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 Dandyhorse Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 // Fall 2010
Rob Ford
“Working for the People”
Age 41, High school football coach, City Councillor for Ward 2 North Etobicoke, helps run the family business Deco Labels and Tags.
robfordformayor.ca
OLD QUOTE: “I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” — 2007
NEW QUOTE: “I will guarantee to trim the fat…at City Hall.”
BIKE LANES: No
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: A 2007 city council video (now a …

From rtlechow’s posterous

By Kelly Grant, The Globe and Mail
Well, this is guaranteed to be a time-sucker inside at least five campaign offices in Toronto.
OneStop Media, the company behind the TV screens in TTC stations, has unveiled a new game called Mayoral Munch. It’s Pac-Man with a political twist.
Players select one major mayoral candidate to be Pac-Man, which automatically turns the other four into baddies.
The candidate picked most often sits atop a constantly updated poll that will be displayed on OneStop’s screens across Toronto.

HiMY SYeD – Fast forward to the 3:17 mark
As of …

By Josh Hume, NOW Magazine

An incumbent councillor is harder to get rid of than a pool shark hogging a pub’s lone billiard table, dispatching all comers before they have a chance to sink a single shot.
To …

From The Green Majority,  CIUT 89.5 FM Daryn Caister asks Toronto municipal candidate George Sawision and Mayoral Candidate Himy Syed (Twitter) about the Toronto Community Green Linx project, how street level action can effectively happen in Canadian cities and the challenges active environmental citizens face.

By Dave Meslin, Mez Dispenser
Here’s the May 30 election snapshot,  a monthly look at how municipal candidates are distributed across our grand city.
Fourteen new candidates registered this month, in twelve wards.  Three candidates dropped out.
There are still four acclaimed candidates, two of which are incumbents: Peter Milczyn & Chin Lee.
HiMY SYeD dropped out of the ward 19 race, to run for mayor.
The highest number of candidates is ward 27 (Kyle Rae’s ward) with 13 candidates.  Want to meet them all?  A group called #VoteTO is hosting an “All Candidate Gameshow” on Thursday …

By Jon Sufrin, Toronto Life

The Rebel Mayor situation, the municipal election’s only fun gossip story so far, may have ended before it was spoken of outside of city hall. For the uninitiated, an anonymous tweeter known as Rebel Mayor has been poking fun at just about every public figure in Toronto since November 2009, with a particular emphasis on mayoral candidates. The identity of the musket-wielding, Scotch-swilling, Prius-driving, old English–spouting reincarnation of William Lyon Mackenzie (who chronicles the travails of his “team” as he campaigns to reclaim his place as Toronto’s mayor) …

By Natalie Alcoba, National Post
UPDATE 9:48 p.m. ET: A cryptic email neither confirms nor denies the identity of Twitter’s “Rebel Mayor.”
An email sent by the National Post to Himy Syed, whose duplicate tweet earlier today led to speculation he was Rebel Mayor, received this response:

“‘Team’ has withdrawn Blackberry privileges until further notice. xo”

—
Has a mystery older than the municipal election — and generating practically as much interest among City Hall keeners — been solved?
Rebel Mayor (@rebelmayor), the reincarnation of William Lyon Mackenzie on Twitter, has been amusing followers since November with …

By Jackson Proskow, Global News  Toronto
He was Toronto’s first mayor, and leader of the Upper Canada rebellion. These days he’s best known for working with his “Team” to add a musket rack to his Prius.
Confused? So is most of City Hall.
For the last few months someone has been posing as William Lyon Mckenzie on Twitter – under the handle “rebelmayor.” (The rebel describes himself as “Toronto’s first mayor – 1837 rebellion starter – back & pissed & running for Toronto mayor in 2010”). The question of just who this person might …

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 George Sawision on 5 Mar 2010
Recorded on March 5, 2010 using a Flip Video camcorder.

By Laura Grande, The Toronto Observer
Small business owners mixed with various other protesters Monday to demonstrate against Toronto city councillor Adam Giambrone’s run for mayor.
Giambrone, who is also chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, officially announced his candidacy for the top job Monday night at Revival nightclub on College Street.
Filled beyond capacity and resembling the crowds on the oft-ridiculed TTC subway system, hundreds of supporters turned up to hear the 32-year-old Giambrone toss his hat into the ring.
However, outside the club, the volume was even louder as chants of “Adam …

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 …

From Mondovile
Who will have the best social media strategy for the November 2010 Toronto municipal election?
Mayoral candidate George Smitherman is laying low until spring; Rocco Rossi can’t decide whether to tweet under his partisan @liberalrocco handle or go for @roccothevoteTO; Giorgio Mammoliti promises a “no-nonsense campaign” that probably has no role for a Twitter consultant.
Back when nobody was heeding much attention to these details, though, compulsively chronicling the 2006 vote via Web 2.0 was Himy Syed — who planted himself on the ballot of central-west downtown Ward 19 to watch …

By DON PEAT, The Toronto Sun/ SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: June 25, 2009 5:22pm
Even before the city has announced locations of temporary dump sites, residents are threatening to boycott and set up pickets at the dump sites.
Christie Pits residents told the Sun that if the park is made into a temporary dump site, as is expected to be announced this afternoon, they’ll do whatever they can legally to keep the Pits from filling up with garbage.
“I think it’s a reasonable thing to voice our opposition in every possible legal …

By DON PEAT, The Toronto Sun, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 25th June 2009, 9:22am
Christie Pits residents are fuming at the thought their beloved park could be turned into a temporary dump.
While the city has yet to announce the location for its new temporary dump sites, residents see temporary fencing being set up and figure the park is about to get filled with garbage.
Friends of Christie Pits say the decision stinks, especially after watching the 2002 strike ruin the park with piles of garbage from the 16-day city strike.
The group is planning a protest for 11 a.m. today …

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.

Eye Weekly, 2006 List
November
Robert Altman RIP. | The Black Keys, Magic Potion . | Income trust reversal: markets freak out. | Deliver Us From Evil . | Quebec Nation recognized. | Scrappy kid Shaun Bruce runs for mayor. | Nellie McKay, Pretty Little Head . | Into the Great Silence . | Chavez, Better Days Will Haunt You . | Black Eyed Dogs H. | Saw III H. | Bush: …

By CARRIE BRUNET, InsideToronto
cbrunet@insidetoronto.com
Incumbent Joe Pantalone took his ward by a landslide again this election, returning for a term that will see him serving nearly three decades in municipal politics.
In his last term, Pantalone was one of David Miller’s deputy mayors. He was also the city’s tree advocate and chaired the round table on the environment.
This time around Pantalone was challenged by newcomers George Sawision, Himy Syed and Nick Boragina.
Pantalone took the seat with 8,524 votes, followed by Sawision with 1,710 votes, Boragina with 511 votes and Syed with 403 …

By Marc Weisblott, The Globe and Mail
The cast and crew of the City Idol competition watched the Toronto municipal election results come in at Paupers Pub in the Annex, even if the television coverage hardly had the suspense of a World Cup match.
Citytv proclaimed David Miller’s re-election as soon as they signed on-air, and went to rival Jane Pitfield for an instantly incredulous reaction: “They’ve already decided on the winner?”
The effort to make no-contests like Kyle Rae’s inevitable victory in Toronto-Centre Rosedale sound suspenseful was a pretty fruitless allocation of CityNews resources, especially when …

By Marc Weisblott
The Globe and Mail
Himy Syed opened a campaign office in the storefront of the Metro Theatre (677 Bloor St. W.) because he figured it was the perfect place to advocate for the reunification of north and south Koreatown — two sides of the street that fall into two different electoral wards. Syed has claimed residence in about a dozen different parts of Toronto, ever since his family moved from the U.K., flipping houses that flipped them around the town. Being a local nomad comes naturally to …

By Matthew Blackett, Spacing Votes

Himy Syed, a candidate in Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina, is opening his campaign office Sunday afternoon.
But it’s not your typical office — it’s located in the former Metro porn theatre on Bloor Street West, just east of Christie Street, in Little Korea [click here for a photo of theatre].
I suspect he’s the only candidate to have an office in a former porn theatre, but weirder things have happened in this election so far.

By Peter Kuitenbrouwer, National Post
I popped into my local, Caffe Brasiliano on Dundas Street West near Euclid Avenue, the other day for an espresso and was surprised to find the place, inside and out, festooned with huge posters — like a theatre decked out for a Joseph Stalin rally — showing a smiling, grey-haired gentleman.
“George Sawision,” read the posters. “Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina. It’s time to make a difference together.”
Mr. Sawision, 50, a master electrician who has lived on Crawford Street in the ward his whole life, is a long shot …

From CHIN Radio, October 28 , 8:45 am

HiMY SYeD – Radio Interview — CHIN Radio October 28 , 8:45 am

By CARRIE BRUNET, InsideToronto
cbrunet@insidetoronto.com
Few candidates have chosen to run in Ward 19 held by incumbent and deputy mayor Joe Pantalone.
Pantalone has been the councillor in the area for more than 25 years. For the last term he has been the city’s tree advocate and has worked to establish the Johnny Lombardi Memorial on College Street.
Also running in the ward this election is, U.K.-born, Himy Syed.
In his own words, Syed is an ‘artist, community and anti-war activist, author and civil rights activist, interest-free banker, photojournalist and photoblogger.’
George Sawision, is …