LEVY: Ditch the DEI and get your house in order, TDSB

A new Ontario auditor general report on the Toronto District School Board provides an insightful overview of many of the issues identified under the toxic reign of now-departed activist education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.

From underreported bullying and increased violence in TDSB schools to the abuse of sick days and the administration’s powers to investigate principals and vice-principals, it is clear that Canada’s largest school board needs a huge overhaul.

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Doug Ford’s Tories leading as potential election looms, survey shows

Doug Ford

As Premier Doug Ford mulls gambling on an early election, a new poll suggests that might be a safe bet.

The latest Abacus Data monthly tracking survey for the Star found Ford’s Tories at 43 per cent — well ahead of Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals at 25 per cent, Marit Stiles’ New Democrats at 21 per cent and Mike Schreiner’s Greens at six per cent.

I hope the Libs die for good this election.

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Ontario spent record sum on advertisements ‘to promote’ governing party: AG

The Ford government has spent more than any other previous administration in any other year on advertisements which, the auditor general has found, were “designed to promote the governing party.”

Auditor General Shelley Spence found as part of her annual report that, in the fiscal year ending at the end of March, the province spent a total of $104.6 million on advertising.

That is the most any Ontario government has ever spent on advertising in a single year, the auditor general said, and triple what was spent the year before.

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May a similar fate await the federal Liberals …

Bonnie Crombie Hamas Supporter

Did Bonnie Crombie get ‘sold a bill of goods’? Here’s why the Liberal leader is struggling to find her footing and take down Doug Ford

… “This party is like a start-up. There is no infrastructure. There is no money,” says another Liberal veteran, maintaining the “draft Crombie” movement that lured her from a comfortable perch running Ontario’s third-largest city underplayed the challenge.

Instead, Crombie is running Ontario’s third party.

“I think Bonnie got sold a bill of goods. It’s not an easy job. If they’re in third place one more time, I don’t know what the future is,” adds the veteran Liberal.

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Ford government to restrict new bike lanes in bid to ease gridlock

Taking aim at bike lanes, Premier Doug Ford’s government is planning to introduce legislation next month that would limit the construction of new ones by overriding municipal powers in a controversial effort to ease gridlock.

The measure is one of several, including 24-7 construction for new highway projects like the 413 from Milton to Highway 400, in the proposed “Reducing Gridlock and Saving You Time Act,” sources told the Star on Friday.

I’m sure Chairman Chow will have something to say , she hates that people own cars and other nice things.

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‘I’ve never seen anything like it’: The behind-the-scenes attempts to unite against the right in a Toronto byelection

An ex-Ontario premier and a former Toronto mayor could play pivotal roles in an upcoming city council byelection, amid concerns from some left-leaning insiders that a trio of candidates with Liberal connections are on track to split the vote and give a controversial conservative a path to victory.

Although voters won’t go to the polls to elect a new councillor in Don Valley West until Nov. 4, the race is already being shaped by behind-the-scenes manoeuvring featuring Kathleen Wynne and John Tory, the Star has learned.

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Ford rules out Ontario election in 2024, but could call an early election in 2025

Ontario Premier Doug Ford ruled out calling an early election this year, but left the door open on Tuesday to calling one in 2025.

The province’s next fixed election date isn’t until June 2026, but Ford continued to dance around the issue of whether or not he’ll call an early election.

“We aren’t having an election this year,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference, without providing further clarity on whether he would call an early vote.

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RCMP interviewing potential witnesses linked to Doug Ford’s government in Greenbelt criminal probe

RCMP detectives are interviewing witnesses linked to Premier Doug Ford’s government about the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal, the Star has learned.

Progressive Conservative insiders said current and former political aides have begun sitting down with the Mounties to discuss Ford’s controversial 2022 decision to open up 7,400 acres of the two-million-acre Greenbelt to housing development.

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Striking LCBO workers are making Doug Ford’s case for him

LCBO – anyone else remember filling out the little order form and approaching the desk clerk to receive your liquor? So East Bloc, but here in Canada.

The very first government-run liquor stores opened in Ontario nearly 100 years ago, garnering huge fanfare, hours-long lines and a healthy degree of puritanical skepticism.

Reporters chronicled the scenes in a massive spread published in The Globe and Mail on June 2, 1927, where they noted that people were mostly civilized as they waited to acquire their permits to buy alcohol, though there was some line-cutting and “police reported one drunk arrested” at a store in London, Ont. Reporters also observed with some bewilderment that women – women! – were often among those lining up to purchase alcohol, some pushing baby carriages “with the baby at home apparently” to cart their bottles home.

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Ontario blowing $225-million to cancel its Beer Store contract is a scandal, not something to celebrate

Who asked Ontario’s government to blow upward of $225-million to accelerate the introduction of beer and wine in corner stores?

Is there an overworked nurse in Thunder Bay who has been pleading for respite in the form of 12-packs at her local convenience store? Have parents of children with autism been banging on the Premier’s door, demanding better access to Coors Light? Is there some sort of clandestine wine-drinking lobby in this province that told Doug Ford they simply can’t wait another 16 months for new places to shop for booze?

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