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Incumbent Judy Sgro won her sixth election as Federal MP for the old riding of York West, now called Humber River Black Creek.
Incumbent Mark Adler (Bottom left) lost his seat in the last Federal election to first time candidate Michael Levitt (top Left). The election was close, as the incumbent received a healthy 44% of the vote, but still lost to Mr. Levitt at 47%.
An area North of Downsview Park, the former site of military housing for the former Downsview Air Force Base is now open for the public to enjoy.The area, North of Sheppard Ave. W, and East of Keele St., and its beautiful woodlot had been off limits to the public since the military base closed in 1996, has been converted into William Baker Park.“I am proud to have worked in opening up the beautiful space to the community by taking down the fences and improving access,” said Councillor Anthony Perruzza.The former housing has now been taken down, leaving only the greenspace, the city has also created nature trails and has installed park benches for people to enjoy the space.Perruzza said the park will be available to the community for years to come as it has been designated as a natural habitat and the city’s secondary plan and thus will remain protected.“I would like to see Canada Lands recognize and preserve this beautiful park and to see the greater community regularly enjoy and explore it,” Perruzza said.Have you been to the new park? If so, tell us what you think, send in your pictures or post on our social media pages.
Plenty of Canadians are celebrating that Stephen Harper’s autocratic and malicious rule has finally come to an end, and their sentiments are perfectly understandable.But I hope those enthusiastic about the words “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau” will try to understand why some of us don’t feel like celebrating today, and why the defeat of the Harper Conservatives by the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rings hollow.The Liberal campaign embraced a sprightly lexicon of positivity, unity, and tolerance in contrast to a Conservative campaign built on fear and race-baiting. But their parliamentary caucus voted for Harper’s absurd “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act” only a few short months ago. And they supported (and will not repeal) Bill C-51, which risks criminalizing people who protest oil pipelines and threatens artistic expression.Behind the selfies and the carefully staged theatrics, behind the vague but flourishing invocations of “hope” and “change,” behind the crowds of grinning patricians, behind the formless nostalgia for ’60s Trudeaumania, many of us see a politics as calculating and ultimately uninterested in social justice as that which today’s liberalism sets itself against.In many parts of the country on October 19, environmentalists, trade unionists, and progressives were unseated in favor of corporate technocrats. The business of hyper-professionalized politics — momentarily disrupted by a new political dynamic — will now reassert itself with a vengeance.The new government is going to temporarily invest billions in new (though largely unspecified) infrastructure, after which it will make billions in (also unspecified) cuts. It will not create any new social programs, and has instead promised to adopt a means-tested approach to social policy that simply helps some low-income earners better navigate unjust market structures with bigger checks than they were getting before.It will not set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (because, in Trudeau’s words, “what we need is not ambitious political numbers”).It will almost certainly finalize a trade deal that will decimate what remains of manufacturing in Canada’s largest province, undermine Canadians’ privacy online, make life-saving drugs unaffordable by creating a global cartel for pharmaceutical giants, and erode the country’s democratic sovereignty by enabling multinationals to sue elected governments over laws and regulations they dislike.Throughout its entire democratic history, Canadian politics has oscillated between two parties that do not seriously challenge the status quo or the injustices it permits. Occasionally goaded by popular movements, they have both been compelled, particularly during minority parliaments, to make concessions while preserving the fundamental contours of the political order.Against this a third current, born from Methodist social gospel and the labor mobilizations of the nineteenth century, has always insisted that fundamental change is necessary to build a truly just society. It was this ethos that gave us Medicare — an institution built from the ashes of war and depression on principles of universalism and social solidarity. Neither sweeping platitudes nor bureaucratic conservatism will ever deliver us social progress of this kind, eradicate poverty, or save the environment from the extractive economic structures that degrade it every day.Despite the palpable optimism throughout much of the country last month, many of us cannot read a return to the historic two-party dynamic as anything other than a setback, and a major one.It’s time we stopped marginalizing social justice, or patronizingly relegating it to the fringes. Achieving social progress requires more than just a perpetual return to the traditional, professionalized politics that continues to leave one in seven Canadians in poverty, tolerates people having to sleep on the streets, and allows thousands of children to wake up hungry and badly housed every single day in one of the richest societies in the world.We have to demand better. And plenty of us believe and hope that, one day, we really will.**This article was originally published in: https://ricochet.media/en/690/why-even-harpers-defeat-rings-hollow
Do we need rules regulating hair styles in schools?A black female student in grade eight, who attends Amesbury Middle School in North York, was recently admonished by her principal for wearing her hair in a natural style. The student was pulled out of class and purportedly told that she looked unprofessional and would never get a job looking the way she did. The most surprising thing is that the principal is also black. This story went viral on social media when the students’ aunt, Kaysie Quansah, took to Facebook to express her outrage at what had happened to her niece. Her post was passionate, she seemed hurt by what her niece had gone through. She stated, that the Principal “told my niece that she needs to put her hair up, gave her a hair band/scrunchie/ponytail holder (whatever you'd like to call it) and repeatedly told her to do something about her hair.” A principal is an educator and should be a strong leader, someone who provides a positive environment for our children. When we drop our children off at school in the morning, we leave them there in hopes that they will be cared for by the best people in the community. Educators have a big responsibility; to impact our children’s’ lives in the most positive way possible. The Facebook statement contradicts this notion, “My sister was then called and told that my niece's hair was *too poofy*, *unprofessional*, that *no one would hire her with hair like that*, and if *she were working in a store, no one would buy anything from her*”.This story hit home for me, as a mother of mixed children (of Latino, black and white background) and as another social problem that we ignore on a daily basis. We must teach our children self-love not self-hate, we must teach them that what is most important is what is on the inside, how we treat people and how to be respectful of others and their situations.It is sad to see self-hate, because it demonstrates that there is a bigger issue at play here. The student’s aunt states it well, “I would like to know what gives you the authority to be the decision maker on stunting my nieces' dreams by telling her that she cannot achieve careers based off her looks. (Principal) why are you projecting your SELF HATE onto my niece? (Principal) love yourself, and allow my niece to do the same.”Kuddos to the family for making this story known to the media, which led to an outpour of support for the family.
Let us know what you think about this story. Do you think physical appearance should affect the education we receive in our schools or job opportunities later in life?
It was great to see that our recent federal election had one of the highest voter turnouts since 1993, at 68%. It also had the highest amounts of visible minorities being elected as MPs. But what about the specific turnout of visible minority groups? How did minority vote fair up in this last election? The First Nations community increased their votes so much that two ridings ran out of ballots. Thanks to social media, the youth vote also increased in this year’s 42nd election where the Liberal party won a majority. However these advancements for minorities can distract from the plight of other marginalized groups, such as Black Canadians, very few of which have been elected to parliament, and none chosen for Trudeau’s “diverse” cabinet. After interviewing several minorities in our Humber River, Black Creek riding, many minorities claimed that they voted and encouraged their children to vote. The few that did not vote claimed that their vote did not matter so they did not bother voting. Some even claimed, “All politicians are the same”. Others claim our existing democracy is too shallow. However, have we taken the time to really learn about our political system? Who were the 5 candidates running in our riding and what were their platforms? Who are the major Canadian political parties and what do they represent? What does left wing and right wing even mean? If you have not had schooling in Canada, all of this may be unfamiliar and there is rarely a crash course in Canadian politics.
Though the current political structure may not benefit the majority of people, refusing to vote makes citizens compliant to the current system. It says I agree with the decisions our government makes. As citizens our vote matters and we have the opportunity to promote positive values. Our one vote can help to change systems and reform policies. Collectively, we can promote long-term change, one vote at a time. So whether it be another federal election, provincial or the municipal election, get out and make your opinion matter by casting your vote!
As a girl, sometimes it can be very hard to learn in school. I’ve struggled in school with my academics. In grade 6, I started going to tutoring at More Than Marks tutoring and they helped me to study more. I knew that if I was going to grade 7, something would have to change. Since tutoring, I’ve seen a drastic change in my academics as well as my socializing.I went from being a girl who was just getting by in school to getting A’s on my test and also being student of the month. I personally realized that it’s not just about doing the work or practicing, it’s really about taking the responsibility to say “Yes, I want to learn”. I can make my parents proud by achieving more in school and in life, which leads to success.
Some girls like me may think that they can’t get good grades and improve in school but if you try your hardest you will get to where you want to go. By simply asking for help when needed you can help yourself and others. For example, my family and friends have made me feel more confident about myself and they have made me feel proud. Tips that I’ve personally used are: hanging around responsible people and being respectful to others. Also, it’s very helpful to listen in class and pay attention so that you don’t fall behind. A quote I made up for myself was, “Fill up your car with hope, motivation and courage and then start driving and you’ll get to your destination!”
It’s written right there on the Liberal’s Real Change website, posted during the 2015 election: “We will make every vote count.”Right before the 2015 election, the Liberals wanted to change our voting system, and they wanted it done ASAP. In fact, they stated they were “committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.”This is great news for our democracy.Our current system is called, first-past-the-post voting. In this system, if the candidate you voted for in your riding doesn’t win, your vote is lost. As a result of this, more than half of all votes don’t count in current elections and majority governments are elected with less than 50% of the popular vote.Thanks to our voting system, here are your options when the political party/leader you like best is in third according to polls:
Option (c) is called “strategic voting” which means you just wait around and watch the polls to figure out what everyone else is doing so you can figure out whom to vote for to block the worse option. Yes, make up your mind based on what you think other people might do. Not very inspiring, is it?In the 2011 federal elections, and for the first time ever, the Liberals were a victim and not a beneficiary of strategic voting. It’s ironic, since Liberals always tell NDP and Green voters to vote strategically to block Conservatives. In the end, the Liberals ended up in third place for the first time ever. And man, were they bitter about it.Thanks to our first-past-the-post system, the Liberals ended up with almost 20% of the votes but only 11% of the seats in parliament. That meant almost half of all Liberal votes were effectively wasted and ignored. Another silly by-product of the election was that Harper got a majority government when 60% of people voted against him. A majority government means that one party has 100% of the power until the next election.So, the Liberals began talking about changing the voting system to make “every vote count”. It only took a historic colossal defeat for the Liberal establishment to finally talk about doing the right thing.Proportional representation makes every vote countLuckily, there is currently a voting system that counts every vote. That system is called proportional representation and it appears in far more countries than our system. In fact, 7 of the top 10 countries as ranked by the Legatum Prosperity Index have a form of proportional representation. Only one country, Canada (ranked 6th), uses first-past-the-post voting.In proportional representation, the percentage of seats a party receives in parliament is proportional to the number of votes they receive across the province or country. That means if your candidate doesn’t win the seat, then your vote still has an effect on the make-up of government. No more wasted votes.In 2011, under proportional representation, the Liberals would have received 20% of the seats because they received 20% of the votes. The Conservatives would have had a minority government with 40% of the seats in parliament. A minority government means politicians have to compromise with other parties in order to table a budget and make things happen. This means that even if the party you wanted loses, they (and therefore you) still have a say on policy.Proportional representation makes every vote count, diminishes the need for strategic voting and only creates majority governments when they are deserved.Will the Liberals improve our democracy or simply help themselves?The results of this past election may in fact be a terrible blow to electoral reform. With a country-wide anti-Harper swing, strategic voting gave the Liberals a majority government (with only 39% of the vote!).We saw that the Liberals became serious about changing the voting system when they thought it could benefit them. Now that our unfair electoral system has benefited them again, will they change it?If they do, my bet is that they will go for preferential/ranked ballot because it is the system they believe will benefit them the most. In this system, you rank your first, second, third, etc. choice when you vote but it does not fix the fact that your first choice will likely get ignored. As such, millions and millions of first place votes will get wasted again. Ranked ballot systems are a terrible choice for creating multi-party democracy and easily create majority government even though the winner gets less than 50% of people’s first choice.The Liberals like this because they believe they are everybody’s second choice and thus ranked ballot will benefit THEM the most.In their platform, the Liberals said they would “convene an all-party Parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms”. Sounds fair, right? They can easily stack the committee with politicians to get the result they want.The real way to make every vote count is proportional representation, a system of government that respect’s people first choice on how they believe their country and province should be run. What the Liberals do on improving our democracy above all will determine if they are serious about real change.
When it comes to product labeling, the award for first place goes to Unilever for a product they dubbed, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!” It isn’t; and to be truthful I’m not quite sure what it is. You know; it’s the white and yellow tub that sits on the margarine shelf in the supermarket; the one that is periodically put on sale for $1.It was the name of the product that induced me to try it and I have to admit that it’s the taste that keeps me using it. Although when I read the ingredients I can’t fully understand why I keep eating it.The package boldly proclaims “Made with Sweet Cream Buttermilk” but on the ingredient list, in tiny letters, says, “Buttermilk powder (milk)”. Product labeling regulations in both Canada and United States require ingredients on package labels to be listed in the order of their quantity from largest to smallest. They don’t have to give the quantities (ie. reveal their recipe) but they must provide you with the ingredients. In this product, buttermilk comes after salt so you can infer from this that the entire one pound (454 gram) tub of margarine contains less “sweet cream buttermilk”; err sorry, “buttermilk powder” than it does salt.What happened to the “sweet cream buttermilk”? In fact there is no milk at all. On the original package they did discretely mention, in small letters, that it was “margarine”, sort of in a whisper. Now it has become a “SPREAD” although they call it a “buttery spread” (whatever that means). It should be re-named; “Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter or Even Margarine Spread!” Wikipedia tells us that the product was developed in 1979 by the J.H. Filbert Company based in Baltimore Maryland before it was bought out by Unilever. Unilever is a multinational corporation. It owns more than 400 brands. They brought “almost butter” to Canada back in 1991.I love their commercial. A handsomely masculine bearded guy kneading dough at an outdoor market smiles and says to a couple of attractive women, “I love making the kind of food you really love putting in your body” 100% taste, 0% artificial preservatives, purified water (just like it comes out of your tap), “just a pinch of salt”. Oops…that pinch of salt is actually 90 milligrams per tablespoon, which is much more than the pinch in the Canadian product which contains 60 mg. of salt per two teaspoons.If the Canadian teaspoons are metric teaspoons and the tablespoon is a U.S. tablespoon the salt content will be even higher, 133 mg, that’s more than double! I telephoned the company to ask but the consumer representative didn’t know.Oh by the way, the fine print on their web site candidly confesses to unavoidably using some genetically modified oils (just a trace) but not to worry; there may even be less than the “sweet cream buttermilk” in their Canadian Product. Sorry but the healthier version hasn’t come to Canada yet. As their website proclaims, “Now that’s something you can feel good about.”The “can’t believe” website boldly avers: “We believe that what we take out is just as important as what we put into our buttery spreads”.Their commercial ends with, “It’s time to believe.”But is it?