1. PARKDALE-HIGH PARK ELECTION INFO
Today is the registration deadline for candidates; as of this afternoon, 7 candidates had officially registered. See below for details.

a) All-Candidates Meetings and Debates:
Wed. Jan. 4, 8:00 pm
Sponsored by Swansea Area Ratepayers Association
Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Ave. (one block east of Windermere, south of
Deforest)

Wed. Jan. 11, 7:30 pm
Sponsored by Bloor West Village Residents Association
Runnymede United Church, 432 Runnymede Rd., south of Ardagh

Thu. Jan. 12, 7:30 pm
Sponsored by Sunnyside Community Association & High Park Residents
Association
Bishop Marrocco-Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School, corner of Bloor &
Dundas

Mon. Jan. 16, 7:30 pm
Sponsored by Parkdale Residents Association & Roncesvalles-Macdonell
Residents Association and the Parkdale Economic Development Corporation
Parkdale Collegiate Institute, 209 Jameson Ave. (between King & Queen)

Tue. Jan. 17, 9 - 10:00 pm
"Goldhawk Live!" on Rogers Cable 10
Televised debate among PHP candidates

Wed Jan. 18, 7:30 pm
Sponsored by The Westbend Community Association & Junction Residents
Association
Indian Road Crescent School, 285 Indian Rd. Crescent.

b) Candidate & Election Information
The Elections Canada page for Parkdale-High Park:is located at http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z5A24376C. This page provides links to candidate and voting information, past results and more.

Candidates, along with some contact information:
1. Beverly Bernardo (Independent)
Phone: (416) 535-9140
Note: she is listed as independent, however Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_League_(Canada) ) lists her as one of 3 candidates for the Communist League (Canada) which is not officially registered as a party.

2. Sarmite (Sam) Bulte (Liberal)
www.sambulte.ca

3. Lorne Gershuny (Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada)
No contact information listed on Elections Canada site; see http://www.mlpc.ca/candidates/candidates2006-Ontario.html

4. Jurij Klufas (Conservative Party of Canada)
www.klufas.ca

5. Peggy Nash (New Democratic Party)
www.peggynash.ca

6. Terry Parker (Marijuana Party)
Phone: (416) 533-7756
(website has not been updated yet): http://www.marijuanaparty.com/article.php3?id_article=236

7. Robert L. Rishchynski (Green Party of Canada)
http://www.parkdalehighparkgreens.ca/

2. MPAC & PROPERTY ASSESSMENT
Past readers of the newsletter and/or website are aware of the extensive information and research we've posted regarding Property Assessment and MPAC (the provincially-mandated Municipal Property Assessment Corporation). This information has been sent to us two subscribers, Bruce Haines and David MacAlpine who have focused on the inequities in the valuation-based assessment system (CVA), as well as the many flaws in MPAC's methods.

Bruce Haines has sent along 4 more documents which are posted on our main page (www.world19.com) and our "MPAC" page (www.mpac.world19.com). The documents are in WORD format; if anyone has any problems accessing them, please email us.

Below is Bruce's introduction to these documents:

As part of the Property Assessment area of the World19 website I am pleased to offer the following updates. Home Owners can successfully challenge the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation before the Assessment Review Board on issues pertaining to the production of information and documents. On May
27, 2005 a favourable decision was obtained before Vice Chair Seaborn in respect of the assessment of a condominium unit at 1A Dale Avenue in
Toronto, Complaints #1626471 and 1756835. A wider order might have been obtained had the complainant based the complaint not only on the issue that the assessment was incorrect but also that the assessment methodology was flawed. You might take the opportunity of reviewing the decision. [This document is also posted].

On November 3, 2005 a town hall type meeting was sponsored by Education Minister Gerard Kennedy for residents and property owners in the Parkdale-High Park riding. A summary of the meeting has been posted under the title "ASSESSMENT- MEETING" Property Assessment November 3, 2005. There was a large turn out for the meeting which saw the venting of a lot of hostility toward MPAC.

All those attending were urged to make representations to the Ontario Ombudsman who is currently conducting a review of the MPAC valuation system. My own submissions concerning a neighbourhood in this ward were sent to the Ombudsman and they are posted to the website under the heading "OMBUDSMAN LETTER" and also "OMBUDSMAN - TABLE". If you have submissions to make please bear in mind that Mr. Andre Marin will be making his report to the government likely by the end of January 2006.

Bruce Haines
December 20, 2005

(An additional note: information on assessments of Ward13 properties is available at Ward 13 Councillor Bill Saundercook's Community Office: 17 St. John's Road,
416-338-5165)

First, the office of The Villager newspaper closed. (The paper itself continues to publish). The Villager was the first community paper of the area, started around the same time as the local BIA first named the area "Bloor West Village". The office closure itself may have little impact; as one more of the many "neighbourhood" newspapers published by the giant (Toronto Star-owned) Metroland chain, the paper retains little of its original "neighbourhood" flavour. Even its columnists -- except for Luigi Benetton -- are "city-wide". In fact, it seems to have morphed from a vehicle for neighbourhood news to a cover page for city-wide sales, creating great business opportunities for the paper recycling industry -- that is, when it lands in the grey box and not the garden.

The second "landmark" was one that was much less visible than The Villager, however, it was a quirky favourite of mine: an apparently abandoned and forgotten sign on the small retail complex located on Jane St., opposite the subway station. For the last 15 or 20 years, the little plaza has continued to advertise a short-lived, and long-departed business, the "Pamir II" Afghan restaurant. It had good cooking, but somehow the owners weren't aware that they had moved into what was then the only dry area of Toronto.

The neighbourhood may not have been ready to support an Afghan restaurant at the time. That, in combination with the lack of liquor license, doomed the Pamir II. However, their sign survived the business by almost 2 decades. (Recently, the property owners were forced to remove this non-productive sign to post one for a new tenant -- a sushi restaurant). At the same time, a large "Villager" sign has remained in front of the Villager's previous office location for many years. One wonders if it will also stay as an echo for a departed, former community newspaper.