‘Never witnessed such blatant disregard’
We are relatively new to Leaside. In our short time here, I have noticed that the great majority of drivers in our area either roll through stop signs or ignore them altogether. I have lived in several different parts of Toronto and have never witnessed such blatant disregard for our traffic laws.
Broadway Ave. seems to be particularly afflicted based on anecdotal evidence. I’m wondering what can be done to curb this behaviour before someone is injured or worse.
Jamie Coulter,
Broadway Ave.
I live in Leaside. There is a billboard on the southwest corner of Laird and Eglinton that is potentially libellous and what I believe to be deeply offensive to my community. Sponsored by The Rebel Media; they have a website, www.FireWynne.ca.
This is clearly political communication paid from an undeclared funding source with no transparency and no accountability. I do believe that this sort of negative public discourse has no role in Canadian politics. I would like this poster taken down.
Desre Kramer,
84 Thursfield Cres.
In the March Leaside Life, Carol Burtin Fripp asked rhetorically if bigger wards and fewer politicians actually provide better government. If there wasn’t a great outcry to the consultants report, perhaps we have just become too trusting in our council to outright reject what is clearly a bad idea.
Reducing the number of wards and councillors would mean it would cost far more to run a credible election campaign. We wouldn’t get smaller government, we’d get bigger big shots.
Using Ward 26 as a case study we have at least two distinct communities within one ward. One is Leaside, which was an independent town within the Metro Federation until 1967; how could these “expert” consultants have missed that Leaside should be a ward by itself.
Since amalgamation, the people living in Thorncliffe-Flemingdon have been represented by Leasiders. Not to take anything away from Jane Pitfield, John Parker or Jon Burnside, shouldn’t that community be represented by someone who is more representative of them?
Now consider a ward system with more councillors, not fewer.
A Leasider would run to represent Leaside and would be able to run an old-fashioned door-to-door campaign. The vote of every Leasider would carry much more weight than it does in the current Ward 26.
Under a system with more councillors the person elected to represent Leaside could be one of up to 70 sitting on council. With more councillors representing small, distinct communities, the power of the councillor position would be diluted, thus attracting people genuinely devoted to public service and not just there for the money.
In this system, there would be less grandstanding, less chicanery, and greater responsibility.
Bob Murphy,
Eglinton Ave. East
