Self interest, explains Macdonald. "[Politicians] don't really like this idea because, of course, you can get a majority with 40 percent of the votes. So they don't like it. It's not in their interests to change the system."

Even if politicians were to take action on electoral reform, Macdonald believes the direction of change should be determined not by parliamentarians, but by the people. "We are very suspicious of politicians setting their own job description," she said. "That doesn't seem to work very well from other evidence in other countries." Although the recent Ontario and BC referenda failed to establish proportional representation at the provincial level, as far as Fair Vote is concerned, citizens' assemblies are still "a good way of going."

As for the prospect of sweeping electoral reform being implemented in Canada in coming years, Macdonald is realistic but hopeful.

"Near or medium term, I don't know," she said. "But I sense in this election an upswell of anger. People are really annoyed by this. We've had three elections in four years. Proportional countries' governments are not that unstable. People are getting angry, and I think things are going to happen sooner than we think."

"I hope so, anyway."

Photo of a Fair Vote Canada poster by Neal Jennings.

For every condo high-rise that goes up, a parking garage does down. Several levels usually. But in many of the downtown towers, especially along Queen’s Quay, not all the young and eligibles who live there have cars. Some simply don’t need them, others have made a conscious decision, whether financially or ecologically based, not to have one, says a resident who wishes to remain anonymous because she’s in breach of her condo agreement.

"When I bought my apartment, I signed up for the optional parking space, too," she says. "Just in case I ever needed it. Now I rent it out by the month to a commuter from the 'burbs. Lots of people I know are doing the same thing. It's all done by word of mouth. Sort of a real underground economy! It helps with the mortgage, and the car owners love it because we don’t charge as much as a regular parking garage. But we’re not supposed to do it."

Parking has always been a profitable sideline for those who have it, even if it’s a single space. Walk along any residential street close to downtown and you’re likely to see hand-lettered signs offering parking or garage space for one or two cars. In the grand scheme of things, the money that changes hands is negligible.

All the same, there are signs that organized entrepreneurship is moving in. To wit, this particular sign at Bellwoods Avenue and Robinson Street, just off Queen West. Note the "905" phone number. "Yorkwestdevelopments.ca," it also says. "By appointment only. Please do not disturb the tenants." Vaughan-based York/West Developments, according to the company’s website, "currently represent over 120 personally inspected and managed apartment rental properties throughout the GTA." That’s not restricted to condos; it includes duplex and triplex housing. And, it would seem, their parking.

Photo by Bill Taylor/Torontoist

The stock market roller coaster is continuing unabated, last week's $700 billion bailout notwithstanding. Mid-morning, the TSX was down more than 1,100 points from Friday's close, or just over 10%. It's rebounding slightly at the moment—the loss had been cut to about 650 points as of 1 p.m. today—but with several hours of trading ahead, and the credit concerns that have been plaguing the U.S. now spreading to the European markets, stability is still nowhere in sight. While Canadian banks are not closing or restructuring as their American counterparts have been, our market is taking a severe hit in part because of dropping oil prices and concerns that the American crunch will depress our trading with that country. Combined with forecasts of a Canadian recession by several top economists this morning, look for this to dominate the news cycle and campaign trail in the days ahead.

Yes, they did. Much like the American performers and celebrities who have famously coalesced this year to create political songs and commercials, a group of Canadian artists has decided to leave its mark on the Canadian election. Led by Toronto’s own K-OS and Ian Lefeuvre of The Hundreds and Thousands, the group supports Avaaz Canada’s "Save the Planet: Stop Harper!" campaign, and its members recently collaborated to record the song “You Have a Choice.”

Under the umbrella of Avaaz Canada’s wide-ranging efforts to “close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want,” the new, targeted campaign seeks to inform the public of what its supporters believe are Stephen Harper’s environmental shortfalls. According to Avaaz’s Executive Director Ricken Patel, “under the Conservative government our country is actively wrecking international progress on climate change. This song is an eloquent reminder that Canada doesn’t have to be this way—it’s our choice.” “You Have a Choice” was written and produced by K-OS and Ian Lefeuvre, and it includes a slew of Canadian artists such as Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent, Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace, Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene, and the Arts Offstage Choir. In the words of Patel, “these bright lights of the Canadian music scene are sending a message to voters: you can make a difference, and we need to come together and strategically support candidates who will defeat Stephen Harper and fight climate change.”

With only a week until Canada heads to the polls, the song’s creators hope the final product will persuade voters on the left to work together and unseat some of Harper’s top MPs. Considering the high volume of e-mail traffic and the Facebook awareness the campaign has already received, the artists’ efforts may just be the last push needed to close the voting gaps in the campaign’s targeted ridings.

“You Have a Choice” can be downloaded on Avaaz Canada’s website and will soon hit radio airwaves across the country.

Photo by Qinn from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Print is dead? Don’t you believe it (and you read it here first, online). West-end light poles and garbage bins are festooned with Toronto Community News flyers seeking "boys, girls, seniors and adults" to deliver the Parkdale-Liberty Villager newspaper twice a week. Up for grabs are regular monthly pay, "financial freedom from your parents," and that old standby from more innocent times when almost every kid with a bike had a paper route: "Win great prizes."

Someone, somewhere, though, doesn’t seem to like what’s going on. Whoever put up the flyers was smart enough to stick mainly to side streets rather than Queen Street where the big-time club and concert bill-posters would quickly obliterate them. But some person (or persons) unknown has gone around and ripped off the contact information and little tear-off strips from many of them. It has been suggested that this could be the work of a person simply anxious to nail down a job but grabbing the whole thing from so many posters looks more like vandalism.

Could this be the opening salvo in a community re-enactment of the classic old Star versus Telegram newspaper wars? Could Homburg hats with a press card in the brim be the next hot fashion trend? Hold the front page! Whatever that means these days.

Photo by Bill Taylor/Torontoist

A day after Toronto Public Health told CityNews they "found no evidence of a rat infestation" and "no problem whatsoever with compliance with public health standards" at Happy Seven Restaurant on Spadina—this despite a somewhat obvious rat problem—the restaurant has finally been shut down.

During Nuit Blanche last weekend the iconic Sam the Record Man sign was lit up over Yonge Street one last time. Now the sign is coming down as demolition begins and the new owners, Ryerson University, transform the site into a Student Learning Centre. It will not disappear for long, however: last year Toronto City Council voted to designate the entire building a heritage site in order to protect the sign, and Ryerson will remount the sign on the new building. The designs for the Student Learning Centre have yet to be finalized.

Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve.

knots and swirls 1

BY BOMB_TEA

For a "Toronto-based collection of art geeks, design wonks, and new-urbanist cheerleaders inspired by the very streets, stations, and structures that make up the urban landscape," newborn local design collective Walloper could not have picked a much better way to debut than by unveiling a small fleet of TTC decals.

A week after co-founders Derek Watson and Mike Warning added photos of their prototypes to Flickr and the TRIBE message board, and a few days after officially unveiling a few decals of a few subway station logos ready to order from Walloper's online store, Watson now says they're "overwhelmed" with the success, and adding the remainder of Toronto's sixty-nine stations as fast as they can make them.

Wellesley Station, from start to finish.

It started with Spadina. Warning was decorating his new loft and decided he wanted a Spadina Station decal on his wall. "It needed to exist," Watson told Torontoist, "it just didn't." Watson, too, has always been an avid subscriber to TTC pride: he wears one of Spacing's subway buttons on his jacket, and, not surprisingly, has always been underwhelmed by the TTC's official merchandising options (this is seriously the TTC's online store right now). The decals are the next in a long line of unlicensed projects that capitalize on TTC rider devotion while one-upping the organization's own products, and they are simple, clean, and clever—exactly the kind of product the TTC ought to have already been making.

By the end of the day on Monday, interest in the project had exploded, making it to BlogTO, Spacing, and then Boing Boing, which brought worldwide attention to the project and drew the interest of expats eager to recapture part of home. Because, says Watson, they "took more complicated and interesting designs first" the rest should be mostly easy, and should come fast; as of this morning, they've already jumped up to eleven stations and two other signs, each decal available in two sizes and sixteen colours from lemon to midnight blue, and costing between $25 (for a small Northbound-Southbound sign) to $50 (for a 40″ x 19.5″ piece of St. Clair West).

As interest continues to grow and as orders pile up, Watson expects that Walloper will soon be hearing from the TTC. Once upon a time, the Better Way was fiercely territorial of their brand, going so far as to send a cease and desist order in early 2006 to John Martz for creating an anagram subway map. It's a reputation that the TTC hasn't been able to shake; even though the decals were made with only the best of intentions, "we're waiting for [their] call," says Watson, "every time the phone rings."

Walloper may well be getting a call from TTC chair Adam Giambrone soon, but not for the reasons Watson expects. "I think it is great," Giambrone said of the decals when we e-mailed him yesterday. "I'm thinking I'd love to get sixteen for my office and put them up on the wall."

All photos courtesy of Walloper.

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Suggestions for subjects welcome.

Craving some pupusas, churros, or alfajores? You could hardly do better than the Plaza Latina, a strange and amazing food court buried inside a strip mall just north of the city. There, Carlos, the cheerful and bejewelled bus boy (bus man?), whisks away your plates and makes ceviche small talk.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve.

please read:

BY MATT VOYNOVICH

The Varsity Blues’ forty-nine-game losing streak is officially yesterday’s news. They must’ve enjoyed their first victory since 2001, because two weeks later they won again, a notable accomplishment for a football program that hadn’t won a game in almost seven years. It was also a highly symbolic victory: as the seconds ticked away, a torch was passed in Canadian university men's football.

The team they beat, the York Lions, is now the worst team in the entire country. By a mile. York isn’t merely losing: they’re getting killed. Heading into yesterday's game against the Queen's Golden Gaels, they’d scored seventeen points and allowed two hundred and ninety-three...in five games. Their previous two losses had been shutouts. And that was before facing the team ranked second in the nation. Prior to kickoff, Queen's fans were predicting a sixty-point victory. And here's the thing: it never sounded like idle boasting. It wasn’t just because Queen’s is really, really good (although they are), but also because York is really, really bad.

The final score: Queen’s 80, York 0. It was the single-biggest victory in Queen’s’ history…and York’s biggest-ever defeat. According to our unofficial count, the closest York got to Queen’s territory was their own 53-yard line—and that was on the team’s opening drive. The Lions never had a chance, not even when Queen’s brought in its backups in the third quarter. At one point, York picked off an errant pass and brought it back deep inside Golden Gaels territory…only for play to be nullified by a dubious roughing the passer penalty. To add insult to injury, the player who made the interception had to be helped off the field. When things go wrong for York, they go really wrong.

The Lions’ potentially historic year hasn’t exactly come out of nowhere. Their most recent victory—over the Varsity Blues, naturally—happened over a year ago. Prior to this year they had consecutive 1-7 seasons; not to belabour the point, but both wins came against U of T. To be fair, some of the same conditions that blight the Varsity Blues affect York as well; moreover, and perhaps more significantly, the team is full of first-year players, meaning they’ve got plenty of room to grow. Still, when opposition fans are expecting a sixty-point victory and they’re actually underestimating their team, that’s bad, right? The York Lions have a long way to go before matching the University of Toronto’s historic futility—but they’re certainly beating a similar path. They're a virtual lock to finish the season 0-8. And if the rest of the OUA's traditional cannon fodder keeps on beating them, York might yet reclaim the record their downtown rivals took from them last year.

Photo by sevennine from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve.

Bike Traces

BY PDPHOTOGRAPHY