Allison Smith
@QueensParkToday
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Founder & Publisher of Politics Today — the home of Queen's Park Today, BC Today, Alberta Today and Parliament Today.
Toronto
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The province made a huge change to vaccine rules without making an announcement or issuing a press release. Anyone 18+ can now get a Moderna/Pfizer vaccine at a participating pharmacy.
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NEW: While the drama over the PC's use of the notwithstanding clause was erupting this week, Doug Ford and his ministers were quietly meeting with Hungarian President Novák Katalin at Queen's Park.
Katalin is a close ally of Viktor Orbán.
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NEW: Doug Ford has appointed developer/PC donor Mario Cortellucci to the York Police Services Board.
In 2018, Cortellucci ran for the Italian Senate under the far-right banner of Giorgia Meloni/Berlusconi (and lost).
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Ford claims the developers who benefitted to the tune of billions $$ by his government's land rezoning changes aren't his friends and he doesn't go their houses and have a good time.
In 2018, a De Gasperis family member hosted the premier in a luxury box at a Miami hockey game.
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It’s worth noting this mayor worked as a political staffer for a PC cabinet minister until last November and this interview was given the same week the PCs are pushing a housing cost narrative to distract from Greenbelt scandal.
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NEW: Ontario integrity commissioner reveals Tony Miele, chair of the PC Party's fundraising arm, sold developers tickets to Doug Ford's daughter's stag and doe last summer.
"Miele insisted that he did this to help the couple."
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Important timeline from Greenbelt report:
Sept 14, 2022: Minister's chief of staff chums with developers at BILD dinner, receives "packages" recommending their properties be removed from Greenbelt.
Sept 15: Michael Rice's firm buys Greenbelt land near King Township for $80M.
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The PCs just announced its adding EV chargers to ONroute locations across the province.
Just a reminder that in 2018 the PC gov't was so opposed to EVs, it spent money to rip out chargers that were already installed at GO stations.
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The morning after Steven Del Duca called Andrea Horwath sexist for making credible accusations of electoral fraud against one of his candidates, I am thinking about Horwath — the only woman in this race — has never played the gender card once.
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Obsessed with the photos of celebs standing amongst the weeds and rubble of Ontario Place at yesterday's Dune premiere.
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NEW: Hospital staffing shortages have trickled down to the ambulance offload process. At least two GTA hospitals are now using PSWs to monitor patients who arrive on a stretcher, rather than nurses.
PSWs are not trained to provide medical attention.
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NEW: Liberal Beaches-East York MP Nate Erskine-Smith tells me he's "seriously looking at" vying for Ontario Liberal Party leadership.
"I’m still talking it over with my family before any final decision, but no question that I’m interested in helping to rebuild the party."
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Neither Ford, nor his ministers, shared these images or discussed this meeting, as they normally would when a head of state visits Queen’s Park.
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On Monday, Doug Ford’s daughter Krista will be a “special guest” at an anti-vax “fight for freedom” event at Canada Christian College alongside Charles McVety and Sheila Gunn Reid.
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The Ontario Liberals have successfully jam packed the ballroom in the basement of the DoubleTree hotel for their first candidate/volunteer rally of the (upcoming) campaign.
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Who else did Novak meet with while she was in Toronto, you may ask? Well.
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Lysyk confirmed the two "prominent developers" who gave packages to Clark's chief are the same "prominent developers" who fought her summons to participate in the audit: Michael Rice and Silvio De Gasperis.
Combined they benefitted from 66% of the land removed from Greenbelt.
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Among other things, the Orban administration has taken a pro-Russia stance in the ongoing war with Ukraine.
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The full story of Premier Ford's quiet meeting with Hungary's far-right head of state at Queen's Park this week.
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Schreiner is the only one getting under Ford’s skin.
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So... the Ontario PCs are getting sneakier when it comes to Doug Ford attending fundraisers.
Tomorrow Ford's going to a $1,000-ticket event — but the advertisement doesn't say he will be there, only the URL does.
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NEW: The PCs granted a sole-sourced vaccine clinic contract to private firm FH Health after its entire board gave the maximum allowable political donation to their party.
The NDP now wants the auditor general to investigate.
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Neither the health minister nor the solicitor general nor the premier have tweeted about the change...
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A source at the LCBO tells me there was a call amongst their spirits buyers last night about doing exactly this.
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We need to talk about how chaotic the signs at the Toronto Island petting zoo are.
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I was intrigued by the PC Party’s new attack line about Bonnie Crombie’s vacation home in the Hamptons so I ran a property title search and…
…It’s not in the Hamptons.
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NDP MP
@CharlieAngusNDP
has deleted his tweet calling Andrea Horwath's anti-mandatory vaccine stance "idiocy" and saying he wrote to the provincial party asking them to walk it back.
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Amid the province's massive third wave crisis, Premier Ford held two Zoom fundraisers last week (1.5 hours for $1,650 Tuesday and 1 hour for $400-$1,000 Thursday) and has another 1 hour one planned for this Thursday (also $1,000).
Green Party Leader
@MikeSchreiner
said that Premier Ford has time for $1,000 fundraisers but no time for question period. "People need to hear from their premier."
#onpoli
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The Ontario Principals’ Council has pointed out principals have a legal obligation under the Education Act to report the existence of any communicable disease in their schools.
‘If a child tests positive for COVID-19 on a rapid antigen test at home, their parent is under no obligation to inform the school or their local public health unit…Parents should not expect notifications for positive cases identified in child’s classroom’
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This damning Toronto Sun column that suggested Doug Ford cabinet ministers denied new LTC funds during the pandemic has been taken off the newspaper’s website. 👀
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“They started giving us money. The conditions of this money is don’t say a word about it.” - Rivett on the Toronto Star’s financial deals with Meta and Google.
(Holy shit. I don’t think anyone’s said this out loud before.)
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oh yeah, and there was that time, a few months after
@fordnation
took office, that the province sold off the hearn generating station (which happens to be on the waterfront) for the bargain-basement price of $16million... without telling anyone. guess who bought it?
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If you want to make the Chatham—Kent—Leamington story about gender, the story is that the OLP scooped up a last-minute female candidate & pinned her with signatures that the party collected for someone else. The Liberals let this woman down, nobody else.
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Premier Ford had his provincial health table change outdoor dining rules on the advice of a family friend who is selling patio domes to restaurants for $1,800 a pop.
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**Katalin Novák is her name. Typo in first tweet, sry.
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According to her Facebook post about the meeting, Ford praised Hungary's new "flat rate taxation scheme as well as tax benefits for families" and agreed to intensify economic and trade relations with the country.
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To my knowledge, this is the first time Krista will speak out IRL against the province’s (ie. her father’s) vaccine mandate — something she does very frequently on Instagram.
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The Ministry of Natural Resources hired GFL to clean up the runoff of last week’s Etobicoke chemical fire, but it breached the creeks and is pouring into Lake Ontario.
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fascinated by this man, mario cortellucci, and his outsized influence on ontario and GTA politics. cortellucci, who lives in vaughan and ran as a far-right candidate for the italian senate back in 2018 - is a major ford donor...
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Further context: McVety and Doug Ford were long time friends, but have fallen out. McVety recently told reporters Ford no longer picks up the phone when he calls.
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As of today, there are 31 long-term care homes in Ontario with Covid outbreaks.
As recently as Saturday, there were only 19.
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Sergio Manchia, the developer who bought four party tickets from PC Fund chair Tony Miele, had two of his properties removed from the Greenbelt a few months after the stag.
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@moore_oliver
@jillsmahoney
Lilley, who has a direct line to the premier's office, says "it's not true." But doesn't provide any sourcing for how he knows that.
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NEW: Order in Council signed by Ontario PC's Friday appears to ban short-term vacation rentals.
Airbnb hosts and other holiday rental cos can only provide housing to people in need of housing. h/t
@sabrinananji
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From the public accounts: The PC's caucus support bureau paid Nick Kouvalis' Campaign Support Ltd. $616K last year, up from $121K in 2019-20.
Premier Ford's office has previously confirmed the firm is paid to conduct internal polling. Kouvalis is Ford's official advisor.
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New Blue MPP Belinda Karahalios, who is currently barred from the legislature for 90 days for being unvaccinated and catching Covid, declared investment shares in Novavax Inc., a biopharma firm that develops and sells Covid vaccines.
She did not declare that asset in 2020.
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This is an explainer thread about yesterday’s pharmacy vaccine change, which I think is needed because there is a lot of confusion 🧵
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Notable, since the province has not named and/or shamed any businesses or farms where there have been outbreaks, even when it would be in the public interest to do so.
Talking further about the party in Brampton,
@fordnation
encourages media to "name and shame" the homeowner.
Then asks if an employer would want a person like that working for them.
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New: Internal docs show cost of Ford gov’s anti-carbon-tax gas-pump stickers was 6x higher than has previously been reported.
NEW from me &
@QueensParkToday
: Price tag for Ontario PCs mandatory anti-carbon-tax gas-pump stickers hits $30K, internal documents show 🔓
#onpoli
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She was also at a gala with Associate Minister Michael Tibollo on the weekend.
I presented the 🇭🇺Order of Merit medals to Prof. Dr. László Radványi, President of the Ontario Cancer Research Institute
@OICR_news
&
@MichaelTibollo
MPP, minister of the
#Ontario
government who was one of the initiators of the legislation to proclaim Hungarian Heritage Month🇨🇦🇭🇺
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Ex-PC MPP Bill Walker on why he pushed the gov to extend hunting season at his friend's country club:
“Some of these people are pretty affluent. That’s the reality of our world. Why penalize just because everybody can’t have all of the exact same things?"
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The fact Kathleen Wynne was a woman/LTGBTQ was talked about all the time. Horwath, basically not at all.
Both of those things are fine, but it's pretty shocking the one time sexism does come up in the campaign it's Del Duca's ridiculous attack on HER.
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Not saying she should! Her and her team seem to deliberately steer clear of it.
But I do think the fact she's a woman has subtly influenced the coverage of her at times ie. the characterizations of her as inept, as trying too hard (4th kick at the can), etc.
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For those doing the math, this info means nearly half of the budget for the $2.5M public inquiry has been allocated to legal advice and the commissioner’a salary.
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Miele made headlines in 2021 for the fake invoice the PC Party was sending to prospective donors, which made it seem like they owed the party money.
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In the middle of a Las Vegas-related scandal, Doug Ford welcomed the Nevada governor to Queen's Park today to sign a trade MOU.
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It took awhile, but I am a full-time member of the Queen's Park press gallery. Thanks
@CANADALAND
for covering this.
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The looming Ontario Line construction disruptions should be a mayoral issue.
In 3 weeks, intersections in the core are going to shutter for the better part of a decade.
How is city leadership going to make sure people/goods can still move around?
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Correction: Manchia only had one property removed, but Matt Johnston - the guy who attended the stag in Sergio's stead - also worked for another developer, who got a parcel out as well.
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Panel over. My jaw dropped like seven times. Glad I came.
Also, I love journalism and want it to survive!
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@moore_oliver
@jillsmahoney
At issue is the Globe's report that the DeGasperis family "borrowed $100M from CIBC to cover the purchase" of a Greenbelt parcel in 2021 "at an interest rate of 21 per cent annually, records show."
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New, but from a different era: Ontario's auditor general finds Minister Lisa MacLeod was "far off the mark" when she repeatedly claimed it was costing $200M to support irregular border crosses.
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Really the only time I can think of Horwath calling out sexism against herself, is when Ford said her voice sounded 'like nails on a chalkboard.'
And, well, you kind of have to at that point.
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Toronto Star co-owner Paul Rivett, asked about the future of the newspaper, talked about embracing “failure,” suggested that, in the case of “bankruptcy” it could come back life. If it grows back smaller maybe that’s okay, he said.
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Notably, no one from the federal government met with Novák while she was in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office confirmed.
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Doug Ford keeps his promise to name-and-shame businesses who are acting unfairly during COVID-19 crisis: Calls out high-end Toronto food retailer Pusatari's for selling hand wipes for $30.
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Sept 16: Chief of staff orders staffers to conduct site-specific reviews of “Cherrywood, a site in King Township, and possibly a site near Hamilton airport.”
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Lol except now it doesn't anymore. The party changed it after I emailed them 30 minutes ago.
The URL is now 🙃
But the old one still redirects 🙂
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On Friday, the very day the Doug Ford government eased pit bull regulations, the same exact dog that prompted renewed pressure on the file bit a kid in the face.
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But Toronto and Peel aren’t on that list of 6 locations and now have pharmacies listed.
Also on Wednesday, this is what the vaccine task force said was happening with Pfizer in hot-spot pharmacies.
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This is from a new report that clears Ford of any impropriety related to the event or subsequent wedding, because gifts to an MPP's family members aren't covered by the members' integrity act.
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Queen's Park security predicted 2,000 marchers. 60,000 turned up.
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This is just a waterfront house in suburban Long Island.
Nice, I’m sure! But a world away from the estates the phrase “the Hamptons” evokes.
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PSWs are not trained to fully monitor vital signs, like a patient's heart rate.
“They are trying to shove people into care when there is no one to properly care for them,” one Toronto paramedic told Queen's Park Today.
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@today_ab
The Alberta NDP is asking the Auditor General to investigate a $905K contract Allan authorized days after his appointment — to Dentons, a firm where his son Toby is a partner.
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Top Ontario PC staffer was indicted on nine counts of U.S. voter fraud when he was a university student, newly revealed court documents detail🔓
#onpoli
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Yorkville-based private high school paying for sponsored Instagram ads that capitalize on teacher shortages in high schools. The cost of taking one high school course at Blyth is $2,695 + a $1,000 registration fee.
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In season 4 of RHONY, there is a whole plot line about the cast not wanting to attend a party in Quogue because it’s considered too far flung from the real Hamptons.
Quogue is in the orange circle, Patchogue in red.
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Launched a cute new website this week.
Queen's Park Today, AB Today and BC Today are finally under one banner — Politics Today. And our unpaywalled stories are now easier to read than ever.
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Yesterday Premier Ford said Charles McVety's Canadian Christian College had gone through the independent process to obtain university status.
Turns out its application was filed 11 days before the PCs tabled their omnibus bill & is still being weighed.
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Did I accidentally come across a beta survey on the PC's website? Yew.
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Anyone who’s watched Real Housewives of New York City has absorbed plenty of Hamptons geography lessons.
And East Pachogue is closer to Queens than it is East Hampton.
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The premier’s office clarifies that Moderna for 18+ in some hot spots was announced Wednesday.
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(Sept. 15 was the day the King land sale closed, it was initiated prior to then.)
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I try not to show my biases on here, but the PC’s plan for Ontario Place is… perfect.
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He was hit by a car while cycling.
Great Wolf Lodge GM remembered as 'passionate leader' after sudden death this weekend
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While Canada and Hungary are NATO allies, the two countries have taken very different tacts on the war in Ukraine.
Just six weeks ago, Viktor Orbán called for EU sanctions against Russia to be scrapped — a position that is radically opposed to Canada’s.
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Part conversation I don't think we've had yet:
When it opens Therme is going to be entering a much more saturated GTA spa market than when it first pitched its plan in 2017.
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The number of landlords in the legislature is up from last year. Now, 28 MPPs — or nearly a quarter of the house — are declaring rental income on their disclosures, including 18 PCs (up seven), seven New Democrats, two Liberals (up one) and Roman Baber.
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(The land title record does confirm Crombie inherited the property, as she said on Saturday.)
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Taxing this shit out of secondary homeowners would be a great way to open up housing to the “prospective new homebuyers” governments say they want to help.
But no politician will, because their personal assets, and those of their family and friends, are tied up in the game.
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Source:
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