[PHOTO] Looking south, Five Condominiums construction site, Yonge and St. Joseph

Continuing a theme from my previous photo of the Five Condominium construction site at Yonge and St. Joseph, this photo shows the vast but safely fenced-off space left in Toronto's fabric by the site's deep empty pit. Compare my this August 2011 photo and this photo from earlier that summer of the same site at an earlier stage.

[LINK] "Ax murderer's pardon stirs fears of war"

Via nwhyte comes Joe Sterling's CNN article warning that Azerbaijan's rehabilitation of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani soldier who killed an Armenian soldier while both were being trained by NATO, could lead to renewed war.

Sabine Freizer, director of the International Crisis Group's Europe program, said world powers have taken note.

"There is an awareness among government officials, both in the United States, Russia, and among European officials, that this conflict is getting worse. There should be something done to stop it," Freizer said.

"This takes us a whole step downward," said the Carnegie Endowment's de Waal.

The tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh reflect strong cultural attachments for both peoples, what Sergey Markedonov, visiting fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, likens to a "Jerusalem for both societies."

Animosities over the disputed territory have simmered since the end of World War I. The Soviet Union's collapse in the 1990s triggered a war from 1992 to 1994 that killed 22,000 to 25,000 people and uprooted more than a million others.

The war ended "with a shaky truce," the International Crisis Group said.

The disputes between the countries over Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories remain an "unresolved conflict of the Soviet period," Freizer said. Amid the creation of newly independent countries after the Soviet collapse, she said, "no one was focused on the conflict."

"The kind of support for Yugoslavia," whose breakup led to major wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, was "never given to this region."

Over the years, violence has flared. Both countries occasionally talk tough about each other. And Azerbaijan's oil and gas wealth is making its way into the budget for a military preparing for war, Freizer said.

"Since 2011, we feel the situation has gotten worse," Freizer said.

The killer's pardon prompted a certain outrage factor, she said.

"People were shocked by this."

[BRIEF NOTE] On the 2012 general election in Québec

I didn't post about the general election in Québec while the campaign was ongoing because I didn't think that there was much commentary I could add to an election campaign marked by the general disdain felt by the electorate for the political parties running. A federalist Liberal Party embattled by multiple corruption scandals, a Parti Québécois associated with a sovereignty project that only a small minority of the electorate seems interested in, a new centre-right autonomist Coalition Avenir Québec that's completely untried, a left-wing separatist Québec Solidaire that had only a single seat ... what was interesting about the campaign?

The Parti Québécois won the election, in that the Parti Québécois emerged with the largest number of seats--54 PQ seats, versus 50 Liberal, 19 CAQ, and 2 Québec Solidaire--but it won only three more seats than in 2008 and its share of the popular vote was down. The Parti Québécois minority government under Pauline Marois is widely seen as lacking the political capital necessary to indulge nationalist policies, notably a referendum and strengthened language laws. The Liberal Party did do much better than widely predicted, avoiding complete obliteration, but its leader and former Jean Charest lost his seat in southeastern Québec. The Coalition Avenir Québec did reasonably well vote-wise but didn't gain as many seats as expected. Québec Solidaire, meanwhile, survived and got another seat.



The map of the results does show interesting patterns: the predominance of the battered but still second-place Liberal Party of Québec on the island of Montréal with its large Anglophone population; the strength of Coalition Avenir Québec in Québec City and central Québec; the two seats won by left-wing pro-sovereignty challenger Québec Solidaire in two adjacent ridings in central Montréal; the strength of the Parti Québécois on the peripheries of the province (the north, east, and west of the province).

[LINK] "Liberals seek majority with 2 Ontario byelections"

The CBC report of the import of the upcoming Ontario provincial by-elections in the ridings of Vaughan and Kitchener-Waterloo--respectively, a fast-growing suburban district just north of the City of Toronto and the better part of two cities in southwestern Ontario--is quite accurate.

If the Ontario Liberals kept Vaughan and gained long-standing Progressive Conservative-leaning Kitchener-Waterloo, they would have a majority, and given the strict party discipline that prevails in Canada this majority would give the Liberals more power and freedom from alliances with either the Progressive Conservative or the NDP. "If"; the NDP may be more likely to make a breakthrough, with the federal NDP's credibility and the Liberals' unpopularity with public-sector employees owing to the ongoing standoff with teachers.

Liberal wins in the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan would give Premier Dalton McGuinty the 54 seats needed to hold a majority in the 107-seat legislature. The Progressive Conservatives enter Thursday’s byelections with 36 seats while the NDP holds 17.

Polls in both ridings will remain open until 9 p.m. ET.

Most observers expect the Liberals will hold their seat in Vaughan, a fast-growing riding north of Toronto. Liberal Greg Sorbara held it for 20 of the past 22 years before quitting last month to focus on preparing the Liberals for the next provincial election.

The real fight is expected in Kitchener-Waterloo, where a three-way race is emerging between the major parties. Barry Kay, a political science professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, said it's rare to see such high stakes in a byelection vote.

"I don't know of a parallel situation in Ontario's history ... where one byelection could make the difference between a majority and a minority government," he told The Canadian Press.

McGuinty triggered the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection by convincing veteran Progressive Conservative Elizabeth Witmer to give up her seat to become chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. The riding is a traditional Tory stronghold — Witmer held it for 22 years — but the NDP has made gains in the area following McGuinty’s move to legislate a wage freeze for teachers.

Voters in Kitchener-Waterloo appear to have been turned off by McGuinty's attempts to get a majority, said Kay.

"I thought that would play better than it has," he said. "I think they are disinclined to give the party a majority. It's not just a neutral factor. I think it's a negative factor."

[URBAN NOTE] "A History of Formal Complaints Against Rob Ford"

As the question of whether or not Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will be turfed for violating conflict of interest legislation, and if so for how long, proceeds before the courts, I thought I'd point readers to the article written by Torontoist's Steve Kupferman delineating the half-dozen complaints lodged against Ford a mayor, the processes involved, and the outcome (if any). It even has a convenient graphic illustratng Ford's issues, drawn by Brett Lamb.



Nice infographic, terrible ubject matter.