It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are nine wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the seventh in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent. Ward 18 Davenport Bordered by Dovercourt Road in the east, Dupont Street to the north, the rail corridor in the west from the Junction to where it meets King Street, Ward 18 encompasses the Junction Triangle, Roncesvalles, Little Portugal, Bloordale and West Queen West neighbourhoods. The Candidates: After a whirlwind of activity surrounding Adam Giambrone’s short run for mayor and his sex scandal, the race for his seat has become highly contested. With 12 candidates vying for his spot in City Hall this race is sure to be one to keep an eye on. For Davenport residents, Ana Bailao’s name may sound familiar. She not only came in second place for the spot in council in 2003, but was the former assistant to the councillor before Giambrone, Mario Silva. She has also been active on many community boards for the past ten years. She is the founding member of Friends of Dovercourt Park, as well as DIG IN, the Dupont Improvement Group and has sat on community boards such as the Junction Triangle Association, S.O.S (Save Our Schools Committee), Bloordale Villagers Association, and multiple Portuguese associations. Endorsed by Mayor David Miller, Gord Perks, Adam Giambrone and Adam Vaughan, Kevin Beaulieu was the executive assistant to Giambrone. In that position he found himself involved in many projects and transit-oriented initiatives, and was able to engage with community members and BIAs. He is a current member of the Davenport Municipal Association and wants to make sure that City services are kept public and not sold off to the highest bidder. The software developer whose campaign website is still under construction, Doug Carroll is concerned about poor city services and has a campaign centered on the governance of these services, including user audits and public quality ratings. Former Ontario Green Party leader Frank De Jong is a member of Active 18 and a year-round cyclist. He vows to close the House of Lancaster strip club and create some interesting projects such as the Property Assessed Clean Energy program, in which the City would front the cost of homeowners installing a renewable electricity system and issue low interest bonds which the homeowner could payback through a 20-year payment plan.

It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are nine wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the sixth in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent. Ward 36 Scarborough Southwest This ward runs along the Scarborough Bluffs with Lake Ontario in the south, the Canadian National rail lines in the north, Victoria Park Avenue in the west and extends east to where Kingston Road meets the train tracks. It encompasses the Birchcliff, Cliffside, Cliffcrest, and Scarborough village neighbourhoods. The Candidates: With Brian Ashton announcing his retirement after 22 years as councilor for Ward 36, a number of candidates have emerged to represent this area. Vicki Breen is a longtime Scarborough whose platform and views include opposition to LRTs (she wants to investigate subways), ambivalence on wind turbines, and opposition to the vehicle registration and land transfer taxes. Gary Crawford brings experience with budgets to the table as trustee and former vice-chair of the Toronto District School Board. Crawford wants to freeze councillors salaries and make councillors more accountable to taxpayers. He also proposes to turn Kingston Rd. into a complete street “with flowers, restaurants and other amenities, making it safer and more livable.” Dr. Roman Danilov, the self-proclaimed professional vows to become the worst nightmare for profit-hungry parties acting against residents. With a PdD, BSc and Msc, Danilov has worked in psychology, natural and environmental sciences, as well as business and has taught a variety of courses at universities for the last eight years. He vows to make the TTC an essential service and prevent the space along the CN rail tracks from being developed, instead proposing to build green spaces.

It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are nine wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the fifth in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent. Ward 22 – St. Paul's This ward encompasses Forest Hill, Davisville Village, Yonge & Eglinton, and Mt. Pleasant. It's bordered by Eglinton to the North, Bayview Ave. and the North Toronto Rail Line in the east, and Spadina Road and Dupont Street to the south. The Candidates: Michael Walker announced his desire to resign from City politics this year after 28 years serving Ward 22. There are only four candidates running in this election to replace Walker in this wealthy North Toronto ward, Josh Matlow may be a name you recognize even if you don't leave in or near Ward 22. Matlow is a TDSB board member, and has also served on boards for the North Toronto Community, City of Toronto’s Historic Houses of Old Toronto Museum, Greepower, Ontario Smart Growth Network, Toronto Board of Trade’s Clean City Task Force and the City of Toronto’s Clean Streets Working Group. His campaign is focused on environmental and community-focused issues, and he's been endorsed by local Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett. William Molls may be the youngest candidate in this election, at 22 years old. Molls proposes to implement a dog park in Davisville and recognizes the Toronto Environmental Alliance’s six key points for the upcoming election. He also wants to lower the voting age to 16.

It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are nine wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the fourth in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent. Ward 27 Toronto Centre–Rosedale This ward encompasses much of the downtown core, east of Bay Street to Jarvis and from Queen up to the Moore Park Ravine and includes the Church-Wellesley Village, Rosedale, Yorkville, Moore Park, and Downtown neighbourhoods. The Candidates: Kyle Rae has represented Ward 27 for the past 19 years. During his time on council, Rae oversaw intense development in the ward, focused on issues affecting Toronto's gay community, and spearheaded the creation of Yonge-Dundas Square. He became increasingly frustrated with the way council makes decisions, telling the Star’s Christopher Hume, “I’ll miss people, but I won’t miss council." There are a whopping 15 candidates campaigning for the Ward 27 seat. (In recognition of the area’s young demographic, VoteTO organized an all-candidates debate at Fly night club in June where the contestants played games such as The Price is Right and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, with questions designed to suit the ward as well as the city.) Here are the contenders: As the former aide to mayoral hopeful George Smitherman, and endorsed by outgoing Rae, Ken Chan knows how politics works. Starting out as a police officer from 1999 to 2003, Chan moved into politics to serve as the Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs in the office of the Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. In his campaign launch speech he applauded the pioneering of Yonge-Dundas Square as an events space and expects more imagination in the future creation of public spaces in the city. Chris Tindal may be recognizable to some as the poster boy for the Green Party. He ran for a seat in Parliament in 2006, as well as the 2008 by-election. His career as a multimedia consultant helps explains Tindal's focus on open communication quality customer service. One of the key issues on his platform points to fixing customer service issues within the TTC.

It’s not often that candidates for City Council are given the opportunity to run without an incumbent in the ward. This year there are eight nine wards with seats ripe for the picking. This post is the third in a series on the candidates in these contested wards, and the key issues in the neighbourhoods they seek to represent. Ward 29 – Toronto Danforth Bounded by Danforth Avenue, Coxwell Avenue, the Don River and Canadian Pacific Railway to the northwest, this ward includes neighbourhoods such as Danforth Village, Greektown, Riverdale, Todmorden Village, and Central East York. The Candidates Case Ootes has been a member of council in some form since 1988. He was the first deputy mayor of the megacity, and served on a multitude of other City boards, but announced his decision to retire from City politics in January. With Ootes out, a number of candidates have jumped into the race. Jane Pitfield, who lost the 2006 race for mayor to David Miller, announced her candidacy the day Ootes resigned, while others such as Chris Caldwell had hopes of running against the City Hall lifer.

The 80 finalist videos in the Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF) are now running on OneStop screens across TTC platforms, and on the TUFF website. The director of TUFF, Sharon Switzer, says that this is what public art should do. “It's bringing work to the people so they don’t have to go find it," she says. "Surprising them, entertaining them and educating them.” Running concurrently with the Toronto International Film Festival, TUFF aims to make the short-listed shorts more accessible than an hours-long lineups in front of theatres across the city. Switzer pre-screened the 355 submissions so that each film could be placed in one of the seven categories assigned to a juror. Then, each juror had to choose the top ten from the 50 or so they were given that would play on the OneStop screens. Top picks have already been chosen, and the seven categories have each been assigned specific days. Starting today and continuing until September 17, TTC subway platforms screens will display a TUFF entrant video once every 10 minutes from the category for the day (which can be viewed here). Viewers interested in seeing the films back-to-back can go to TUFF-specific stations at Yonge-Bloor, St. Andrew and Dundas stations. At Bloor station, you could add 10 minutes to your commute, the same as about four trains passing you by during rush hour, to enjoy the full selection of the day’s videos. Votes are being tabulated on the TUFF website for the Viewers’ Choice winners, which will be played throughout the day Saturday, September18. The award winners will be played all day Sunday and Monday, September 19 and 20.

Mayoral Race • Labour Day march was Pantalone's party, unions say [ Toronto Star ] • Was Rob Ford underestimated? 'A big resounding yes' [ Toronto Star ] • New blood for city hall [ Toronto Star ] • Imaginary hot dog seller thinks Ford can't cut the mustard [ Globe & Mail ] • This is why I'm voting for Rob Ford [ Globe & Mail ] Air Show • Protesters want 'outdated' air show grounded [ Toronto Star ] • Fiorito: It's time we killed the air show [ Toronto Star ] Transit • Hamilton: I'm still looking for a smart ...

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. As the last day of the Central Canada Exhibition, or the Super Ex came to an end, Spacing Ottawa contributor Érinn Cunningham captured a collection of photos. Spacing Ottawa reader, Jason Garlough, comments on a move by the City of Ottawa to pave over natural forestland to make way for an exhibition hall and parking lot....

Mayoral Race • Rossi would fight for municipal term limits [ Toronto Star ] • Rossi plans to horn in on labour's parade [ Toronto Star ] • Smitherman reverses himself on $10M tax hike on businesses [ Toronto Star ] • Mayoral candidates debate youth issues [ Toronto Star ] • The British version of Rob Ford [ Toronto Star ] • Smitherman sees tax hike as way to fix high youth unemployment [ Globe & Mail ] • Rossi pledges term limits for city's elected politicians [ Globe & Mail ] • Smitherman pledges 7,500 more jobs for youth ...

Mayoral Race • Smitherman, Thomson told to skip labour day parade [ Toronto Star ] • Open the city's pools on hot days: Rossi [ Toronto Star ] • A Rocco and a hard place [ Now Magazine ] • Understanding 'suburban fury' [ Eye Weekly ] City Hall • Howard Moscoe: A merry prankster that made a difference [ Globe & Mail ] • Quips and Quotes: Howard Moscoe's most memborable lines [ National Post ] • Terence Corcoran: Miller regime tries to cash in with spending [ National Post ] • Moscoe highlights scraps with Lastman [ Toronto Sun ...