Well, the big news today is that mayor David Miller made the surprise announcement about twenty minutes ago that he won’t be seeking a third term next fall. I’m cautiously optimistic about what this means for next year’s election, but I’ll go into more detail on that next week. In short, we can probably assume that John Tory and George Smitherman’s non-aggression pact is off, so maybe the election next year will actually be about competing visions for the city and not about personality.
We’re still trying to sort out the whole Elephant Man performance issue that I mentioned yesterday. While the Twitter/Facebook sphere is still noticeably quieter than it was for his Caribana show, Fab editor Matt Thomas has brought the issue up again on his Murder Music Coming to Toronto, Not on My Watch Facebook group.
“The result I personally want to see is pressure by association not banning and certainly not any immigration related consequences,” he says.“He can come and play sure but anyone who promotes or houses his performance will be branded a homophobe and a hate monger as well. Circa didn’t like that association and let’s see what the Canadian gov’t think of it.”
Some in the blogosphere have noted that Downsview Park falls under infrastructure minister John Baird’s portfolio. While Baird is not quite the gay rights icon that his colleague and health minister Tony Clement is, he is believed to be one of the friendlier faces in the Tory caucus for the queer community. Baird’s constituency office can be reached at 613-990-7720.
.
Why you can trust Xtra
