“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

Perhaps rats, not raccoons, should be Toronto’s official mascot since their numbers have grown during the pandemic.

Multiple pandemic lockdowns led to bolder rodent activity and migration to residential neighbourhoods, according to Orkin Canada.

When John Tory was elected mayor in 2014 there were 177 shootings in Toronto, 76 people were wounded by gunfire and 27 people were fatally shot.

Last year, there were 409 shootings (a 131% increase), 163 people wounded by gunfire (a 114% increase) and 46 people fatally shot (a 70% increase).

Candidates running for mayor and city council are not talking about Toronto’s crime problem.

But Toronto citizens are forced to live with — and are being victimized — by it.

The AusterityTO project highlights ‘absurd’ level of disrepair in the run-up to the Canadian city’s municipal election in late October

Overflowing garbage bins. Crumbling roads and broken water fountains, scattered throughout Toronto. A chaotic downtown core, where cyclists battle with cars for use of the road.

For some, the disarray might signal urban decay and rudderless leadership. But to the pranksters behind the recently unveiled AusterityTO project it’s the work of a “bold, world-class artist” who is using Canada’s largest city as his canvas to create a sprawling public art project.

Toronto artists are being ‘run out of town’ by soaring rents. Should the city step in to help?

“We’re losing the spaces and places where artists, which make the city fantastic, do their business,” said Coun. Paula Fletcher (Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth). “Artists are the lowest-paid sector so it’s not like they can afford corporate rents.”

Why should my taxes support the creation of toxic PC “art?”

Will I be eligible for subsidy for the photo-shops I do for the blog?

Why not?

Voters who live in Toronto have endured two particularly awful election campaigns in the past year.

The federal vote called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for last September was a pointless affair in which the leaders of the three major parties alternated between trashing one another and hurling promises at every interest group and voting bloc in sight. It cost $600-million and ended with the three holding almost the same number of seats as they had before it all started.

Boring like a slow motion train wreck. Tory will win, that’s a given. More tax dollars will be wasted on identity-politics driven issues as bit by bit we become indistinguishable from a Democrat run city in the US. Services will decline as taxes rise, crime will increase, businesses will leave and those residents that can will flee as the city becomes an unaffordable, perverse amalgam of the rich and social housing residents.

Patricia Li’s year began with the theft of a Lexus NX 300 from her Toronto home — but that was just the beginning of her troubles.

Five months later, thieves returned in the middle of the night for her other vehicle, a Lexus RX 450, but this time they weren’t as lucky.

After the first theft in February, Li installed a video camera that captured footage of three people attempting to break into the car.

I wonder if the Ferguson effect plays a role?

For the past year, Bibhu Acharya has served behind enemy lines.

Not in Ukraine or Afghanistan but in The Esplanade in downtown Toronto.

“This is a war zone,” said one resident.

Guns, knives, fights, drugs and even dog fights have been the reality since the once four-star Novotel was converted into a homeless shelter to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

There’s a labyrinth installation in the little Trinity Square Park tucked behind the Eaton Centre — a winding path to “quiet the mind,” in the heart of Toronto’s hustle and bustle. If you visited it in late September, and wandered through its meandering route, you’d have ultimately come to the centre — the heart of your meditative journey, perhaps, the moment of enlightenment — only to be tripped up when you encountered a gaping jagged hole where bricks forming the path were missing, covered in caution tape.

Aha. If you were contemplating the state of Toronto on your journey, you’d have found a piece of the answer: stuff is falling apart.

Toronto has a lot working against it.  For starters it’s run by progressives for progressives.

Its schools are so progressive in fact that menstruating girls are segregated for being impure during in-school Islamic prayer rituals. Just like in Progressive Iran where women are murdered for removing their hijabs.  Contrary to the the city’s motto diversity is not a strength, it is a recipe for a low trust society.

Progressives know how to waste money on worthless endeavors. John Tory is great at proclaiming Left-Handed Vegan Transvestite Amputee Day but little else.

Toronto has 40,739 employees* most unionized. How they can’t fill potholes is beyond me. Maybe designating all pot holes as LGBTQ2S killers would result in better performance.

It won’t get better. Progressive cities only ever spiral into the dirt. Just check in with the residents of Portland or San Francisco.  Taxes go up, services slide, crime rises, businesses leave and white flight follows.

* From the City of Toronto web site – The information above does not capture employees working in the City’s Agencies, Boards or Commissions (TTC, Police, Library, Association of Community Centres, etc.), Accountability Offices, or elected officials.

Hydro One says it is investigating an issue affecting power to Toronto Hydro and its downtown customers on Thursday.

The hydro company tweeted about the outage just before 1 p.m.

“We’re currently experiencing a large outage in downtown Toronto and working together with Hydro One to address it,” Toronto Hydro said.