How to skip the gluten and the cost of store-bought

By Susan Oppenheim

“Gluten sensitivity (also gluten intolerance) is a spectrum of disorders including celiac disease in which gluten has an adverse effect on the body. Symptoms include bloating, abdominal discomfort or pain, diarrhea, constipation, muscular disturbances, headaches, migraines, severe acne, fatigue, and bone or joint pain.

Gluten, named from the Latin gluten meaning glue, is a substance that gives elasticity to dough helping it to rise and to keep its shape. It is found in many staple foods in the Western diet. It occurs in wheat and other grains, including barley and rye, and in foods or drinks derived from them, but not in corn, rice, or oats. Gluten is a protein composite consisting of a gliadin fraction (alcohol soluble) and a glutenin fraction (only soluble in dilute acids or alkali).”—Wikipaedia.

We now see gluten-free product lines regularly in the supermarkets. We also notice that because they are for special diets they tend to be more expensive, and it is becoming increasingly challenging to come up with treats that are edible for the entire family.

Last week I was visiting my daughter in Kitchener. She does part-time after-school care for a little 3-year-old girl the same age as her daughter Olivia.

Isla carries her own lunch every day as her parents have rigid diet restrictions for her.

She does not always understand being “different” with full-time working parents that do not fetch her from school, and only eating her special foods, but she is a good sport with great resiliency. And she loves to eat! So when I visited I brought a treat for both Isla and Olivia.

The Original Gluten-Free cookie – the coconut macaroon. The basic recipe is very easy to modify and personalize.

Coconut macaroons

Ingredients

• Coconut, use unsweetened, from fine to coarse grind
• Vanilla – I substitute other flavourings – almond, lemon, orange
• Hide dried fruit bits, nuts, or chocolate chunks inside cookies
• With zests (lemon or orange grated peel), also add a bit of food colouring

I melt my dark chocolate chips in a double boiler (or pan inside a saucepan) but no water can get into it, then dip the cookies generously and turn right side up to cool.

If you must use sweetened coconut, reduce the sugar in this recipe from 1/4 cup to 1 tablespoon:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 large egg whites (yolks can be added to omelettes or pancakes)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine sugar, coconut, egg whites, vanilla, and salt in a nice big bowl. Don’t worry if a bit of yolk gets in.

Using your hands, mix everything up very well.

Have a bowl of water near by, dampen your hands in it, and form mounds of about 1 1/2 tablespoons on the baking sheet, about an inch apart.

Bake for 16 to 17 minutes. You can open the oven half way through and rotate the baking sheet to bake uniformly.

Cool on a wire rack or leave on the baking sheet.

If I am rushing I put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool completely.

When cooled and hardened on top, take each cookie, turn it upside down, and dip into the melted chocolate, and then leave to cool again on the baking sheet. I only single stack them when packing them up.

This makes about 18 nice sized cookies. And they are nut-free, so they can also go to school in lunches.

Making sure the vulnerable are not forgotten

By Rosario Marchese

It all started at Harbord Collegiate. That’s where I met my lifelong friend Joe Pantalone, who would pull me into the NDP and later persuade me to run for public office.

My father was a construction worker, and my mother worked at home, raising me and my brothers while caring for our house on Shaw Street. “Left” and “Right” meant nothing to them. The only thing that mattered was the day-to-day struggle of keeping a roof over our heads and ensuring a better future for the kids. This was the political sensibility I grew up with.

The NDP was full of energetic and engaged young people who wanted to change the world, and who loved to debate political theories and policies. I loved those debates too, and my love of the debate would remain my greatest joy at Queen’s Park.

But above the debates and the idealism, I saw that the NDP was the party that would fight for people like my Mom and Dad. This was the party that made sure working people and the vulnerable would not be forgotten.

This is the perspective I tried to maintain during my 24 years representing the people of Trinity-Spadina as their MPP.

Trinity-Spadina is a very different place today than it was when I first became an MPP. Its growth and success have been exciting to observe, and should be celebrated. But it is also clear this success is leaving many people behind.

For example, the condo boom has radically changed the nature of home ownership and tenancy, but our laws have not kept up. Condo owners and tenants need new protections.

And while growth and development have increased the overall supply of housing in Trinity-Spadina, this has not translated into affordable housing.

Ensuring that Toronto can remain an inclusive place that all of us can call home is one of the city’s greatest challenges. It is critical that the province get back into the business of providing affordable housing.

Trinity-Spadina’s success has also created new incentives for powerful private interests to threaten the long-term public good.

I have seen how developers routinely ignore local communities and ask the OMB to overrule democratically-enacted planning rules. And I have seen how well-connected private interests covet our waterfront in order to build Ferris Wheels, mega-casinos, and expanded runways for jets.

This has raised the stakes dramatically when it comes to local politics.

Happily, a new generation of engaged and energetic young people is standing up to defend the public interest when it comes to planning and development, our waterfront, transit, housing, social justice, and the environment.

This gives me incredible hope. For while I am disappointed in the results of the last election, I believe the health of our democracies depends not so much on politicians like me, but on the willingness of engaged communities to organize and create movements to hold politicians and governments accountable.

Engaged communities ensure that elite interests do not squeeze out the public interest. Engaged communities revitalize politics and political parties. Engaged communities ensure that we do not forget the needs of the marginalized, the vulnerable and working people like my Mom and Dad.

Engaged communities are what make Trinity-Spadina the best riding in Ontario.

It has been an honour to serve you, the people of Trinity-Spadina, for 32 years as your school trustee and your Member of Provincial Parliament.

Thank you!

Rosario

Kathleen Wynne’s June 12th election win represents many things. Political affiliation aside, we celebrate the first woman to be elected premier of Ontario. We also celebrate the first openly gay woman to be elected premier in Canada. These are critical milestones at a time when we recognize the need for leaders—corporate, governmental, or otherwise—to reflect the diversity of those that they lead and represent.

These things are indeed worthy of celebration. It’s especially gratifying given that Wynne had to fight an election she didn’t want and rightfully believe the province didn’t need.

It was an election determined by New Democrat Party leader Andrea Horwath, who, despite losing, seems to exhibit no recognition of how her actions have alienated much of her base. Indeed, her party may have returned the same number of seats to the legislature, but it comes at great cost. She’s no longer a partner in a minority government, and, as we have seen here in Trinity-Spadina, the party has also lost some of its most experienced and accomplished members of provincial parliament.

In a stunning defeat, much loved incumbent Rosario Marchese, who has served this riding for just under 25 years, lost his seat to the Liberal newcomer Han Dong. With Dong taking 46% of the votes to Marchese’s 31%, it was hardly a horserace, and, with great respect to Dong, doesn’t reflect the work Marchese has done for Trinity-Spadina over the years. Some of that work includes tabling a bill to curb the Ontario Municipal Board’s power over development in Toronto, working to reform the Condominiums Act, and defending the waterfront. A great debater in the legislature who has lived on Shaw Street for most of his life, Marchese has a gracious mien that is well-known on our streets. Thus, some of the votes that went to Dong reflect the area’s disenchantment with the leadership of the NDP, and can’t be viewed as an indictment of Marchese’s long and dedicated service.

The result, however, reflects something else: the changing demographics of Trinity-Spadina. We observed this in the last election, where Marchese beat the Liberal candidate by approximately 1,100 votes, with his share of the vote representing 42% to Sarah Thomson’s 40%. We are no longer a riding predominantly made up of the NDP’s traditional base. Increasingly mixed in with our students, artists, immigrants, and low-income families are condominium dwellers, urban up-and-comers, traditional business people, and the young denizens of the Entertainment District.

This has to be encouraging for Adam Vaughan, who’s the Liberal candidate seeking to represent Trinity-Spadina in Ottawa. And it’s no wonder that NDP candidate Joe Cressy, Olivia Chow’s golden boy, is running such a disciplined campaign. He has an uphill battle.

In fact, both gentlemen, the clear front-runners in the race, have a lot in common. They are both running to bring an urban agenda to Ottawa, and they both have deep roots in our community. Either would do well.

Our concern, however, is that, no matter who wins, they don’t forget to represent the needs of all of our community, not just those we have had the pleasure of recently welcoming into our neighbourhoods. We want to make sure that in our zeal for progress, we don’t leave anyone behind. That’s the real issue in this by-election: how do we address the changing demographics of Trinity-Spadina while still honouring its rich, diverse, and humble origins? That’s the question you should be asking each candidate. And the one whose answer satisfies you the most?

That’s the candidate deserving of your vote.

Long serving Trinity-Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese plans to retire from politics. He is pictured here standing in front of the Ontario Legislature in June 2007.

New MPP, Han Dong, has lived in Trinity-Spadina for 13 years

By Brian Burchell and Annemarie Brissenden

In an unexpected upset, long-standing NDP Member of Provincial Parliament Rosario Marchese lost his seat to Han Dong in the June 12 provincial election.

“It’s been an honour to represent Trinity-Spadina for 24 great years as your MPP,” said Marchese via his Twitter feed the following day. “Thank you! Congratulations to @VoteHanDong on his election.”

Dong, a relative newcomer who ran on behalf of the provincial Liberal party, helped Premier Kathleen Wynne form a majority government by capturing 24,812 votes compared to the 16,380 won by Marchese. Trailing well behind were the Progressive Conservative candidate Roberta Scott with 7,522 votes, and Green Party candidate Tim Grant, who received 3,776 votes.

Marchese has represented the riding since 1999, and is widely respected as a hard-working veteran of provincial politics. He has been active in his opposition to the Ontario Muncipal Board’s conduct in local planning decision appeals, opposed the plan for jets landing at the Billy Bishop Airport, and has promoted reforms to the Condominium Act.

Social media lit up with commentary as soon as the stunning upset hit the airwaves.

“Very sorry to see Rosario Marchese defeated in Trinity-Spadina. We need Condo act reform. Current act loaded to developers,” said Daniel of @DanFmTo, while Aly Pang of @AlyPang posted, “I hope Rosario Marchese doesn’t take the loss personally. I just couldn’t vote for Horwath and her opportunism.” Laurie Miller of @mill333 echoed many posters when she tweeted, “Thank [you] Rosario Marchese for all your years of service.”

The day after the election, Dong also honoured his predecessor by tweeting out: “Thank u @RMarcheseNDP 4 serving our community last 24 yrs. Hope to meet soon 2 share ur experience & advice to better serve.”

Dong, 37, brings a different perspective to the riding that he has lived in for over 13 years.

He was 13 when he arrived in Toronto with his family from Mainland China, and attended high school at Jarvis Collegiate Institute before going on to study economics and political science at the University of Toronto.

In the community, Han Dong has served as a key advisor to the Canada Shanghai Business Association, and volunteered with the Philippine Independence Day Council, the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival, as well as numerous Trinity-Spadina seniors’ resource centres.

Before his involvement in government, Han was a marketing director for Chianti Foods, where he was responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of all of its marketing strategies, communications, and public relations activities.

Han and his partner Sophie are raising their children in Trinity-Spadina, where they attend local public schools.

Adam Vaughn, who is running in the Trinity-Spadina by-election on June 30, poses in front of his campaign office on Spadina Avenue, in the midst of what Jane Jacobs, who had a profound influence on Vaughan, would term the “ballet of the sidewalk.”

Vaughan driven by urgent need to bring practical experience to federal politics

By Annemarie Brissenden

Adam Vaughan spoke his first words in French at 45 Walmer Rd. in the Annex, where he was a young student at the Institute of Child Study.

“One day I ran away and hid in Sibelius Park, and it was decided I needed more structure, so I went to Hillcrest after that,” recalled Vaughan, during an exclusive interview with the Gleaner.

In the wide-ranging conversation, the Liberal candidate, who is running to become Trinity-Spadina’s member of parliament, stressed his long history in the riding, and the drive that’s fuelled by his commitment to an urban agenda. He also talked about some of the people, two women in particular, who have guided him over the years.

“Everyone talks about my Dad in politics,” said Vaughan. “But my mother was a very big influence in my life. And my mother said if you go into politics, it ought to be for a reason.”

For Vaughan, it’s delivering on a workable urban agenda “that delivers results quickly, because the city needs help now.” And his understanding of what cities need to thrive comes from Jane Jacobs.

“She’s been a profound influence all my life on a whole range of thinking,” explained Vaughan, who invoked Jacobs repeatedly throughout the interview. He was attracted to the Liberal Party, in part, because it “is now starting to think and act in some of the ways that Jane Jacobs talked about.”

Ultimately, however, Vaughan’s decision to run was based on his recognition that the city doesn’t just need a strong partner in Ottawa, it needs a strong partner that understands the nuances of how municipalities function.

“The number of times you end up making speeches from the floor of council, or in front of community meetings about if we only had Ottawa,” said Vaughan. But, you also “have to know how cities require that help to be delivered.”

“There’s lots of theory and lots of good intention [in Ottawa and Queen’s Park],” he explained, “but there isn’t practical experience.”

Vaughan is troubled, for example, by the positions some with less experience have taken on the proposed island airport expansion, which he views as about more than just jets. He wants to reform the Port Authority and make it a public agency that, like Waterfront Toronto, is accountable to the community. He also wants to have federal status granted to a bird sanctuary located at the end of the runway that’s a critical stop for migratory songbirds, because, he said, these are “things that can be done [federally] to protect the balance of the waterfront.”

According to Vaughan, the Toronto District School Board’s attempt to bring a championship field to Central Technical School is another instance of a lack of understanding and respect for the city’s processes.

“[The school board] signed a memorandum of understanding before they even came to talk to the neighbourhood,” explained Vaughan. “You don’t build things quickly in Toronto. It’s a tough and very complex building environment. But when you choose not to collaborate with people, you create problems.”

It’s that sense of collaboration that he hopes to bring to Ottawa, as he pushes forward on his urban agenda, focused in large part on Toronto’s housing crisis.

“Toronto is home to the largest collection of children living in poverty in the country. If you don’t have a housing agenda, you are not housing kids properly, and if you don’t house kids properly, that extrapolates out into a really, really volatile social situation.”

Vaughan stresses, though, that the urban agenda is about more than “hard infrastructure. It’s also the stuff that cities create, as Jane Jacobs said, by simply coming into existence.”

At the heart of “that stuff” is culture, the “heart and soul of what we do in Trinity-Spadina.” It is also a critical driver of the riding’s local economy.

“Culture is a great thing from a nationalist pride perspective,” he added, “but as a fundamental building block to this neighbourhood, it has got to be spoken to as part of an integrated urban agenda, because it is that fundamental to how you build a city.”

Despite so many important files on his desk, Vaughan is confident that the constituency office is in good hands following his resignation. All but one of his staff remains in place at City Hall, and an interim councillor will be appointed shortly to represent the ward at the last two city council meetings before the municipal election in October.

He’s chosen not to pick a successor, as “the ward seat belongs to the neighbourhoods,” and will deliver “a full and comprehensive briefing, and leave behind every single file for the next councillor, regardless of who they are.”

And if he doesn’t win the seat?

“Then I am out of politics. I will have to find a job.”

But he is “intent on getting to Ottawa, and intent on building a national housing strategy.

“I have been working towards that for 25 years.”

Market forces replace not repair

The other night our fridge made a strange popping sound before the compressor mysteriously shut off. My initial reaction was to start looking for a new fridge.

We live in a world so full of consumption and of constantly replacing old things with new, that I nearly forgot that there existed such a thing as a refrigerator repair person.

This mindset is fueled largely by TV ads constantly telling us to buy new stuff.

Our clothes are barely six months old yet the sin of being out of fashion necessitates a new shirt to replace the perfectly good one on your back right now.

Though my grandmother once taught me to sew on buttons, it’s a skill long out of practice and nearly forgotten (as evidenced by my jacket that’s still missing a button after four months of hanging in the front room as a reminder).

Once upon a time, we called a repair man (I say man because the reality of that era is that they were almost exclusively men) when the TV broke. The man would come over with parts and usually replace the component that wasn’t working.

In recent years, I have known people who replaced perfectly functional television sets because a newer model had come out.

Our mindsets have changed over the decades and so has our environmental impact. Where we once valued resources, local labour seems to be the most expensive constraint to our decision-making.

Resources are sucked out of the ground irresponsibly, and indentured and/or child labour provides us with the rest of the formula required for cheap goods.

Let’s not bother pretending that the person who put together that $5 T-shirt got paid a living wage.

Growing up in the Wal-Mart mentality of “cheaper is better”, I never understood the value of higher quality goods until I was able to make my own purchasing decisions as an adult.

One winter, after parting ways with my worn-out Hush Puppies, I started looking for a new pair of higher quality boots. Failing to understand the value of quality, I balked at purchasing the only pair of boots that actually met all of my boot criteria at about four times the cost of my last pair. Thankfully, I had a boyfriend who, sick of shopping, encouraged me to take the plunge (this was no doubt for his benefit rather than mine).

Not knowing where all the heat vents were in the new house, I made the mistake of storing the boots too close to one. The soles cracked and were no longer waterproof.

Upset that my really expensive boots barely lasted a winter, I took them into Nick’s Shoe Repair on Dupont near Davenport.

No doubt a victim of ageism, Nick took a look at me and said that it would be cheaper to buy new boots than to repair them. As I pulled my boots out of the bag, he smiled approvingly at their quality and agreed to repair them.

Sure enough, the repair cost me as much as my Hush Puppies. Five years later (this past winter) after wearing the heel down, wearing the sole down, and bursting a seam (I don’t know why I thought two pairs of wool socks in my boots would be a good idea), I brought them back to Nick.

Fifty dollars later I have a new heel, a re-glued sole, a fixed seam, and a polishing that makes them look better than new.

This lesson was hard to learn as a starving student but when we buy quality, our things last longer and often turn out cheaper in the long run.

Without a doubt, our carbon footprint is lower when we buy fewer things and repairing goods supports local businesses who depend on a service economy.

I hope the more people understand about the carbon footprint and resource depletion of clothes, electronics, and other consumer goods, the more we’ll be willing to repair rather than replace. Though this might pose a problem for the average fashionista, rejecting those social norms is good for both our sanity and our planet.

Spending money because some beauty magazines say so seems like a waste of perfectly good cash.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldi care.ca.

Local parks offer place to cool down, run a dog, wade in water

For the first part of this year’s Grading our Greenspace, our annual park review, writers visited 10 parks?(more to come next month) to grade them on a variety of factors, including amenities, cleanliness, and ambiance. Do you agree with our assessment? Send your thoughts to gleanerpub@gmail.com.

By Chantilly Post, Sameera Raja, and Brian Burchell

This wired woman, a creative scarecrow of sorts, protects tomato plants in this truly inventive urban garden in the Alex Wilson Park. Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

Alexandra Park

East side of Bathurst Street, between Dundas and Carr streets

Visited: Saturday, 3:00 p.m.

Grade: A (Last year: A)

Attractions: Loads of recreational options, two baseball diamonds, basketball court, large inviting outdoor swimming pool, splash pad, and skateboard park. Plenty of shade.

Notable: Just south of Scadding Court Community Centre, which has its own indoor pool, a public library, community garden, and daycare.

Overheard: “Mom, mom, look the pool is open can we go can we go?”

Alex Wilson Community Garden signals that residents are not clients of the city but citizens, and they take ownership and they care. This park exhibits the pride and ownership.Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

Alex Wilson Community Garden

Richmond Street West between Portland and Maud streets

Visited: Saturday, 3:45 p.m.

Grade: B (Last year: B)

Attractions: Unique community garden, where local residents plant and care for their own flowers and vegetables. An inventive, sustainable irrigation system diverts water from the roof of the building to the east. Nestled in between two multi-storey buildings whose ivy-covered walls face the park, the garden features a meandering wooden walkway that connects a graffiti-covered alleyway with Richmond Street West.

Concerns: No garbage or recycling receptacles. High bushes enclose the north end, potentially a hiding spot for criminals preying on those that use the park as a thoroughfare.

Notable: The garden is named in memory of Alex Wilson, a landscape designer and community activist who died in 1993. During his life he was an advocate for using indigenous plants and organic methods. This garden reflects those values.

Overheard: “I used to have a plot here, I grew peppers, but the f—-ing crack heads ate them at night…enough of that. I’m going to smoke a joint, so please don’t take my picture.”

The Grange

South of Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beverly streets

Visited: Saturday, 2:45 pm

Grade: A (Last year: A)

Attractions: Splash pad, decent playground for children, park benches aplenty occupied by couples, families, and six possibly homeless people each sound asleep. An impressive forest of chestnut trees provides ample shade, but a few open spots exist and accommodate sunbathers. An outdoor ice rink in the winter. It even has its own website: http://grangeparktoronto.ca.

Concerns: Washrooms present, but have been locked for decades, which is regrettable (Be brave! Open the bathrooms and you get to A+!).

Notable: Bequeathed by the Boulton family to the AGO in 1910, and then to the City of Toronto by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1911. The original residence sits at the southern flank to the AGO, and has recently been redeveloped.

Overheard: Father to five-year-old daughter who had stopped in her tracks, “What’s wrong Margaret?” Margaret replies with hands on hips, “Two things Dad, I want a lollypop and I don’t want to leave this park.”

Randy Padmore Park

Between Denison and Augusta avenues, just north of Queen Street West

Visited: Saturday, 4:00 pm

Grade: C (Last year: A)

Attractions: Functional playground set, two benches, picnic table. Waste receptacles at east entrance.

Concerns: A break from the concrete jungle, but needs updating. No waste receptacles at west entrance, and the ground is littered there as a result. Not enough shade and zero landscaping within the park itself. Nightlight in centre of park is broken.

Notable: Formerly the Carr Street Parkette, it was officially renamed to honour Arthur Randolph Padmore. Padmore, who died in 2009, was a dedicated youth worker and community organizer in the local Atkinson Housing Co-Op.

Overheard: From Mom and young daughter passing through on this hot and sunny Saturday: “Mom can I stop and play on the slide?” to which her Mom replied, “No honey, there is too much sun.”

Trinity Bellwoods Park

Between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West at Strachan Avenue

Visited: Saturday, 12:30 pm

Grade: A (Last year: A)

Attractions: A local favourite that features lots of space to lounge and for community festivals. Fully equipped with three baseball diamonds, off-leash area for dogs, tennis courts, children’s playground, and a dry rink. A great place to run, the park is also a lovely social environment for you and your friends, with even the possibility of meeting new friends on a sunny summer afternoon.

Concerns: Police are cracking down on illegal alcohol consumption, so keep your picnics dry, unless you want to pay a hefty fine.

Notable: Offering a picturesque view of the CN Tower this park is a great tourist destination. Summertime also brings possible freebies in the park; some days you can snag free samples from product promoters roaming through.

Osler Playground

On Argyle Street just west of Ossington Avenue

Visited: Saturday, 1:30 pm

Grade: Grade: B (Last year: A)

Attractions: Quaint and quiet, with lots of shade, the park’s flourishing trees and the well-shaded benches provide a cool breeze and relaxing break from the busyness of Ossington Avenue. It has a wading pool that’s open from 12 to 6 pm in the summer, playground, small field area, and a few grassy lounging areas.

Concerns: Grassy areas of grass could use some care.

Notable: Although located on Argyle Street, there are no socks in evidence.

Stanley Park

King Street West, between Stafford and Walnut streets

Visited: Saturday, 2:00 pm

Grade: A (Last year: A)

Attractions: The perfect in-the-city getaway, Stanley Park is a great place for a pit stop to or from work, or even to eat your lunch on your break. A favourite spot for dog owners, the park has a gated off-leash area, as well as tennis courts, an outdoor pool, and a baseball diamond. And that’s just the south side! Across the road on the north side is a children’s playground and grass space equipped with benches for picnics and birthday parties.

Notable: Shares its name with Vancouver’s first park, which dates to 1886.

Bellevue Square Park

Approximately one block north of Dundas Street West just west of Augusta Avenue

Visited: Wednesday, 3:55 pm

Grade: C (Last year: B-)

Attractions: Located in the heart of Toronto’s Kensington Market, Bellevue Square features a fountain, wading pool, and a statue of Canadian actor Al Waxman. The park is hub of activity that showcases the market’s diversity and charm, and its green space provides an area for much-needed relaxation during the summer months. Although family friendly, the park generally attracts young adults from the densely populated area.

Concerns: The washrooms appear to be permanently locked.

Notable: During the Upper Canada Rebellion, George Taylor Denison, who originally owned much of the market, used the area as a parade ground for volunteer cavalry troop.

Overheard: “I come here after performing at the café, sometimes with friends. It’s pretty nice.”

McCaul-Orde Park

Corner of McCaul and Orde streets

Visited: Wednesday, 4:50 pm

Grade: C+ (Last year: C+)

Attractions: Two benches and a small bit of green relief from the concrete and pavement of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Notable: The park is located close to Orde St. Junior Public School, whose open third floor space was created in the early part of the 20th century for children with tuberculosis.

Sonya’s Park

Oxford Street, between Augusta and Spadina avenues

Visited: Wednesday, 6:10 pm

Grade: B (Last year: B)

Attractions: Undergoing a redesign led by St. Stephen’s Community House, this park is bordered by several flower and plant beds and features a small children’s playground.

Notable: Named for Sonya Lunansky, who built the Augusta Fruit Market out of a small shop that she opened in the 1930s.

Making no attempt to emulate the past, the Art Gallery of Ontario stands in stack juxtaposition to the original Grange estate residence. The result is somewhere awe-inspiring like a space ship landing on the 19th century Toronto.Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

Making sure the vulnerable are not forgotten

By Rosario Marchese

It all started at Harbord Collegiate. That’s where I met my lifelong friend Joe Pantalone, who would pull me into the NDP and later persuade me to run for public office.

My father was a construction worker, and my mother worked at home, raising me and my brothers while caring for our house on Shaw Street. “Left” and “Right” meant nothing to them. The only thing that mattered was the day-to-day struggle of keeping a roof over our heads and ensuring a better future for the kids. This was the political sensibility I grew up with.

The NDP was full of energetic and engaged young people who wanted to change the world, and who loved to debate political theories and policies. I loved those debates too, and my love of the debate would remain my greatest joy at Queen’s Park.

But above the debates and the idealism, I saw that the NDP was the party that would fight for people like my Mom and Dad. This was the party that made sure working people and the vulnerable would not be forgotten.

This is the perspective I tried to maintain during my 24 years representing the people of Trinity-Spadina as their MPP.

Trinity-Spadina is a very different place today than it was when I first became an MPP. Its growth and success have been exciting to observe, and should be celebrated. But it is also clear this success is leaving many people behind.

For example, the condo boom has radically changed the nature of home ownership and tenancy, but our laws have not kept up. Condo owners and tenants need new protections.

And while growth and development have increased the overall supply of housing in Trinity-Spadina, this has not translated into affordable housing.

Ensuring that Toronto can remain an inclusive place that all of us can call home is one of the city’s greatest challenges. It is critical that the province get back into the business of providing affordable housing.

Trinity-Spadina’s success has also created new incentives for powerful private interests to threaten the long-term public good.

I have seen how developers routinely ignore local communities and ask the OMB to overrule democratically-enacted planning rules. And I have seen how well-connected private interests covet our waterfront in order to build Ferris Wheels, mega-casinos, and expanded runways for jets.

This has raised the stakes dramatically when it comes to local politics.

Happily, a new generation of engaged and energetic young people is standing up to defend the public interest when it comes to planning and development, our waterfront, transit, housing, social justice, and the environment.

This gives me incredible hope. For while I am disappointed in the results of the last election, I believe the health of our democracies depends not so much on politicians like me, but on the willingness of engaged communities to organize and create movements to hold politicians and governments accountable.

Engaged communities ensure that elite interests do not squeeze out the public interest. Engaged communities revitalize politics and political parties. Engaged communities ensure that we do not forget the needs of the marginalized, the vulnerable and working people like my Mom and Dad.

Engaged communities are what make Trinity-Spadina the best riding in Ontario.

It has been an honour to serve you, the people of Trinity-Spadina, for 32 years as your school trustee and your Member of Provincial Parliament.

Thank you!

Rosario