[PHOTO] Seen while going off to vote yesterday (#topoli)

Not voting in this year's Toronto mayoral election was not an option for me. Never mind that I had abundant time to go given my schedule yesterday, but my assigned voting location--the gym of Dovercourt Public School--was just down the street from me. If my favoured mayoral candidate, Jennifer Keesmaat, did not win, it would not be because I did not bother to turn out.



This election was unusually badly organized. Lots of voters--most of the voters I saw when I came in at 7 o'clock were not on the list, and I was among their number despite living at the same address since 2007--and there were long line-ups as the inadequate number of election workers tried to process the growing lines. Responsibility for this, I think, can be fairly assigned to the provincial government of Doug Ford with its explicitly anti-democratic meddling in local politics.



Still, I voted. I hope you did too; civic engagement matters, now as always if perhaps more visibly now than in earlier quieter eras.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about eight of her favourite places, most but not all still around for others to enjoy.


• Centauri Dreams responds to the vast ancient proto-supercluster Hyperion, dating to a point in time just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang.


• The Crux considers the advent of light in the very early universe, with the emergence of the first supermassive stars just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.


• D-Brief notes the discovery of the youngest pulsar yet found in our galaxy, Kes 75 just 19 thousand light-years away and five hundred years old.


• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the history of explorer James Cook's ship, the HMS Endeavour.


• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution links to his latest Bloomberg View column about Saudi Arabia, about how the very weakness of the Saudi state makes Saudi Arabia appeal to the United States as a partner in a way that a solider Iran cannot.


• Matthew Phelan at the NYR Daily writes about the menace of ecofascism, of a sort of localist environmentalism that crosses over into nationalism and even militant xenophobia.


• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog shares images of the newly-launched BepiColombo probe to Mercury, including some selfies.


• Drew Rowsome reports on A Night at the Bronze, a live version of the fame Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling" that will be staged Hallowe'en night at Buddies in Bad Times.


• Strange Company reports on the mysterious 1910 murder of actor Weldon Atherstone.


• Window on Eurasia notes how Moldova's Orthodox Christians are torn between rival national churches based in Romania and Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven #topoli links: elections, John Tory, Jennifer Keesmaat, and others

• CBC has the results from yesterday's Toronto municipal election, with incumbent mayor John Tory getting nearly three times the votes of Jennifer Keesmaat.


• Chris Selley at the National Post notes how the Toronto mayoral election was a missed opportunity for change. (What happened to Jennifer Keesmaat?)


• Edward Keenan at the Toronto Star makes the point that, with his re-election, John Tory has a second chance to establish a distinctive legacy.


• Happily, Giorgio Mammoliti did not got re-elected yesterday. blogTO reports.


• Faith Goldy, the alt-right activist who was the distant third in the Toronto mayoral election, was endorsed by far-right US Congressman Steve King. The Toronto Star reports.


• Rebeca Ramirez argues at NOW Toronto that the campaign of Saron Gebresellassi, fourth-ranking candidate in vote yesterday, inspires immigrants in the city.


• Toronto Life shares highlights of the appearance of former TTC head Andy Byford, now running New York City's transit system, on 60 Minutes.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Regina, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Masson-Angers, Richmond

• Many of the old private clubs of Regina, including the Legion and ethnic community halls, are facing closure as their own user bases decline. Global News reports.


• CityLab notes the questionable plausibility of the goal of the city of Milwaukee to create ten thousand affordable homes to ease its housing crunch.


• Guardian Cities notes the significant threat posed by gentrification to poor, perhaps particularly African-American, neighbourhoods in Atlanta.


• National Observer notes that the small Québec town of Masson-Angers, near Ottawa, has been transformed by the growth of the cannabis industry there.


• This National Post article looks at the challenges facing the British Columbia city of Richmond, near Vancouver, in light of its Asian-majority population.