Doug Ford’s littlest snow shovel show
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The snowstorm gave Ontario’s premier a chance to play retail politics through the use of a small shovel, giving a ride to a stranded guy who posted about it on TikTok, and calling media outlets from the road. As a result, Doug Ford garnered Twitter reactions worthy of brother Rob, not to mention Joe Warmington’s salute to this “one-man army.”
Ajax’s street scouring scandal
A front-page Toronto Sun play for “NDPer LEANS REICH?” seemed overshadowed by snow. Steve Parish, the former mayor of Ajax, Ontario, had his overruled argument for retaining Nazi naval officer Hans Langsdorff’s name on a local street highlighted—just in time for Parish to campaign provincially for the Queen’s Park seat Rod Phillips is leaving behind.
Sir John A. Macdonald P.S. in Pickering, Ontario, will be renamed for Biidassige Mandamin. Durham Region school board trustees defied local feedback to dedicate the school to the Anishinaabe elder who died in 2019. But trustees won’t change the name of Whitby’s Julie Payette P.S., due to an apparent lack of community complaints.
Meta associations in Ottawa
Facebook’s head of Canadian public policy, Kevin Chan, recently shifted to a global strategy role at Meta—which may have more room at the top amid the prospect of increased government oversight. Meanwhile, a new study accuses Canada of sleepwalking into bed with Big Tech, given the web of relationships built up beyond the metaverse:
R. Dean Taylor’s passing has been unusually unreported for the past 10 days. The death of this notable Canadian musician on January 7 at age 82 spread via sources lacking in verification standards. An item in FYI Music News helps explain why: he left no survivors on social media, and a fan-designed website is strangely stuck in time.
Finally, keeping ’em separated
The Offspring were so primed to play 21 Canadian arenas in the dead of winter that the California rock band made a video in which opening act Simple Plan taught them how to speak the language. But you needn’t be an overgrown corporate punk to enjoy molecular biology scholar Dexter Holland explaining why this trek won’t happen now:
