Waterfront

For the first time for several years the waterfront east of Sherbourne Commons became accessible this weekend though it's not clear yet whether that's permanent or it will be closed again for construction. There are two new streets:



And overall the design with car access (not sure why) and a wide pedestrian/cyclist boulevard is pretty good looking:



Right now there's not much to see on the North side. A five storey deep hole with a crane in it East of the park and still a vacant lot East of that. Nothing to the East of the rather odd turning circle (temporary) at the end of the new boulevard.

Looking North (you can see our apartment in this one!):



Looking East:



We also checked out the Presentation Centre at the new Daniels City for the Arts Complex. It looks quite promising with an extension of sugar beach North of Queen's Quay and a large courtyard space rather like the Distillery Complex. Two office towers (which will include performance and studio spaces) and one condo tower. Oddly I think, the largest condo units are well under 1000 square feet though they have large balconies. That's pretty much a standard two bedroom size in a modern building but I would have expected some more palatial units on the upper floors of a waterfront tower.

It's interesting to watch the developments South of us but so terribly, terribly slow. The rate they are going there is no way the lands East of the Don River will be developed in my lifetime.

That election

So, as of Sunday, we are in the longest federal election campaign in Canadian history. The long campaign period, of course, is because the tories have a bigger war chest, most of which they will spend on American style attack ads and various kinds of electoral fraud.

It's really hard to get enthusiastic here about anything other than a very real chance of getting rid of the utterly vile Stephen Harper. It's not just that he's a Tory. I'm quite happy to admit there are decent Tories; like the one whose funeral Harper didn't go to on Sunday but Harper is a paranoid scumbag who has imported wholesale the Repugs' Book of Dirty Tricks, who has reacted to his party being convicted of electoral fraud by trying to gut the Elections Commission and has repeatedly tried to break the constitution and then launched personal attacks on the Chief Justice when the Supreme Court has, quite correctly, stopped him. In other words he's as close to a Fascist as one could imagine in Canada.

The trouble is the alternatives are pretty grim. Justin Playdough is so wet his father could probably have done his daily 20 laps in him. His only assets are his parentage and that he's telegenic. In policy terms he's flip-flopped so much I think they thought of entering him in the diving at the Pan-Am games.

Then there's the NDP's Thomas Mulblair. He's an entryist as much as old Tony. He doesn't have a progressive bone in his body. Add to that that he's adopted the Mulroney line on Quebec; a policy that does have a chance of getting you elected once but guarantees eternal oblivion for your party when you try to implement it.

Bleh. I shall hold my nose and vote NDP on the grounds that deHarpering Canada is the most pressing issue.

Some of us have long memories

It's curious to see Mike Gapes, formerly of Clause 4 and Broad Left, cheerleading for Liz Kendall. He used to wear a badge with a T34 on it.