“Del Duca-Wynne” was a hyphenate immediately deployed by Ontario PCs upon the crowning of a new Liberal leader. But the NDP was also ready to explain why Steven Del Duca is “not progressive.” Kathleen Wynne’s former transportation minister had some retaliatory grist, however: Queen’s Park’s capitulation to white licence plates.
The clumsiest of CPC contests
“Stinking albatross” was a term that Peter MacKay used last October to describe Andrew Scheer’s socially conservative values. After it was evoked by Jason Kenney as part of the Alberta premier’s endorsement of Erin O’Toole as the next Conservative leader, MacKay says he was just citing the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“Path forward on fare evasion—free transit isn’t the answer.” Writing for the Toronto Sun, former TTC chair Adam Giambrone contemplates its current crisis, as viewed from his current transit authority job in Saudi Arabia. The free-transit theory serves a Now Magazine cover story, while the TTC’s campaign to fight fare evaders rolls along.
Two takedowns back in tandem
It’s been five years since Leslie Roberts was the subject of a Toronto Star exposé for secretly covering his PR clients on Global. But just like Bell Media ended up giving Evan Solomon gigs on both TV and radio—after being fired by CBC due to his art-dealing sideline—Roberts has now joined him with a parallel double-medium job in Ottawa:
CBC producer argues why the future of news will have no print and no paywalls. Don Pittis points to profits at the U.K.’s digital-only Independent and apparent non-profit equilibrium at Quebec’s paper-free La Presse as empirical evidence of digital journalism’s future. (The no-print-no-paywall CBC News is arguably standing in the way.)
Roll Ups killed by coronavirus
COVID-19’s latest domestic complication involves the 21 confirmed cases on a Grand Princess cruise ship, whose 237 Canadian passengers will be flown north for a 14-day quarantine. Meanwhile, an earlier Tim Hortons move to remove reusable cups from its contest was followed by the realization that spittle on a winning rim isn’t any better:
Earl Pomerantz dead at 75. After a two-year stint as a Toronto Telegram columnist, Pomerantz got a job on the CBC variety show starring his brother Hart and Lorne Michaels—who soon hooked Earl up in Hollywood. Subsequently, his writing credits included multiple classic sitcoms and later contemplating his career history on a blog.
Finally, a brewmaster passes
Max Von Sydow, who died at the age of 90, is receiving numerous celebrity tributes due to his legacy of bridging European arthouse cinema with Hollywood. But there’s also a certain demographic that became acquainted with Von Sydow’s villainous acting via Brewmeister Smith, the McKenzie brothers’ antagonist in Strange Brew: