ArchiveMay 2014

By: Metro Canada Published on Wed May 28 2014 Since day one of his campaign, John Tory has been crystal clear that the major focus of his campaign is the Yonge Street Relief Line subway — otherwise known as the DRL. I guess now we can assume he was just kidding. Yesterday, Tory revealed that his actual priority isn’t a subway at all, but in fact a plan to build more stations and provide increased...

By: Metro Canada Published on Fri May 23 2014 I learned a couple of things from watching Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath unveil her party’s election platform yesterday. The first is that she definitely has the most chant-friendly name of any party leader. There’s something about the three syllables in her first name — AN-DREE-AH! — that just works well when shouted out in unison by a group of...

By: Metro Published on Wed May 21 2014 Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak’s plan to create — pause for dramatic effect — ONE MILLION JOBS includes a pledge to “put the province in charge of all rail-based transit and major highways in the GTA.” In subsequent interviews, Hudak has clarified that by “all rail-based transit” the PCs don’t actually mean all rail-based transit. They’d leave out Toronto’s...

By: Metro Canada Published on Wed May 14 2014 It adds up to the single largest line item on your property tax bill, but it seems like very few mayoral candidates want to talk about the police budget. There are some exceptions, thankfully. While Olivia Chow and John Tory have remained mostly silent on the issue, David Soknacki kicked off his campaign by calling for a strategic review of Toronto’s...

By: Metro Published on Mon May 12 2014 For those of us who live in cities and care about the things that matter to cities, it’s hard to get excited about the Ontario election. On urban issues like transit, housing, and climate change, there’s really not much to like about any of the three leading parties trying to earn our votes on June 12. The Ontario Liberals talk a good game about building...