Jean Charest and more Friday follies
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Three decades after first trying to lead a different federal Conservative party, Jean Charest came back with hostage video vibes and speaking with pride about the work he did advising Huawei. Also making headlines for her second leadership bid is MP Leslyn Lewis, who is being sued for allegedly not paying her campaign manager in full last time around.
Not a Liberal problem now
Kevin Vuong started being investigated when the Liberals ditched him as a candidate over a 2019 sexual assault charge that was dropped. He nonetheless won election in downtown Toronto days later and pledged to serve as an independent MP no matter what social media thinks. But now Vuong will be subject to the military justice system.
“At 101, and After 36 Years as Mayor, ‘Hurricane Hazel’ Is Still a Force in Canada.” The Saturday Profile from the New York Times belongs to someone first mentioned in the Gray Lady upon the 1979 train derailment in Mississauga. Ontario recently announced the new Hurontario LRT will run along the Hazel McCallion Line.
Street media scene gets strange
A company called Media Central taking Canada’s two biggest alt-weeklies off their founders’ hands was first announced as part of a grand plan that crashed into COVID-19—if it made any sense to begin with. Plenty of chatter about financial troubles, and staffers insinuating strange days, has led Now Magazine to try being an alt-monthly:
Bell Media’s layoff season cast some distance from Bell Let’s Talk this time. A few tweets have arrived about involuntary departures in Vancouver, at the same time a future move of Bell’s downtown Toronto HQ drew scare quotes around “temporarily.” Meanwhile, the CTV News desk in Vancouver is sorry for reporting reality in Ukraine.
Finally, bringing blogging back
Rayne Fisher-Quann first gained attention for leading the 2018 Ontario high school walkout over the sex-ed curriculum rollback, and @raynecorp is huge on TikTok. But this was the week she got older-fashioned notice with a Vox chronicle of a day in her online life, a new interview with Vanity Fair, and something more to make you feel old:
