Pantalone showed himself to be out of step with where much of the progressive, left of centre is at the moment. Perhaps if the wider voting public had been allowed to see more of Himy Syed, the city would be in the throes of the same deliberation we here in ward 19 are currently in the midst of between Mike Layton and Karen Sun, but Pantalone simply is not in step with the wider progressive movement.

From rtlechow’s posterous

By Adrian MacNair
If you read Friday Photography’s opening paragraph yesterday, you’ll note that I said there are some stories I’ve been working on. One was a story I found out about through a friend after Mike Layton announced his intent to run in Toronto’s Ward 19, Joe Pantalone’s old haunt that he’s vacated to run for mayor. So by the time I learned of the news, it had already been several days since the mainstream media had written up their quick and dirty stories …

From Sing Tao Daily
(綜合報道)聯邦新民主黨黨魁林頓(Jack Layton)之子米高林頓(Mike Layton)追隨家族的步伐參政。 這名31歲的環保分子參加角逐多倫多聖三一-士巴丹拿(Trinity-Spadina)區的市議員席位。他於周五早上在Trinity Bellwoods Park的一處角落宣布參選。他回憶說，從父親林頓中獲得祖父的一些忠告，就是永不要放棄可以服務的機會。米高林頓的體形比父親林頓較細。不過，在姊妹莎 拉(Sarah Layton)眼中，這對父子有相同之處。她在宣布參選活動結束之後說：「他們的個性頗為相似。」當父母於80年代中離婚之後，他於平日與母親Sally Roy生活，而在周末則與父親林頓一起。米高林頓透露，最早在初中時考慮過參加競選。他解釋，當時被安排負責組織體育活動，發覺本身喜歡統籌，喜歡與人交 談。一門多傑他似乎認為本身的家族人物及政治生涯比在大學所修讀的生物學更具吸引力。他的祖父羅拔林頓(Robert Layton)是穆朗尼(Mulroney)政府的礦業事務部長。他曾經為安省新民主黨效力，其後獲全國性慈善組織環境防衛(Environmental Defence)聘用為副主任，而他也協助組織綠色能源法聯盟(Green Energy Act Alliance)。由於協助父親及繼母鄒至蕙(Olivia Chow)，他經常都接觸到政治。鄒至蕙曾經是多倫多市議員，目前是聖三一-士巴丹拿區的國會議員。他在宣布參選時承諾促成共管單位及公寓也要使用環保垃 圾綠箱及藍箱。事實上，這方面的工作已經展開。法語的記者要求他略為用點法語，但米高林頓解釋只準備了英語的發言。他談及在政治場合中由工作人員而成為了 主角，以及難以避免的與父親的比較時說：「人總會在某處起步。」他又表示，可能會有一些比較，但他認為大家將會了解這並非容易之事。聖三一-士巴丹拿的市 議員彭德龍(Joe Pantalone)正參選角逐市長一職。這個選區的其他候選人還有單車店東主Derek Chadbourne，平權會行政總監孫嘉欣(Karen Sun)，地產經紀Jim Likourezos，再次參選的Himy Syed，以及Joshua Shang。資料來源：星報

By David Rider, Toronto Star

It was a chat that men in the Layton line have been having since before Confederation – “What do you think about me running for office?”

“Jack gave me some of his dad’s advice,” says Mike Layton, new candidate for council in Ward 19 – and the son of the current federal NDP leader, the grandson of a federal cabinet minister, and on back.
The advice? “Never give up a chance to serve; think about that before anything else, and make sure this is something you will enjoy.”
It’s …

By Jamie Bradburn, Torontoist
Cheered on by supporters as he filed his papers, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) officially entered the mayor’s race this morning.
Pantalone is positioning himself as the candidate to carry on the work of the Miller administration in a non-flashy, down-to-business manner—as he told the Globe and Mail’s Marcus Gee, “you want someone who will do the job, not someone who is going to entertain you.”
So far two hopefuls (Karen Sun and Himy Syed) have submitted their papers to fill …

By JENNIFER LEWINGTON, The Globe and Mail
As soon as the bell rang yesterday to kick off the Toronto election race, a contingent of fresh and familiar faces quickly put their names on the ballot for Oct. 25.
First among the 40 who signed up on day one of the municipal campaign, up from 24 on the first day of the 2006 contest, was former Liberal Party national director Rocco Rossi, bidding to succeed Mayor David Miller.
“I will be able to put the team and the money in place to put a …

KarolynCoorsh joined the wiki and wrote about Torontopedia in the September 2007 editions of the Bloor-Bay Town Crier (page 5) and Midtown Town Crier (page 8 ) community newspapers.
http://towncrieronline.ca

By Marc Lostracco, Torontoist
Whilst performing our pre-read ritual of tearing out Toronto Life‘s 8,000 annoying snot-glued ad inserts and heavy stock subscription cards, we suddenly came across Torontoist’s name in the mag’s “Roundup” feature. The chart compares Toronto’s four major city blogs: Torontoist, Spacing Wire (now Spacing Toronto), BlogTO, and the newish Torontopedia.
Torontoist’s raison d’être is listed as “news, arts, culture, snark”—and we won’t argue with that—while BlogTO is like “your geeky friend who’s always in the know.” Author Dave McGinn accurately lists Spacing Toronto as “civically engaged and proudly earnest” and lauds Torontopedia for …

By Carrie Brunet, InsideToronto
The Internet may be the last refuge of anonymity for many, but two local Toronto-boosters are hoping to make their site a place where neighbours meet and neighbourhoods grow.
Annex residents Himy Syed and Karen Sun have created Torontopedia.ca. The site, using similar technology to Wikipedia, allows users to add to or edit existing content online. The content is, of course, Toronto-centric.
“We ask that people use their real names,” said Syed. “You wouldn’t introduce yourself to a neighbour by saying ‘Hi, I’m CoolDude123.’”
Instead, Syed would like to see …

Torontopedia makes page 2 of the June edition of The Annex Gleaner community newspaper.
This is a shorter version which first appeared in The Liberty Gleaner.

Torontopedia written up on the front page of the May/June edition of The Liberty Gleaner community newspaper.

By Ron Nurwisah (aka Boy Reporter), Torontoist
The last time a vote was this close the Supreme Court had to be called in. Last night’s Downtown and East York final for City Idol went to three ballots and a run-off before Desmond Cole (shown here in between Boy Reporter and fellow finalist Karen Sun) was picked by a raucous crowd at Lula Lounge to be downtown Toronto’s first City Idol.
Cole will be running in Ward 20 alongside former TV broadcaster Adam Vaughan and NDP nominee/Olivia Chow assistant …

By Ron Nurwisah, Torontoist
Come next Tuesday, Toronto will have its first four City Idol winners. Last weekend part-time Grad student and Ministry of the Environment employee Bahar Aminvaziri won the title of City Idol for North York. She’s declared that she’s running in crowded Ward 26, vacated by Mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield.
This Saturday, Scarberians will be picking their own City Idol. The event starts at 6:30pm at the Scarborough Civic Centre.
Monday sees the final for Downtown-East York. I’m one of the six finalists and ridiculously amazed …

By Dale Duncan, Eye Weekly
The Music Hall is almost packed when the lights dim and David Meslin walks onto the stage to kick off City Idol, the first in a series of events during which audience members will choose four candidates to run in November’s municipal election. The show is starting a bit behind schedule, and the crowd of nearly 600 people is getting anxious; after all, they have decided to spend their Friday night listening to a marathon of 82 back-to-back speeches by wannabe politicians.
It’s pure coincidence auditions for …

By Dale Duncan
Eye Weekly, February 16, 2006
BUZZ
Political karaoke

With the federal election finally out of the way, political nerds are now free to focus on the municipal race. Unfortunately, Toronto city council elections don’t usually attract a throng of loyal followers. Those who get off on municipal elections are a dying breed, a trend that’s reflected in our low voter turnout.
In 2003, only 38 per cent of Torontonians bothered to vote. According to Dave Meslin, this lack of participation has a lot to do with the way our city elections …