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First, 2 items related to the upcoming city election, both taken from the same "The Skinny on City Hall" column in the Toronto Star (Saturday, Sep. 30). http://www.thestar.com/thestar/back_issues/ED20000930/toronto/20000930NEW02_CI-SKINNY.html

City election (1): funny polling?
Reports have been coming out about some mysterious phone polling which has so far reported in 2 wards: (Case Ootes vs. Gail Nyberg, and Rob Davis vs Joe Mihevic). The polls are being run by John Mykytyshyn, best known as the Canadian Alliance official who recently had to resign his position after making some impolitic remarks about Maritimers not wanting to work. Previously he had done polling for the Ontario Tories.

So who's he working for now? Not likely city council candidates, given their small budget. We would be very interested to hear if any readers (from any ward) are polled by phone. You may want to note who (what organization) is calling, and what questions are asked. Let us know.

The Star column ventures Mel Lastman as a possible backer of the polls. (He has a $1 million campaign fund, and no serious opponent). Those who live in the old Ward19 area may also remember a polling escapade from the last city election. In the last days before the 97 election, voters who said they were supporting David Hutcheon were then asked "And would you still support him if you knew he took illegal campaign contributions?" That campaign, and some similar printed material orignated with a political consultant, Marcel Wieder who worked for the Toronto Police Union during the 1999 provincial election (using a photo of a Latino street gang - taken from a California campaign - voters were encouraged to vote for a law and order candidate).

Keep your ears open...

City election (2): Signs and more signs
The third item in that column relates to our new Ward 13. Anyone passing by the Jane subway entrance on Jane street, couldn't help but notice the many large, bright red Bill Saundercook signs. One large banner promotes Mr. Saundercook, the others are large arrows pointing to his campaign office, which with a bit of investigation turns out to be in a store-room off a little alley and behind a barbershop. It's been dark and unoccupied at least whenever we have visited it (yesterday, some "office hours" were posted, and it must be the smallest campaign office in the City. (And probably the only one drawing its power from an extenstion cord run through a window!)

However, it's a great location for signs. Unfortunately, City election laws forbid election signs until mid-October, and according to the director of Municipal Licensing and Standards, Mr. Saundercook has been told to remove some or all of these signs. They were still standing as of Sunday however...

City election (3): All-candidates meeting The only ACM that we have confirmed so far will be held Wed. October 18 from 7:30-9:45 at Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Avenue. It will feature sections for trustee, councillor & mayoralty candidates. (No idea yet how many of the 19 mayoralty candidates will attend!)

Swansea & "second suites" - debate Oct. 5
The former Village of Swansea was one of the few areas in the Megacity that did not allow "second suites" (such as basement apartments) in houses. Last year, City Council voted to remove the remaining exemptions for areas like this. It seems there are still issues on this bylaw. On Thursday, Oct. 5, Swansea Ratepayers (SARA) is sponsoring a debate on the issue "Should Swansea be exempt?"

Locally, there are related issues to this -- for example, the debate over the Fred Victor housing proposal at Windermere and Lakeshore, as well as the large planned housing development of the old Stelco property. However, we believe this debate is also part of issues that go well beyond the boundaries of Swansea. Urban sprawl (e.g., Oak Ridges) vs. urban intensification. The Globe & Mail had an excellent series of articles last week (http://www.globeandmail.ca/series/sprawl/) on this topic. In one of the articles, it stated that the GTA can expect more than 2 million people to be added in the next 30 years. "Newcomers will have to live somewhere, and if you think you won't have more neighbours, think again"

We encourage interested community members to attend this meeting: Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Ave., 7:30pm.

Stelco site
And one brief note about this proposed development. We mentioned in our last newsletter, that we have on our website (http://www.world19.com) notes from a walkabout of the site describing some issues and suggestions. We have also added photos of some of the areas discussed. Again, we encourage area residents to consider this development, and what it can do for -- or to -- the area. This is our chance to make sure the development becomes part of, and contributes to the community. Remember the infamous Harbourfront condos....

For world19,
John Leeson