By Karen Bliss

After moving around the country for the past nine years, the Junos will be back in Toronto on March 27th for their 40th anniversary show. As part of the week-long celebration, JunoFest will take over downtown this weekend with 120 acts—more than 50 of them Juno nominees—playing 20 venues.

“I believe we broke a record for JunoFest for booking Juno-nominated bands,” says Jeff “JC” Cohen, co-owner of Toronto’s Collective Concerts, who was hired by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS) to book the music festival. “We really focused on making it very heavy on nominees. We even got Christian and Aboriginal nominees.”

“[CARAS] told us to pick our favourite bands. We got some of them, not all of them, but we tried. They told us to book as many nominees as possible and they also told us to keep it as Toronto as you possibly can. It’s supposed to be showing off Toronto [talent], but I included Montreal because they haven’t had a Junos yet.”

Unlike Canadian Music Week or North By Northeast, JunoFest books less acts that play longer sets. “The headline act is doing 90-minutes, as opposed to the usual 40,” explains Cohen. “It’s booked less like a festival and more like a club crawl with regular nights at the venues.”

Cohen added that for the first time advance tickets are available for some of the larger shows. We’ve compiled a couple of shows to look out for in our coverage area. On the 25th, Flash Lightnin’, a Southern rock trio from Toronto, playing the Bovine  Sex Club. A line up of singer songwriters will also be playing that night. Canadian music veteran Emm Gryner, Songwriter of the Year nominee Royal Wood, and acoustic pop duo Dala will be performing at The Great Hall. Also worth a listen that night are Young Empires at the Drake, Grapes of Wrath at the El Mocambo, Brett Caswell & The Marquee Rose at The Garrison, and D-Sisive, Said The Whale, and Justin Rutledge at the Horseshoe.

The festival continues on March 26, including music from Moncton singer-songwriter Julie Doiron at The Garrison, folk artist  Basia Bulat at the Great Hall, indie group Dearly Beloved at the Rivoli, and country rock trio Elliott Brood at The Horseshoe.

“Being a part of Juno weekend is pretty amazing in itself,” says country artist and Juno nominee Dean Brody who plays the El Mo on the 26th, “but looking ahead to my Junofest show on Saturday night is a real bright spot because it’s post Gala Awards and the pressure of the impending award will be off and we will be ready to go. Fresh back from Australia, myself and my band will use that rockin’ 75-minute set to keep the party going. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Check the website for up-to-date venues and times. For $30, wristbands (available at ticketmaster.ca or 1-855-985-5000) grant access to all the JunoFest shows. Many are restricted to ages 19 and over. Advance tickets are available through Ticketmaster or in person at the Horseshoe, Soundscapes, and Rotate This.

Karen Bliss is an Annex-based music journalist and the co-author of Music from Far and Wide: Celebrating 40 Years of the JUNO Awards.

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"Parkdale Chic ~ Octopus Style (Remix)"/Image courtesy Kris Bovenizer

By Emina Gamulin

While the head of the local residents’ association jokingly refers to them as the “Politically Correct Development Group,” the newly-renamed PCDG says they will continue to do the work they’ve always done: encouraging economic and employment initiatives in Parkdale.

“The vision is to build connections among businesses, residents, and organizations that are here,” says Warren Sheffer of the non-profit he chairs. Formerly the Parkdale-Liberty Economic Development Corporation, it was rebranded as the Parkdale Community Development Group this past fall. “It was really born out of a desire to focus on Parkdale more. We really weren’t doing anything in Liberty Village.”

Living in the area 20 years ago as a single mother, executive director Cindy Goldrick say the Parkdale of yesteryear and today are very different places. One major difference is the focus on arts that has come to the area, a focus PCDG seems to share. Known for putting on events such as the Parkdale Soapbox and the Parkdale Bazaar, the organization is preparing for their second annual Synthesis Gala, held this Mar. 25.

Featuring ten collaborative, Parkdale-themed artworks, the event raises money for the Queen West Art Crawl (QWAC), which takes place every September.

Image courtesy Matt Tarini

Associate director Lanie Treen says she split the group into “two waves of creation” with visual artists interpreting performances half the time, and performers giving their take on a visual work the other half.

One example is Matt Tarini’s painting of dancers who will be performing a live show  choreographed by Meagan O’Shea.

Guests will be able to see six of the ten pieces that night, which Treen says makes viewers more invested in the pieces they have chosen, giving the night a “choose your own adventure feel.”

Each collaboration will be held in a different room. Some rooms only have space for an audience of ten, giving the performances an intimate feel.

Other collaborations include cartoonist Brett Lamb (whose work can be seen in the Gleaner editorial pages) illustrating a lecture by comedy duo Deadpan Powerpoint, clown artist Shantelle Landry teaming up with ceramic artist Rich Weiss, and an a cappella performance by a 14-piece choir while collective Art Battle paint live.

Cartoonist Brett Lamb's contribution to the 2010 gala. Image courtesy Brett Lamb.

Plans for Radio Parkdale, a web-based show featuring the people and places of the neighbourhood that is “premised on the idea of connecting people,” will also be announced the night of the Gala. With the logo and layout of the site finalized, and content ready to be uploaded, the show will be podcasting by the end of April. “We’ll be populating it with content that we gathered since the last QWAC,” says Sheffer.

Both Sheffer and Goldrick stress that the show will evolve as they get more community feedback. “It will probably mutate along the way,” says Sheffer.

PCDG seeks volunteers for the show, with a special focus on youth. “We want them to tell their own stories, and their own vision of Parkdale,” says Goldrick.

After the gala, the organization will continue to focus on finding economic opportunities for the neighbourhood. As of press date, PCDG were looking for volunteer board members and had a number of paid opportunities available to those on social assistance. “We do what we can to support people, not always with money, but with resources,” says Goldrick. “We are always looking for opportunities to support the community.”

“Like” the Gleaner on Facebook to be automatically entered in a draw to win two tickets to the gala. Contest closes Thursday March 24 at noon. The Synthesis Gala Fundraiser will be held March  25, 2011 at the Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement (6 Noble St.). Food will be provided by Belly Catering (1574 Queen St. W.) and drinks by TAG. The evening will include a silent auction. Tickets are $80 and can be purchased by calling 416-516-8301. For more information visit www.parkdaleliberty.com/synthesis.

By Lindsay Tsuji

The Annex  Residents’ Association has made motions to call for more bike accessibility in the Annex, but some in the city’s transportation department say the plan is unrealistic.

The bike policy put forth by the ARA calls for bike lanes on Bloor Street between Bathurst Street and Avenue Road, the construction of fixed barriers between cars and bike lanes, a reduced speed limit of 30 km/h for motorists, the removal of car parking and adding bike boxes at major intersections, amongst other things.

“We began the policy in May or June of last year with a committee of four people,” said Albert Koehl, a member of The ARA’s bike policy committee. “Our focus was acknowledging that a lot of residents in the Annex do cycle, and that it’s good for the environment, and it’s good for fitness, and good for the community.”

One of the basic themes in the policy is that it should also be safe for the people who cycle, Koehl said.

“One of the big complaints that people have is that cyclists don’t obey the rules of the road. Our view in the policy is that if cyclists feel that they are being accepted and valued in their community, than they will start to feel a part of the community and obey its rules,” said Koehl.

The Clean Air Partnership, a charity that works to improve local air quality and reduce greenhouse gases in communities, did a study of Bloor Street in the Annex in Feb. 2009. They found that only a very small percentage of merchants believe that more than 50 per cent of their customers drive to their shops. It was customers who came on foot and by bike that gave them the most business.

Andrea Garcia, director of advocacy and operations for the Toronto Cyclists Union, sees the ARA’s policy as a great long-term goal. “I think this is a great policy,” said Garcia. One of the things that has kept them from implementing bike lanes sooner is the amount of street parking, Garcia said.

“Bike infrastructure is actually the cheapest form of transportation. It’s the most cost-effective infrastructure that moves the most people per dollar,” said Garcia.

The City of Toronto has also been making moves for more bike accessibility in the city. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong put forward a proposal to create a connected network of cycling routes along streets such as Wellesley and Richmond.

“We’ve already started doing some of the things listed in the policy” said Daniel Egan, manager of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure with the city’s transportation services.

“Rolling stops are a provincial issue that has to do with the Highway Traffic Act so that is out of our jurisdiction.”

The only thing that would be expensive are the physically separated lanes, Egan said.

Changing the speed limit to 30 km/h between Bathurst Street and Avenue Road on Bloor Street  was also raised as a concern.

Bloor Street is a major arterial roadway and these changes would not satisfy criteria to maintain the flow of traffic in the area, said Ron Hamilton, manager at traffic operations of Toronto & East York District, Transportation Services at the City of Toronto.

Council will only reduce speed limits to 30 km/h if there are traffic calming measures on the road like speed bumps, Hamilton said. “Bloor Street is one of the only major streets that go from Scarborough all the way to Etobicoke,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton added that the existing infrastructure is already faulty, given that half the lanes are allocated to parking.

“One of our recommendations was for the Annex to be part of a city-wide bike plan,” said Frank Cunningham, the ARA chair of planning and zoning. “If Bloor Street was the only east-west bike artery in the city, it would defeat the purpose. There needs to be a network of bike lanes.”

Parts and Labour's roof-top garden in Oct. 2010. The establishment wants to put a patio in. Photo courtesy of Parts and Labour

By Beth Macdonell

On March 9, The city’s Committee of Adjustment panel turned down a request by Parts and Labour (1566 Queen St. W.) to construct a roof-top patio.

Eighteen opposing community members showed up at the meeting and 68 people signed a petition submitted to the committee against an outdoor space, says Josie Kruzick, whose daughter owns a building next to Parts. Madam Gillian Burton noted the committee received many letters on the matter. Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park)  also sent the committee his recommendation to refuse the application.

If passed, the patio would have increased the venue’s capacity from 417 to 645 patrons. The roof-top is currently used as a garden to supply ingredients for the establishment’s restaurant, and holds some of the space’s mechanical equipment.

Those against the patio say the venue hasn’t respected neighbours and additional outdoor space will just make matters worse. “There is no proof that there will be more concern, or attention, or expertise applied to the roof-top patio than there will be to the front of the building,” says Josée Brome, a tenant living across the street.“I’ve nothing to say about what goes on inside, but I have not had a good night’s sleep on a night they’ve been open since they’ve opened.”

At decision time, committee member Robert Brown chastised the owners for not being clear in their intent.  “As businessmen, you should have better answers. Would you be playing music? Will this be broadcast on the patio? No live bands?”

“My gut reaction is to refuse this application,” he continued.  “I don’t think they’ve been sensitive to the neighbourhood with their existing operation … the fact that they haven’t done a noise study—listen, if you are an experienced operator you know exactly what you want to do.”

The owners say they need to ensure they get a return on their investment, but are willing to compromise with neighbours. “Obviously we’d like to be open until 2 a.m., but we are open to a bargaining process,” said Parts co-owner Jesse Girard to the committee.

“It wasn’t a decision that we didn’t expect,” co-owner Richard Lambert told the Gleaner after the meeting. “It doesn’t matter if you try for a patio on Queen East, or Parkdale, or anywhere in Toronto. People understand that people like to drink outside, but not in their area.”

The owners say there are many Parkdalians who welcome Parts and Labour, and would by happy to see a patio.

The agent and architect representing Parts told the committee  that the business held a community meeting in January where they received support for the patio, and said he was surprised by the amount of opposition at the committee adjustment meeting.

“I get emails from people that support us, but they are not going to take the day off work [to come and speak]. The other people just show up. They are making themselves heard and other people aren’t,” says Lambert.

As for what’s next, Lambert says he can’t confirm if they will appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board. “Many of our patrons have told us they would enjoy an outdoor patio and we are trying to provide that.”

The Toronto District School Board voted against a proposal to install advertising-based television screens in its high schools last night.

If the proposal had passed, screens would have been installed in 66 schools, displaying advertising 30 per cent of the time for at least the next seven years.

Ward 2 trustee and concerned parent Chris Glover voted against the idea, saying that it would be irresponsible, and hinder student learning.

“I don’t send my kids to school to watch advertising. There are enough distractions and they need to focus on learning.”

Glover said that trustees that were in favor of the motion asked that it be revised and then revisited in April.

Chris Bolton (Ward 10, Trinity-Spadina) could not be reached in time to comment on this story.

The revised motion would have individual schools vote on whether or not to accept the screens rather than the board voting on behalf of all the schools.

—Gurpreet Ghag

Meredith Shaw plays the Annex WreckRoom Mar. 9. Courtesy Meredith Shaw

By Karen Bliss

This year’s Canadian Music Week  (CMW) is bigger then ever.
“The live scene is coming back in Canada, Toronto particularly. I think that’s important. We are using close to 60 venues, so that’s reasonably healthy,” says Neill Dixon, CMW president. “The festival is very multi-national now. The majority of bands are from Canada, but a large contingent are from England and Ireland, and we have artists coming in from France, Denmark, Australia, Israel, Greece, and, of course, the U.S.”

More than 800 local and international artists will play in over 50 venues over five nights from Mar. 9 to 13 in Toronto.

The opening party, at the Mod Club, features Finger Eleven and Desperate Union.
Other Annex-area hot tickets include pop singer Meredith Shaw at the Annex WreckRoom on the 9th, rock act Crooked Valentine, also at the WreckRoom on the 10th, followed by Montreal punk band Trigger Effect, and Crash Karma (comprised of former members of I Mother Earth, Our Lady Peace, and The Tea Party)  at the Mod Club on the 10 with Age of Daze.

At Clinton’s, expect the FACTOR breakthrough series to showcase some rising talent. The bill on the Wednesday card includes pop band M.T.L at midnight, whose album was produced by Justin Gray (who has produced for Joss Stone, Emma Bunton, and J.D. Fortune).
For anyone interested in the music industry, CMW’s “Tune Up Music Careers,” part of the conference (March 10 to 12 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel), offers plenty of entry-level panels, covering everything from A&R, to songwriting and bookings. The celebrity interviews are with Nikki Sixx, Melissa Etheridge, and Sammy Hagar.

On the 10th, Young Galaxy play with Imaginary Cities, and Miracle Fortress at Lee’s Palace. In fact, one can’t go wrong with staying put at Lee’s all night for any of the CMW bills: on the 11th, step in for Toronto indie rock act Dinosaur Bones at 11 p.m., and on the 12th, headliners Electric Six are joined by Paper Lions, and The Balconies.

A $75 wristband ($85 walk-up, if not sold out) allows access to all these showcases, exclusive gigs, afternoon shows, after-parties, as well as the film festival screenings. Annex-area venues include Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor St. W.), The Annex Wreck Room (794 Bathurst St. 2nd fl.), The Central (603 Markham St.), Sneaky Dee’s (431 College St.), Clinton’s (693 Bloor St. W.), the Mod Club (722 College St.), and the Silver Dollar (486 Spadina Ave.). For more information on all aspects of the conference, festival, trade show, and awards, including schedules, go to cmw.net.

By Lindsay Tsuji

Decorative pole covers are going up on Bloor Street in an effort to prevent postering and graffiti in the Annex, but not everyone agrees it’s a good idea.

At a recent meeting at Kilgour’s Bar Meets Grill (509 Bloor St. W.), the board of representatives of the Bloor Annex Business Improvement Area discussed their plans. “Our biggest concern is street cleanliness with regards to postering and graffiti,” said chair Wade McCullum. “It isn’t easy to get cleaned and people automatically re-post things right away. This is an opportunity to re-brand the neighbourhood.”

Flyers advertising local indie bands, martial arts classes, and concert events, amongst many other things,  can be seen plastered on utility poles up and down Bloor Street.

The proposed pole covers are set to be 14 feet long, which will cover most of pole’s length, said Elena Flores, account executive at Street Graffiti Solutions, the company responsible for the pole covers.

They are made of a plastic material that doesn’t allow tape or staples to adhere to the posts.

The Koreatown neighbourhood has had similar covers for about a year and a half and have seen a reduction in posters in the neighbourhood, said McCallum.

“Poles that have been covered no longer have a postering problem,” Flores said. “It costs a lot for the city and the community to clean up.”

The total costs for this project won’t be determined until a decision about the logo is finalized.

The BIA estimates the base cost will be $619 per sleave, with as many as 35 poles being covered initially in the area. The total budget for the project is estimated to be $34,000, split halfway between the BIA and the city.

But some independent business owners and public space advocates see postering as an effective and free way to get messages across to the public, and aren’t happy to see these spaces gone.

“Placing community posters on utility poles is a perfectly legal albeit regulated activity in Toronto,” said Johnathan Goldsbie, campaign coordinator for the Toronto Public Space Committee. The current bylaw, adopted by council in 2006, attempts to establish a distinction between community and commercial posters.

It states that posters for community events, local culture, and services are permitted to display posters on utility poles.

McCallum maintains that the postering is an eyesore, and there are already plenty of public spaces in the Annex to get your message across. “Businesses are eager to put up signage on poles, but expect the city to clean it up,” McCallum said. “There are spaces like message boards at the corner of Spadina Avenue and Bloor Street available for community groups to use. But at the end of the day, hydro poles aren’t public space.”

“[Pole covers] would not be good for us,” said Mariam Mekvabishvili, store clerk at Buck-o-Books (758 Bathurst St.), a store which heavily posters in the area. “It has generated a lot of traffic and customers for us. Most of the people who come in heard of us through the posters.”

The pole covers will be ready this spring, in time for the annual Bloor Street Festival.

By Perry King

Carter's recent book tells the story of of his spiritual journey during his years of imprisonment and afterward. Courtesy Ken Klonsky.

When Gus Sinclair thinks back to his work on the Rubin Carter case, his immediate thoughts go to Lisa Peters and her love for the fallen boxer.

“There are two people who I’ve met in my life who had that unshakable will, one was Rubin, and the other was the woman that fell in love with him,” said the Harbord Village resident.

In Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom, released at a book launch at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (252 Bloor St. W) on Jan. 28, Carter tells his life story, including his childhood and adolescence, incarceration, and dedication to working for the wrongfuly convicted. However, he does not mention the years he spent living in a commune with the Canadians who helped him find freedom.

Not a word is written about Peters. Sinclair lived in the commune with Carter for three years.

Carter, nicknamed “The Hurricane” because of his prowess as a middleweight boxer, was accused, tried, and twice convicted of a triple-homicide in Paterson, New Jersey in 1966. Much of the legal case was shrouded in late-1960s American civil unrest. A 1999 Macleans article says the prosecution pursued Carter because they perceived him to be a threat in the context of the growing race riots in American cities. Carter, and his alleged partner John Artis, were convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to three life terms.

Over the span of about 18 years, Gus Sinclair was a part of a commune of activists that assisted Carter in his release from prison and his eventual move to midtown Toronto.

According to the Maclean’s article, the commune—a non-partisan non-religious group lead by Sam Chaiton, Terry Swinton, and Peters—came across Carter’s book The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender to #45472 around 1980, and eventually took up his cause with his attorneys.

Their roles, depicted in Norman Jewison’s 1999 film The Hurricane, were democratic and equal, but Peters quietly became their de facto leader during the course. Her love for Carter, what Sinclair describes as a “jailhouse romance” is a topic less known in the larger public. “She wielded this group, who were not stupid people, to get her man out of jail. In six years, she did it. We were all part of it. I went to New York, along with four others, and we worked all day on the case,” said Sinclair.

“The record of the case, to think of our room as 20 by 20 feet, was three tiers of shelves all full of Rubin’s case history—I mean, from the day he was arrested in 1966 up to the present day, in 1984. But, we knew the record better than anybody, better than Rubin, in the end, and better than the lawyers. The lawyers were excellent guys, but they lived the law and we did the facts.”

The commune uncovered fresh evidence of a forged signature on a phone report falsifying the time of the crime. A combination of the new evidence, and a filed petition of habeas corpus in federal court by Carter’s attorneys, eventually lead to the judge’s setting aside of the convictions in 1985. In subsequent years, the group helped fight the federal court appeal and arranged Carter’s move to Toronto, where he lived with the commune until 1994.

The culprits of the triple-homicide have never been found. “His experience, in my view, it was almost unique. The fact these Canadians came to his aid, and for years helped him out in the most extraordinarily generous way, is one of the great stories of the twentieth century,” says Ken Klonsky, an associate of Carter’s.

Carter was in California when the Gleaner contacted him and could not be reached in time for this story.

As a result of resisting prison rules—to signify that he was innocent—Carter spent a decade of his sentence in solitary confinement. “My belief in my innocence and my stubbornness earned me many trips to solitary confinement, the black hole of silence,” wrote Carter in The Eye of the Hurricane, written with assistance from Klonsky.  “I was trapped at the bottom level of human society, the lowest point at which a person can exist without being dead … Aside from my innocence, I had nothing else to hold on to but my life.”

It was his prison environment and spiritual reawakening that has defined his life. Sinclair describes Carter as a strong personality, who is passionate and a dynamic speaker. “His personality is perfectly suited to [approach] something like opposing the New Jersey state prison system in that way. It’s those personality traits that don’t make him a team player,” said Sinclair.

According to the Maclean’s article, “Carter, who had developed a taste for solitude, chafed at communal living. In this house that prohibited liquor, he was also struggling with alcoholism. And he was constantly at odds with Lisa. After a string of splits and reconciliations, he quit the commune for good in 1994.” The sides have not spoken since.

Sinclair also left the commune, for reasons not stated, in 1988. “There’s all kinds of bruised feelings out there on the part of my former colleagues, whom I haven’t spoken to … They refused to see me because I walked out of there because it was a toxic environment and I was low man on the totem pole and I wasn’t going to take it anymore.”

But Carter’s relationship with Sinclair did not end there. After becoming appointed as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) in 1993, Carter reached out to Sinclair and asked him to join the AIDWYC board. Sinclair accepted, and still sits on the board to this day.

Carter left his post as executive director in 2005 when the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, a wrongfully convicted man, was promoted to a judgeship and AIDWYC declined to support Carter’s protest of the appointment. Carter asked for five AIDWYC board members to resign, but was denied. Carter and Sinclair have not spoken since.

Today, Carter takes up the cause of the decrepit culture of prisons through his initiative Innocence International, established about seven years ago with Klonsky. “There have been big downs and big ups with this relationship, but mostly it’s been, I think, of my benefit. In the end, I think I’m richer. It’s more than a book, it’s an understanding of the world I simply did not have,” said Klonsky.

A chapter excerpt from Eye of the Hurricane has been included in Descant‘s ‘Writer in Prison’ issue. Descant’s fall launch was held at Revival (783 College St.), where Carter, Klonsky, and others read from their contributions.

It was at this launch that Sinclair and Carter saw each other for the first time in almost a decade. They nodded hello to each other, but did not speak.

To learn more about Rubin Carter and the Innocence Project, visit www.rubinthehurricanecarter.com/innocence.html

The Eye of the Hurricane can be purchased at A Different Booklist and at other book stores.

With the nomination of Tim Grant (above) in December, the HVRA chair seat will be temporarily filled by former chair Gus Sinclair. Perry King/Gleaner News.

By Perry King

When Tim Grant went to a Green Party policy conference two years ago to hear more about their platform, he was “prepared to be unimpressed.”

“The Green Party in this riding has been very weak organizationally. This is one riding where more people spend and donate to green causes than any other riding in Canada, so in a sense Trinity-Spadina is the greenest riding in the country, and yet the level of organization of the Green Party is way too small to rise up to that level of potential support,” said Grant, a publisher and chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA).

But, that conference was an eye-opener for Grant. “I was instead very impressed by the high level of discussion. The pragmatism but also the vision wrapped together very nicely. I was impressed with the quality of the debate.”

It was this conference that began a process that lead to Grant’s nomination as the Green Party candidate in December, and he will run in Trinity-Spadina in October’s provincial race.

The only nominee for the Green candidacy, Grant has stepped down from his HVRA chair seat, and a constitutional provision has helped install a temporary replacement, former chair Gus Sinclair.

HVRA will be electing a new committee during their next AGM Oct. 19, two weeks after the Oct. 6 provincial election.

“He ran for, in good faith, and intended to fulfill his term and then this thing happened where he said, ‘I’m a very green guy, and if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it.’ It all happened and it’s fine, it’s legitimate, I encourage citizens to become engaged in the political process. There’s no right or wrong parties, and he’s an honourable guy,” said Sinclair.

Sinclair is not the only person with praise for Grant. “Tim is really a kind of an interesting study. I would sort of speak to what Malcolm Gladwell talked about in terms of the three main personal characters in The Tipping Point,” said Avi Lambert, a master’s candidate in environmental studies, whose mother is a neighbour of Grant’s. Lambert refers to Grant as a maven, salesmen, and connector, especially regarding Grant’s work producing the quarterly publication Green Teacher.

“In terms of his ability to connect people, he’s just an amazing facilitator in being able to find something in everyone to connect with. He’s one of those rare people that can create linkages with different communities and membership groups,” he added.

Grant has been producing the 52-page quarterly, which provides the North American education community with teaching ideas and cross-curricular activities that promote global and environmental awareness, for 20 years.

Perry King/Gleaner News.

Grant is excited about the coming months, where he can discuss progressive polices, but he looks at his possible success pessimistically. “I’m running for a fourth place party that is on the rise, but I think there’s only a slim chance that I will get elected. I’m really running for other reasons with other goals. If I was younger, I would be a bit more naive I suppose, but I’m not.

“In the cold light of day, I’m running for other reasons … I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for the sense that there was really a large number of people that already care about these [environmental] issues who weren’t well represented in the political spectrum. Thus, there was a sense that there was a real need and an opportunity for someone who could raise the issues more effectively for someone to do it, and I realized that maybe that person is me.”

Beginning the campaign early is also necessary for the party to raise adequate funds, a challenge for a party that Jo-Ann Shannon, interim president of the Trinity-Spadina Green Party’s constituency association, maintains is at a disadvantage, compared to the other parties that have larger bases of support. She acknowledges the financial challenge ahead, but is confident that having a candidate in the riding is a good first step. “Finding somebody who is energetic, putting himself out there and really into it, rather than just putting a name on the ballot [is a good thing],” she said.

“It’s been said that some ridings do that with the Green Party because they can’t get a good candidate. But, I don’t believe that.”

Rosario Marchese has been the incumbent MPP for Trinity-Spadina since being elected to office in 1990. He has been re-elected five times with at least 41 per cent of vote. The 2007 provincial election was Marchese’s narrowest victory to date, with about a 10 per cent margin between himself and the closest candidate, the Liberal party’s Kathryn Holloway. Equally, the Green Party received 11.5 per cent of that vote, their highest percentage to date. That result is a marked improvement from the 2003 and 1999 elections, where they received 5.8 and 1.7 per cent respectively.

Grant believes their chances are better this time around, but that there is plenty of work to be done. “The Greens will develop some momentum. The big challenge, though, if you have a tiny organization on the ground, your capacity for raising money before the election or doing anything else, developing a profile, are very limited,” said Grant.

“To be fair, most of the riding associations in Toronto are similar to ours. There have been a couple strong campaigns, but there’s a vacuum at the Green level, certainly in terms of strong green campaigns in the downtown area. I don’t want to be too negative to my colleagues in the party, but it is a sober recognition that we’ve [got] a way to go to build.”