A Bit More Detail

• Jamie Bradburn shares photos from his neighbourhood's East Lynn Pumpkin Parade, here.


• Sidewalk Labs is going to release details of all the data it wants to collect. The Toronto Star reports.


• NOW Toronto reports on the controversy in the NDP riding association for Parkdale-High Park over the nomination, here.


• There is a napping studio in Toronto, offering people the chance to nap for 25 minutes at $10 per nap. The National Post reports.


• CBC reports on a film about Little Jamaica, a neighbourhood along Eglinton Avenue West that might be transformed out of existence, here
  
• Daily Xtra looks at the legacy of the Meghan Murphy visit to Toronto.


• Spacing notes that the Toronto Reference Library has a large collection of Communist newspapers available for visitors.


• The idea of Metrolinx paying for the repair of damaged Eglinton Avenue does make a lot of intuitive sense. CBC reports.

• The Greens took Fredericton on the grounds of their strong work there.


• RM Vaughan, meanwhile, notes for Daily Xtra how LGBTQ voters in New Brunswick are gravitating towards the Greens.


• Jason Kirby at MacLean's wonders how determinative Google Trends data suggesting a surge of positive interest for Jagmeet Singh will be for NDP results.


• The robocalling intending to confuse people as to the date of the election in eastern Canada should meet with criminal prosecution. CBC reports.


• The only non-Liberal elected in Newfoundland and Labrador is the NDP candidate Jack Harris, for St. John's East. Global News has it.


• Chris Selley at the National Post blames the Conservative failure on the poor platform of Andrew Scheer, here.


• Canada has a Liberal government again, this time a minority. Global News reports.


• CBC notes that, despite Liberal weaknesses, the Conservatives simply did not break through into the 905.


• Michel Auger at Radio-Canada looks at the challenges of the Liberals in Québec and in the West.


• Greater Montréal is divided between Liberals on the island of Montréal and the Bloc on the mainland. Radio-Canada has it.


• The Calgary Herald looks at reaction in Alberta to the Liberal minority government, here.


• The results from British Columbia are interesti0ng. Was there much change at all? Global News reports.


• Jody Wilson-Raybould, kicked out of the Liberal caucus, was re-elected as an independent for her riding of Vancouver Granville. Global News reports.


• Fatima Syed at the National Observer looks at how indigenous voters are looking to the NDP for representation in the new government.


• Jeremy Wildeman at The Conversation explains the disenchantment of progressives with Justin Trudeau.

• There is a shortlist of likely marijuana store locations in Ontario that includes Yorkville in Toronto. Global News reports.


• Éric Grenier at CBC reports that the NDP in Québec risks falling to pre-Orange Wave levels of support.


• Former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair warns that the weakening of the NDP stance on environmental issues might led to mass defections to the Green Party. CTV has it.


• Given the lack of any legal obligation to expedite the return of ISIS fighters holding Canadian citizenship, the Canadian government seems inclined to let them remain in detention in former ISIS territories. Global News reports.


• Brexit is boosting the Canadian film industry, given our numerous advantages as described by the Hollywood Reporter.

• Ford and Horvath have already clashed over the question of police oversight. The Toronto Star reports.


• Brian Budd at The Conversation suggests, drawing from experience elsewhere, that an effective way to deal with Ford Nation populism is for the NDP to adopt a like platform aimed towards those Ford Nation voters who want something better.


• Michael Babad at The Globe and Mail notes that, for a variety of reasons both structural and contingent, the economy of Ontario will have to experience slower growth in the future.


• John Ivison notes that Doug Ford's closing down on wind energy contracts sends a terrible message to businesses seeking secure long-term deals in Ontario, over at the National Post.


• Doug Ford is being unclear as to what sex ed curriculum, exactly, will be in Ontario schools come September. The Toronto Star a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/07/24/doug-ford-stokes-further-confusion-over-tories-sex-ed-plans.html">reports.

• Will portraying Doug Ford as a bully actually be a viable strategy for his opponents?


• Paul Wells takes a look at the contrasting policies of Kathleen Wynne and Doug Ford, each with their own set of promises, over at MacLean's.


• The contrast between Ontario and Québec, as their incumbent Liberal governments approach election time and their fiscal records are coming into question, is illuminating. CBC contrasts and compares.


• I agree entirely with the idea that Mayor John Tory has to prepare Toronto for the worst coming from Queen's Park. The Toronto Star made the case.


• The argument of Nora Loreto that the NDP has lost the plot and, in Ontario at least, are not ready for government, makes me a NDP voter sad.

• Arshy Mann at Daily Xtra notes that the fall of moderate Patrick Brown might embolden social conservatives in the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.


• CBC notes the belated clarification of the NDP that its opposition to federal government requirements for NGOs offering summer jobs does not mean it is reneging on support for abortion rights.


• The Nisenan tribe of California had recognition of their native status stripped by the federal government in the 1960s, and they want it back. VICE reports.


• The dead of the Spanish Civil War are at last being extricated from their graves in Catalonia. This is a cause for political controversy. CBC reports.


• Rapid economic growth in the new, post-Communist, member-states of the European Union is starting to translate into growing political heft, Politico Europe notes.

• CBC notes that the Yonge and Dundas street artist scene is closing down under city regulations, including permits.


• Emily Mathieu talks about how she conducts her journalism with some of Toronto's most marginalized as subjects.


• The Globe and Mail notes the local controversy over having police officers permanently stationed in schools.


• The idea that police who actively undermine the Special Investigations Unit should be seriously punished seems obvious.
  
• Veteran NDP politican and LGBTQ rights advocate Cheri DiNovo is leaving politics to become a minister in church.


• Finally, the Dundas West TTC station will be connected to the GO Transit hub less than 300 metres away!

Punk rock-style swag was on display at the bar as supporters packed the Horseshoe Tavern on Queen West. After short sets by musicians including Jason Collett, Ron Hawkins and rapper Mohammed Ali, Charlie Angus, the 54-year-old MP for Timmins-James Bay, took the stage to Patti Smith’s People Have The Power to make it official. Angus became the second candidate to officially join the NDP leadership race Sunday.

Angus did not spell out any specific policy positions, but emphasized job security, the high cost of post-secondary education and Indigenous issues in a 15-minute speech that echoed the appeals to working-class voters of former Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders.

“We cannot be torn apart my the evil, false, corrosive politics of division,” Angus said. “The new working class is white collar and blue collar.”

Explaining that he spent $160 on a new suit for the occasion, Angus added: “I spent the money because we’re going to bring a little bit of class to politics.”

Angus chose the Horseshoe to launch his campaign, the club at which he saw his first punk show – the Last Pogo ­­– as a teenager in the early 70s. He formed his own band after that, touring and recording seven albums over a 26-year career as the singer of alt-folk band the Grievous Angels, an experience, he says, that sharpened his interest in politics and social change.

How long do progressives and urban dwellers more generally have to wait before Ontario’s NDP stops compensating (atoning?) for former premier Bob Rae’s decision, circa the early 1990s, to slap tolls on Highway 407?

The question arose again late last week when Andrea Horwath’s populists stood shoulder to ideological shoulder with Patrick Brown’s Progressive Conservatives to support a symbolic motion calling on Kathleen Wynne’s government to reject the City of Toronto’s forthcoming request to put tolls on the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway.

I understand that opposition parties need to be, well, oppositional. But as happened in the last provincial election in 2014, Horwath revealed she’s got a tin ear when it comes to not just funding urban infrastructure but deploying green policies meant to change driver behaviour, reduce emissions, and spur transit use.

Instead of tabling a motion calling on the provincial government to, say, properly fund the operating costs of transit, toll all the 400-series highways or urge the Wynne Liberals to give the City of Toronto other revenue tools, such as sales tax, Team Horwath threw in their lot with a rurally-based party that has little interest in transit and scant purchase with urban voters.

Why? Shouldn’t progressive voters in big cities like Toronto be able to back an electoral option to the Liberals? Of course. Yet last week’s stunt — which, let’s face it, is what that motion amounted to — stands as a fairly crisp signal that the NDP isn’t interested in Toronto. I understand why the Tories don’t much care about the city, but the NDP’s indifference is much more difficult to grasp.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus stepped aside as his party’s caucus chair and indigenous affairs critic Wednesday to contemplate a potential leadership bid.

The 54-year-old northern Ontario MP is considering entering the race to replace Tom Mulcair at the helm of the NDP, a contest that doesn’t come to a vote until October 2017.

“I can’t be in that role if people are talking to me about running for leader,” Angus said outside the House of Commons.

“There’s a lot to consider, but I am very passionate about the renewal of our party (and) I think we have a lot to offer Canadians.”

Angus said the duration of the race will be a factor in his decision-making process, noting that it sets a much higher bar for those candidates who ultimately decide to vie for the position.

“I think it is crazy how long it is,” he said.