Bradford gains slim lead over Chow, Oct. 21
asserted
Bradford → gain → Chow
Brad Bradford likes to compare Toronto Water to a family taking out a home mortgage: a sound investment; a growing asset; something for our children.
asserted
Bradford → like → children
A better analogy would be a dad who instead of saving money to buy a compact second car decides to use the kid’s RESP account toward a down payment on a DeLorean.
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who → save → DeLorean
Toronto is famous for its sewers, first because both brown and rain water share the same pipe making for a more complex and expensive system, and second, until recently, because Toronto Water was seriously underfinanced, struggling to even maintain the existing system.
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Water → share → system
Bradford, having served on city council, must know this.
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Bradford → serve → this
Yet, instead of helping to build up a reserve for those ever more frequent one-in-100 year “rainy days,” Bradford has decided to raid the piggy bank and saddle our children with the debt.
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Bradford → help → debt
Fear mongering is a disservice to Toronto cops
While mayoral candidate Brad Bradford keeps stoking fear over crime, stats are showing a clear reduction in most types of crime.
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stats → keep → crime
If crime is declining, does that not mean police are doing an effective job?
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police → decline → job
Bradford’s fear mongering does a disservice to our cops.
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mongering → do → cops
Ron Brown, East York, ON
Vision is too generous a word for what Bradford is offering
“Vision” is far too strong a term for what mayoral candidate Brad Bradford is offering.
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Bradford → offer → what
“Hindsight” might serve more accurately for his strategy of “looking for efficiencies” and, presumably, cutting, cutting, cutting, those things that serve Torontonians, then allowing private interests to profit from the resulting lack and chaos.
uncertain
interests → serve → lack
Meg Meagher, Toronto
Olivia Chow is open-hearted and inclusive to the core
If a mistaken accusation of anti-Semitism helps defeat a hardworking progressive mayor in favour of Brad Bradford, a man whose own constituents do not seem to have one good word to say about him, it will be another tragedy in the city that elected Rob Ford.
asserted
that → help → Ford
Beth Kaplan, Toronto
Every mayoral candidate has to face Ford’s overwhelming power grab
I enjoy reading Matt Elliot’s op-eds.
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I → have → eds
His comments on mostly bread-and-butter topics resonate as sincere and stimulating.
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comments → resonate → topics
I was taken aback, then, when I read his Oct. 20 column.
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I → take → column
Elliot is referring to “Blame Doug Ford” as the reason Olivia Chow has hesitated to make big promises in her campaign.
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Chow → refer → campaign
Astonishingly, the balance of his op-ed then mostly justifies blaming Ford for making decisions contrary to Torontonians’ interests.
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balance → justify → interests
Elliot is justifiably frustrated that the mayoral campaigns are shaded by our Premier’s overwhelming power grab.
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campaigns → frustrate → grab
But this is a challenge all candidates face.
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candidates → face → ?
For instance, Brad Bradford can campaign on innumerable promises.
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Bradford → campaign → promises
Were he to become Toronto’s next mayor, only to have his vision shattered by Ford, his explanation to supporters would, too, likely be summed up by three little words.
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explanation → become → words
Gino Salvo, Mississauga, ON
Where will Bradford’s new cops be deployed?
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cops → deploy → ?
I’ll leave it to your readers to decide if Brad Bradford’s 1,000 new cops would be more useful than hiring 1,000 new street youth workers, social workers and teacher’s aides.
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cops → leave → workers
However, if Bradford does win and we get those new officers, I suspect they’ll be used to make the already safe feel safer, rather than being deployed in neighbourhoods that are plagued by frequent gun discharges.
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that → win → discharges
In his new book, “The American Way of Killing,” dual citizen Malcolm Gladwell makes a case for beefing up police forces to levels seen in Europe and the U.K., since a shortage of police leads to officer burnout and, in the U.S., unacceptable levels of police aggression.
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shortage → make → aggression
I doubt that many more people would use it if it felt safer, because cars are a status symbol, Torontonians are always in a hurry and cars shave off the time to get there.
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cars → doubt → time
Until you have to find a parking spot …
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you → have → spot
Ron Charach, Toronto
Alberta voted without riots or rage — that’s the Canadian way
I am grateful that Alberta held a democratic referendum and more than relieved at their choice of remaining part of Canada during these stressful times.
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Alberta → vote → times
True, it will not exactly be “all quiet on the western front” but there was no violent rioting in the streets of Ottawa nor any other city for that matter.
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it → be → matter
It’s the Canadian way.
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It → ’ → ?
Shirley Holmes, Owen Sound, ON
Being ‘rescued’ used to be a positive experience
The sad, heartbreaking news continues regarding the whales “rescued” from Niagara’s Marineland.
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news → rescue → Marineland
Generally, when we think of being “rescued,” it is a positive experience.
asserted
it → think → ?
They may have stood a chance for survival after being rescued if the powers that be, the provincial government, had taken the measures to protect them.
uncertain
that → stand → them
Thanks to the Star, we knew for years, decades actually, that Niagara’s Marineland could not properly care for these whales.
uncertain
Marineland → know → whales
Yet they were allowed to carry on as usual while the creatures they were supposed to protect were in failing health.
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they → allow → health
Too bad whales didn’t have a vote.
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whales → have → vote
Maybe the government would have rescued them before they needed to be “rescued.”
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they → rescue → them
The Aporia
