A race to displace Justin Trudeau from the PMO
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Peter MacKay’s latest fundraising letter pledged to send Canada to the polls again after only a year. The vow was already made by Conservative leadership rival Marilyn Gladu, and now Erin O’Toole is promising it. But the Bloc Québécois and NDP don’t currently share their confidence in a non-confidence vote to bring down the Liberals.
The old DoFo rages right back
A tirade about “this media here in Toronto” suggested that nothing can trigger a former label-making executive more than being reminded that his Ontario government botched the licence plates. Doug Ford met the press to announce new road access.
“Rob Ford’s story could write itself—unfortunately, this isn’t that story.” Jim Slotek’s review of Run This Town reflects a consensus reaction among those familiar with its backdrop: the Toronto mayor’s crack scandal. But it’s being promoted as a relevant release, including co-star Nina Dobrev plugging its lesson for democracy.
Mike 2020’s least likeable ink
The right-wing voice of the Sun tabloids might’ve gotten more organized under Rob Ford’s former chief of staff, Mark Towhey—but his sudden exit as editor-in-chief came with the claim that Postmedia can no longer afford the role. Mercifully, the Mike Bloomberg campaign bought Toronto Sun space this week, in pursuit of primary votes:
“Outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election and the subsequent sex ratio at birth in Canada: an ecological study.” A pair of researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto found a brief decline in the number of boys born in liberal-leaning Ontario areas after Donald Trump became president, which was possibly due to stress.
Nonfiction award is now extinct
Mark Bourrie won the $30,000 RBC Taylor Prize for Bush Runner, a biography of Hudson Bay Company founder Pierre-Esprit Radisson. The award was given for the final time, as founder Noreen Taylor said it had “achieved every goal” after 20 years. Ziya Tong, a runner-up for The Reality Bubble, is sending her haul to a symbolic destination:
The condos are now coming for the drag bar. Crews & Tangos, a fixture of Toronto’s gay village, has been marked for potential replacement by a mixed-use development. And a subplot is that its developer, Graywood, is also behind the building with that ridiculous recent marketing campaign. (JAC Condos is clapping back on Instagram.)
Finally, a #MeToo via 1983 B.C.
Sera Johnston, who now goes by the name Lauren, claims that she was raped by actor Timothy Hutton 37 years ago, while he was shooting Iceman in Vancouver. Hutton “completely and unequivocally denies” the allegations. But his recent series, Almost Family, had its cancellation announced by Fox within two hours of of the allegations:
