It was time for some β€œblue collar” people to run city hall – says a millionaire putting the seals of office around the neck of another millionaire. Time to get the β€œartsy” people out of city hall – says a public-broadcasting television comedian. Time for a fresh new start – and the β€œlefty pinkos” can put that in their pipe, setting the scene for four years of gracelessness, thuggishness and pointless conflict, so it would seem.

Don Cherry, the eye-opener - The Globe and Mail (via Instapaper)

Toronto’s newly elected mayor identified that anger and the anxiety. Rob Ford fed into it and preyed on it, telling voters in the simplest terms possible that the current crop of politicians were to blame for all their problems, that there were easy solutions that required no sacrifices, that soon they would be able to pay less to their government and get better services in return.

Dalton McGuinty’s reckoning with the days of wrath - The Globe and Mail (via Instapaper)

Most Canadians are simply not disturbed by the questions they are asked on the mandatory long-form census. There is no groundswell of opposition. There is not even a ripple. According to nearly everyone who has expressed an informed opinion, including two former chief statisticians at Statistics Canada, the voluntary replacement will be less accurate and hence less useful. It also costs more.

The Census: Policy by complaint (via Instapaper)