And when you’re wrong with 6,000 people reading why you’re wrong, well, I’m gulping the gulp you gulp when all you can say is: “My arguments may have been wrong, but at least they were well put.”
I was wrong about expanding Billy Bishop Airport and letting jets take off and land there. I said it was a good idea. Lots of readers disagreed. The longer runway would have all kinds of knock-on effects that would change what’s wonderful about the waterfront. One of these readers, the indefatigable and relentless Anne Golden, threatened me with an invitation for coffee, which I attended and was well finger-wagged.
Anne was actually in despair. For her, the prospect of taking on Doug Ford’s government was Everestian. Everybody knows that the dice were loaded. Everybody knows that the fight was fixed. Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Until of course, they won.
Last Friday, after the polls showed Doug Ford sitting in the mid-20s in public opinion brought on by his fumbled effort to buy and sell a private jet, and his fumbled effort to rationalize his government’s efforts in fighting the forest fires raging in the North, Ottawa announced that it would not allow Billy Bishop to be expanded to accommodate jets.
The announcement was shocking, but politically unsurprising. It came after a federal public consultation drew 87,000 responses, with the vast majority from Toronto residents vehemently opposed to the expansion. You can imagine all those bright shiny new Liberal Members of Parliament trying to push back the sea on this one.
“The survey was a temperature check from the federal government, and the temperature is obviously very radioactive on this issue.” That from Norm Di Pasquale, program manager for the advocacy group NoJetsTO.
I’m actually stunned at how quickly the water’s gone cold for Ford and the provincial Tories. A couple of other readers also wrote to tell me that I missed something very big in last Saturday’s blog on the Premier and the forest fires.
At a press conference in Thunder Bay, Mr. Ford said: “On the reserve, the feds have responsibility to take care of First Nations, but we are taking care of them.”
But hold on, isn’t this the same Doug Ford who, after Donald Trump threatened to boost tariffs on Canada because the smoke from our wildfires created bad air for Americans: “With all the assets the U.S. has, he’s sitting there complaining. Why don’t you send up some water bombers? Why don’t you start helping us, like we would help you in a heartbeat?”
Speaking of hearts, I used to think Doug Ford’s was in the right place. His policies and buck-a-beer persona weren’t to my taste. But he had Ontarians’ interests at heart.
I don’t think that any more. I also don’t think that consistency is the virtue it once was in politics. We can’t say the world is changing at warp speed and ask our leaders not to change at all.
There was an Ontario politician who was like this.
It was 1971 and the Tories had been backing the construction of the Spadina Expressway. Bill Davis had succeeded John Robarts as Premier and inherited a hornet’s nest of protest, led by Jane Jacobs, who had moved to Albany Avenue in Toronto three years earlier, fresh off her defeat of Robert Moses’s Lower Manhattan Expressway in New York.
On June 3, 1971, Premier Davis rose in the Provincial Legislature and stated: “If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway would be a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop. It is our determination to opt for the latter.”
The dragon was slain.
Meanwhile…
1. Whacks to the head: From Paul Krugman on just how disastrous Trump is for all of us…and from Emily Wilson, the classicist who translated The Odyssey. She doesn’t much like Chris Nolan’s Odyssey and, speaking of which, here’s the 173-minute movie in 1 minute…and Krugman again on taxing the rich.
2. Urban planning. First, what are desire paths? Plus, home prices vs. incomes (and one reason Toronto’s population growth shrank from 1st in 2024 to 412th last year). Plus, Vancouver eyes four new concert halls. And finally, up where the air is clear in Paris.
3. Britain’s new PM. Andy Burnham took office last week, Britain’s 7th Prime Minister in the last 10 years. Here’s what he thinks…about FIFA and the World Cup…university vs. trades...and moving quickly. And here’s what he did. In New York this week, small business got a creative kick and Mayor Mamdani didn’t get to arrest Israel’s PM.
4. Outside, offside, inside. Sometimes, not fitting in can be the best gift of all. And sometimes the tiniest nation can do the most glorious things.And rarely, Eleanor Wachtel interviews Salman Rushdie on his life and near-death. Plus what not to do when the light narrows on your dad’s life. Plus, he was one of the world’s most successful mercenary explorers. So why do we know almost nothing about Meriwether Lewis?
5. Books + Bars. If we can have libraries in hotels, we can sell books in bars. The newest temple to extreme literacy opened in Toronto’s Mirvish Village last month: BookBar is a bar that sells books, and hosts readings and wine tastings and singles nights. I have to say, Toronto’s new literary lounge is drop-dead gorgeous.
6. What country has more sheep than people? The Faroe Islands. Plus, can good luck be learned? And when does willpower stop working? And what new typeface is bamboozling AI? Ghost Font.
7. Following young patients for 5 years. CAMH is not just one of the world’s biggest mental health facilities, it’s one of the most innovative. Take the Tay Cohort Study that’s charting how certain symptoms of mental illness, like psychosis and suicidality, develop in young people. There are lots of cohort studies of children and youth; this is the first anywhere of them requiring hospital-based mental health care.
Speaking of on-the-edge, in 2006 cardiologist Dr. Heather Ross began taking her heart transplant patients to climb places like Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, and Everest Base Camp in Nepal. They just returned from this year’s 19-day Tree to Sea to Summit Expedition, which began with 13 days of bikepacking, and over 800km of cycling across Vancouver Island, followed by 5 days of alpine mountaineering in the Coast Mountains.
8. He’s no tech bro. Bernard Arnault, the world’s 10th richest human, has a different take on wealth and privacy and philanthropy. Speaking of, are we in the Third Wave of Philanthropy? And how about basketball bro Barack Obama’s endorsement of Josh Turek of Iowa for U.S. Senator.
9. Old. First, how to deal with old gadgets. Next, Dick Cavett interviews Peter O’Toole, on old late night TV. The world’s best-selling perfume on this list is also the oldest. And not old at all, one soccer player’s amazing torque.
10. What I’m liking: Gone, a six-part BBC murder mystery. Three parts in, the acting and writing are, of course, astringent, and the plot has thickened.
What The Booker is liking: The Booker Prize released its longlist for the best novel of the year. The shortlist lands on September 22 and the winner on November 9.
Guaranteed 100% written by Bob Ramsay, human.