Here's some election coverage I have been following:

MARKHAM:

• With no surprise, Frank Scarpitti wins with a 83% of total ballots, and takes reign from Don Cousens who stepped down after undergoing a second kidney transplant..


• Incrumbent Alex Chiu retains his seat as councillor of Ward 8-- which its electoral boundaries saw some radical changes.
  
• Incrumbent Khalid Usman for Ward 7, my former ward, ran for York regional councillor in this election but did not make the mark. He placed sixth when the cutoff is the top four. Filling in his shoes in Ward 7 is Logan Kanapathi.
  
• MPP for Markham, Tony Wong, successfully returns to his seat on Regional Council.

TORONTO:

• David Miller, retains his position of mayor. A sure sigh of relief. Hourray for sustainable public transit.


• John Sewell, the author of the planning famous Shape of the City, is defeated by incrumbent Joe Mihevc in Ward 21 St. Paul's. Both candidates had polarized views of the St. Clair ROW, with Mihevic for, and Sewell against.


• CityTV star Adam Vaughan wins in Ward 20 Trinty-Spadina, which was occupied by MP Olivia Chow. His website truly communicates his dedication to consider all the needs of his widely diverse ward.

WATERLOO:

• Brenda Halloran defeats mayoral incrumbent Erb Epp.

VAUGHAN:

• After a naughty mayoral race in a town that is perceived to be quite naughty, Linda Jackson takes down incrumbent Michael Di Biase by a narrow 90 votes.

Toronto Star Election Coverage - [thestar.com]
Spacing Votes - [spacing.ca]

Comments (5)

Christopher Hume says its time for Toronto to get angry, and I wholeheartedly agree with him.

A few days ago, Toronto City Council voted to defer the decision on the controversal land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee. While this proposed tax, one of Toronto's new taxing powers from the new City of Toronto Act, has made city residents understandably worked up. I have supported its implementation (with a few groans) because I feel that the city truly needs this to preserve and improve the very services that residents rightly demand.

When it comes down to it, provincial and federal governments have continued to neglect Toronto. Since my interest is in transit, I will just speak within that realm. The fact is, we have all heard time and time again that the TTC has the highest cost-recovery ratio in all other transit authorities in North America-- where over 80% of all operating expenses are covered by farebox revenues. Due to the massive cuts made during the Harris regime, TTC has and continues to make due with less. If you recall back in 1996, the provincial cutbacks triggered massive cutbacks to service, labour, and plant and equipment. I came across the Service Changes for Februrary 1996 as a result of the massive cutbacks, and I strongly urge you take a look this page to fully grasp the severity of these service reductions during this dark period for Toronto transit.

TTC has come a long way since then and while it is amazing to see the surge of ridership (estimated 454 million in 2007) on the TTC system, we still have not reached the 463.5 million record in 1988. Think about it, during this time span, Toronto has grown by about 400,000 people, and the GTA grew about 1.7 million people, and only now has ridership reached close to 1988 levels. On another note, while our ridership will soon eclipse the previous 1988 record, TTC still continues to operate with much fewer buses, operators and maintenance staff.

Now we understand that perhaps drastic service cuts need to be made. Adam Giambrone stated that the closure of the Sheppard Subway, the elimination of 21 surface routes, and a 25-cent fare increase, may be necessary to balance the books.

While these proposed cuts are seen as "worst case scenario" and it is not likely that TTC would have to replicate the events in February 1996, I believe that some cuts are imminent. While we have heard so much exciting news recently related to GTA transit, I am extremely turned off that such service reductions have to take place-- service reductions which are planned at time when we already experience massive overcrowding on our network.

This is desperate times for Toronto, and like Hume said, it's time to get furious. It's time for all of us to put pressure especially on the provincial government to either provide Toronto long-term funding for the social services-- the very services were downloaded by provincial government for the city to provide-- or to simply upload them back! Big cities naturally attracts, in greater proportions, social issues, like homelessness for instance, and it's not fair that Toronto must solely address these issues. Homelessness is a provincial issue, requiring provincial support.

I went on a bit of a tangent, but to sum up, Toronto requires money if it wishes to maintain competitiveness and quality of life. On that note, let's all be a little angrier and let our policians know, and let's build a city to be admired for a change!

Emergency TTC Meeting re Budget Cuts - [stevemunro.ca]
TTC proposed fare hike, subway shutdown - [globeandmail.com]
Cuts, fare hikes menace TTC - [thestar.com]
No More Sheppard Subway??!! - [blogto.com]
Time for Toronto to get angry - [thestar.com]
Miller orders spending cuts - [thestar.com]

Comments (2)

The biggest issue for this election seems to be about whether or not to publicly fund faith-based schools. For those who don't know, the Tories are a major proponent of this and wishes to spend $500 million to kickstart it. The Liberals are playing the opposition on this matter, as we continue to be bombarded with McGuinty's awkward commerical messages about how it's a 'mistake' and that our public schools is 'what makes Ontario, Ontario.'

Just as an aside, I feel that the way McGuinty speaks really bugs me. He's always really awkward and uncomfortable when he speaks in these scripted video announcements. It seems very clear that he has an image consultant working for him, but he's not playing a good actor.

At the same time, let's give McGuinty some credit, his ads are way better than the PC ads, which only attempts to attack McGuinty, and never actually tells us anything about his and his party's political directions. The NDP seems to be doing pretty much the same thing.

Anyways, back to the topic of funding for faith-based schools. What do you guys think of this issue? I am a bit torn, being that I attended a separate school ever since I moved to Canada. As much as I see myself as a undevoted Catholic, I saw the value of my education in its whole part, and I can't imagine actually cutting Catholic school funding. But at the same time, I also believe in McGuinty's vision that 'whatever race or creed, [students] attend the same schools.' Schools is the best place for young people to integrate and grasp an understanding of the diversity that surrounds them.

So I'm kind of being a hypocrite. I don't support the expansion of religious schools, but I also don't support the elimination of Catholic schools.

I've been thinking for a while about some options that would make me less hypocritical, and it involves the support for heritage and religious programs held outside of student's core education. In other words, what if the government provided religious education in public facilities on Saturdays, just like how current students can receive free language and heritage schooling? This would provide equitable religious education to all Ontarians and would help to expand use existing infrastucture which mostly have been active only during Mondays to Fridays. As for the existing Catholic schools, they can be coverted to provide 'public-public' education. Would you support this plan?

On an aside topic, I don't think people are aware that you don't need to be Catholic to attend Catholic schools. There were a high number of non-demonination and even Sikh and Muslim students (although in low numbers) in my high school. Regardless, I see that it is obviously unfair that Catholic students receive publicly accessible education, and Jewish or Sikh students, for example, do not.

Comments (7)