Player-manager Damon Topolie hits one out during a game in Burlington May 2018.
R.S. KONJEK/GLEANER NEWS

An interview with Toronto Maple Leafs’ player-manager

A recent ESPN column declared that “parts of baseball are disappearing before our very eyes”.

Any grump would happily tell you that every play of the game is becoming dominated — ruined even! — by analytics and probabilities, guiding Major League Baseball (MLB) managers towards risk-averse decision-making. Aggression on the basepaths is declining in favour of waiting for the home run. As a result, stolen bases and pitchouts are trending downwards, same with sacrifice bunts and the hit and run.

All of these features of the game we grew up with are becoming rarities.

Another rarity is the player-manager.

The Miami Marlins made Martin Prado their player-manager as a one-off for their final game of the 2016 season. The last full-time MLB player-manager was Pete Rose from 1984 to 1986.

Player-managers have appeared throughout the game’s history, a list that includes names such as Connie Mack, John McGraw, Ty Cobb, Joe Torre, and Frank Robinson. An interesting combination of mind and muscle, this dual role has vanished from the major league game.

With players reduced to data, the modern manager can sit back and let a ballgame play itself out like computer chess. The only on-field participation expected of managers these days is delivering lineup cards and changing pitchers.

In the Intercounty Baseball League, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been bucking this trend for years.

Damon Topolie is a bona fide player-manager of the old school, and he relishes the role. He stepped into the position in 2015, after the Leafs parted ways with manager Perry Mader.

The 42-year-old wears many hats. He works for a tech company based out of Vaughan, but baseball is very much a part of his daily life. He began his Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) playing career with the Stratford Hillers in 1995, and joined the Leafs in 1998. When he is not running the show at Christie Pits, Topolie is the catching coordinator for the Ontario Blue Jays baseball development organization. He also provides a lot of private lessons.

“Most of our current players have been coached by me at one time or another,” he says, and immediately rattles off half of the Leafs’ current roster.

Asked if he still feels like “one of the guys”, he doesn’t agree. He prefers to see himself as a manager who is lucky enough to still be able to play.

“I have some baseball equipment that is older than some of the players on the team.”

While his playing time has been reduced, his output remains solid. Batting .263 in 38 plate appearances, he has 10 RBIs, including a home run.

Topolie no longer sees himself as the kind of alpha dog team leader that can rally a club, but believes that the Leafs have found those types of players. A look at the league standings would indicate that this is the case. The Leafs have been off to one of their best starts in years with a 12-8 record to start the month of July, just two games behind the Kitchener Panthers.

“The team chemistry has changed,” Topolie says. “Some of the new players have really helped the team bond quickly.”

The ballclub that has been put together for 2018 reflects the long time partnership that Topolie has forged with Jack Dominico, who is marking his 15th year as the Maple Leafs’ owner.

“It’s a combined effort. Jack has been around for 50 years so I count on his opinion, but we both have a solid network of people that we know in the game.” In that sense, you could add a general manager’s hat to Topolie’s collection.

Despite all the responsibilities of running the team, from building the roster, to coaching, to literally hauling equipment around, Topolie still has the greatest zest for the game itself.

“I love being on the field, especially when I hear the camaraderie in the dugout — guys talking the game and making in-game adjustments. That has become a lost art in the analytics age,” he says, noting that he likes to see the ex-pros helping the younger college guys understand the game.

He wants to see more of that.

“I had some awesome veterans who really helped mentor me when I started in this league.”

Topolie is currently fourth all-time in hits in the IBL. He began the season with 750 and would like to break the record of 769 held by Arden Eddie.

At the end of the season, however, it’s all about bringing the Jack and Lynne Dominico Trophy back to its ancestral home, Christie Pits. Topolie is a veteran of three championship-winning Leafs teams (1999, 2002, and 2007), but winning again would mean the world to him, and stand as the culmination of one man’s unique effort as a player, manager, and team-builder in Toronto sports.

READ MORE BY R.S. KONJEK:

SPORTS: Maple Leafs back at the Pits (Election Special 2018)

NEWS: Celebrating a legendary Leaf (Jan. 2018)

ON OUR COVER: Cycling the Pits (Fall 2017)

SPORTS: Leafs fall early this summer (AUGUST 2017)

Candidates vying for your support on June 7 include (clockwise from top left): Gillian Smith, Jo-Ann Davis, Jessica Bell, Daryl Christoff, KathleenWynne, Doug Ford, Andrea Howarth, and Tim Grant. Ford,Wynne, Howarth and Mike Schreiner (centre) are party leaders. NEILAND BRISSENDEN/GLEANER NEWS, PHOTOS COURTESY ALL CANDIDATES

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

NEWS: Grilling potential MPPs (Election Special 2018)

EDITORIAL: The market has no moral compass (Election Special 2018)

GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Bold new initiatives for Ontario (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Reducing downtown’s vehicles by 25 per cent (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of Ontario do we want? (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of province do we want? (March 2018)

University-Rosedale candidates answer your questions

Over the last five months we’ve published forum pieces by five people running to be your Member of Provincial Parliament in the newly formed riding of University-Rosedale: Jessica Bell (New Democratic Party), Daryl Christoff (New People’s Choice Party of Ontario), Jo-Ann Davis (Ontario Liberal Party), Tim Grant (Green Party of Ontario), and Gillian Smith (Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario).

Now, in our final issue before the provincial election on June 7, we’re publishing their answers to questions we received from local residents’ associations and BIAs. Answers have been edited for style and length. You can read the candidates’ forum pieces on our website, gleanernews.ca.

Compiled by Geremy Bordonaro

What will your party do to address the severe shortage of affordable rental housing in major urban areas like Toronto?

Jessica Bell: Andrea Horwath and the NDP have committed to funding the province’s one-third share of repairing social housing across Ontario. We will build 65,000 new affordable homes over the next decade, and provide the co-op housing sector with $3 million to seed co-op bid development. We will maintain rent-geared-to-income and rent supplements and overhaul the government’s inclusionary zoning regulations, so they actually accomplish what they set out to do: require a certain number of affordable homes in new housing developments. We will encourage an array of options for housing, and working with municipalities, we’ll create a new residents’ rights act so homeowners can add legal apartments, laneway houses, and granny flats to their properties. Finally, we will crack down on housing speculators who are driving up housing costs.

Daryl Christoff: Revitalizing and rehabilitating locations and looking to maximize use of the space that we have is essential to ensuring [there is sufficient] affordable housing. New development should not only be required to match previous affordable housing units, but consideration needs to be included at neighbourhood levels alongside with greenspace, community space, education, and healthcare infrastructure. These locations need to have accessibility integrated with normal priced housing in places where community can be promoted.

Jo-Ann Davis: Liberals are boosting affordable housing through inclusionary zoning, which calls for affordable housing units to be included in new condo developments. Through this planning tool, cities will be able to create inclusive, accessible communities that will help increase the supply of affordable housing. Before the recent expansion of rent control, tenants who lived in apartments, condo units, and houses built or first rented on or after Nov. 1, 1991 were exempt from rent control protections. These tenants faced unpredictable, arbitrary, and sometimes massive rent increases, with many forced out of their homes. Inclusionary zoning and a rent control framework that provides stability and predictability for renters and landlords is part of the mix of affordable housing solutions needed.

Tim Grant: The Green Party would strengthen Ontario’s inclusionary zoning legislation to ensure that a minimum of one in five new housing units is affordable, whether in new condo or apartment buildings or in single family developments. We would provide incentives to municipalities to prioritize mixed-use, medium-height buildings on main streets while at the same time protecting the interior of established neighbourhoods. In addition, we would update zoning laws to allow tiny homes, and more secondary suites and laneway housing. Finally, we would work with the federal government to increase support for new and existing non-profit and co-operative housing.

Gillian Smith: There is a lack of supply in Ontario’s rental market — specifically in the Greater Toronto Area — and we know this is a real challenge for families in our riding and beyond. The best way to bring down rental costs is by increasing supply. We are in favour of reducing red tape and increasing supply to address this need and we’ll do so without touching the Greenbelt. No one should have their rent increased by 300 per cent overnight, but we need to balance this with a system that encourages new rental properties to be built.

The Auditor General has determined that the provincial government’s finances are worse than reported. If elected, how will you promote financial transparency, fairness, and openness for the Ontario taxpayer?

Christoff: Government accountability is at a low. Voter turnout is less than half and it shows that people are frustrated with provincial politics. By creating easily accessible sources for taxpayers to understand government spending and simple ways to actively provide opinions on non-partisan facts, we can make people feel more engaged. When people are more engaged they can help to hold the government more accountable. The people [would] be more likely to respect the words of the Auditor General and demand that the government maintain its fiscal promises.

Davis: I am committed to openness and transparency and truly believe that people in Ontario have a right to know how their dollars are being invested. As trustee, this was one of my lasting contributions to the Toronto Catholic District School Board, as I worked collaboratively to build a governance framework that promotes greater public transparency in the decision-making process at the board. The Ontario Liberal government was the first government in Canada to pass legislation like the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Act. It’s a great building block for further systemic reforms that support public transparency and accountability.

Grant: The first step is to establish financial transparency. To that end, Greens support the creation of an open data portal where a broad range of government data would be available to citizens to assess and use for data analysis. This data would include government contracts and expenses, road traffic information, and environmental reports. This would reduce the number of freedom-of-information requests. In the meantime, we would ensure that such requests are answered promptly and without political interference. In addition, we would cap executive salaries in the public service to double the premier’s salary.

Smith: We are going to restore responsibility, accountability, and trust in government. We want the people of Ontario to have the whole truth about what’s going on in government because Kathleen Wynne is not telling you the whole truth. This is why we will call a commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of Kathleen Wynne’s billion-dollar hidden deficits and propose solutions to the largest financial scandal in Canadian history. We will also go line by line through the government’s finances to make sure we are getting value for money and we will restore the Auditor General’s power to monitor government advertising. The people of Ontario have been lied to and taken advantage of for far too long.

Bell: Ontarians deserve politicians and leaders who will behave with integrity and transparency. Andrea Horwath and the NDP will bring in a strong MPP code of conduct, with regular updates in plain language so all Ontarians know what is expected of the people they elect. We will return full, independent oversight of Hydro One to the eight independent offices. We will work to increase government transparency and public access to information, while protecting the privacy of Ontarians and eliminate costs for freedom of information requests. And we will ensure true independent oversight of Ontario’s health care by bringing it under the oversight of the Ontario Ombudsman.

What will your party do to correct the funding formula for schools to ensure a safe, healthy environment that is conducive to learning and working?

Davis: As a local school board trustee and a parent, ensuring students and families — especially the most vulnerable — have the resources they need for student achievement and well-being is one of the primary reasons I first ran for office. The Liberals have invested more in education than ever before — leading to historic increases in student achievement and high school graduation rates. Even with this investment, I know firsthand that school boards are facing maintenance backlogs. I’ve supported the Fix Our Schools campaign for some time and believe we should revise the funding formula to ensure that it’s transparent and equitable, given the differing age and states of repair of schools across our province. In addition, we should expand the ways in which education development charges can be used by school boards to include school renewal, retrofitting, and additions.

Grant: We would merge the publicly-funded Catholic and public school systems, creating annual savings of $1 billion that could be used to reduce class sizes and repair school buildings. It is time to have kids of all faiths and no faith growing up together. Reducing class sizes and fixing old buildings would result in a better classroom experience for our kids, and thus better learning outcomes.

Smith: An Ontario PC government will make sure that students have a safe place to learn and teachers have a safe place to teach. When only half of our Grade 6 students are meeting the provincial standard in math, it is clear there is a problem. We need to support our teachers with comprehensive and practical curricular documents. An Ontario PC government will revisit curricular documents in all core subject areas and make changes to ensure that our kids are being provided with the building blocks they need to succeed in the workforce, post-secondary levels, and life. Ontario’s education system should be a force to be reckoned with. I want to see children from hard-working Ontario families ranking in the top percentiles of international education rankings.

Bell: Andrea Horwath and the NDP will fund schools properly. We will work with parents, front-line educators, students, and educational experts to overhaul the education funding formula starting with a comprehensive public review based on two key principles: equity and quality. A new funding formula will address violence in classrooms, and will mean boards, teachers, and education workers have the resources they need to ensure the well-being and safety of all learners, and all educators. We will also end standardized tests and work collaboratively with educators to determine how random sampling could support spotting early trends and deciding where we should focus on improvement, without driving teachers to “teach to the test”. We estimate this will save $40 million, which we will reinvest in the classroom.

Christoff: The issues facing our education systems are numerous. The necessities required for all children need to be considered. Fundraising that covers gaps for some families leaves other students with less. We need to reallocate our systems to promote optimization and remove some of the power from unions and place the focus on the needs of children along with what their parents see is needed.

What will you do to ensure the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) incorporates the current use of a property and the city’s density restrictions on development when assessing commercial properties?

Grant: MPAC’s policy of assessing taxes on commercial properties on the basis of their highest and best use has been devastating to independent businesses on Toronto’s main streets. Most don’t own the property where their stores are located. When MPAC decides that a property could be replaced with a high-rise condo, these businesses have faced big tax increases. This is unfair. Commercial properties should only be assessed based on their current use.

Smith: An Ontario PC government will put taxpayers first.

Bell: The Ontario NDP has been calling for MPAC reform for years. Under the Conservative and Liberal governments, MPAC has created needless uncertainty by assessing commercial properties not based on the actual value of the business, but on the value of the imaginary condo tower that might stand in its place. The NDP will conduct a full review of MPAC and the Assessment Review Board to ensure that commercial and industrial property tax assessments are fair, reasonable, predictable, and consistent.

Christoff: Community watchdogs and municipal leaders need to be brought into any development to ensure that it is enhancing a neighbourhood and not steamrolling it. Our communities have been developed over decades and should be considered as one of the infrastructures to accommodate when a neighbourhood faces change.

Davis: I’ve heard first hand from residents and local business owners about the impact of assessments to our neighbourhoods and local business. It’s a system that needs to be fixed, and fast. Many have suggested that assessments should be based on actual use rather than market fluctuations in rent or best and highest use. MPAC must work with both provincial and municipal partners to ensure properties are assessed in a way that is fair and predictable so that no one is caught off guard in property valuations.

In 1992, Canada signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, committing to protect 17 per cent of our lands and waters by 2020. Ontario has only protected 10 per cent. What will you do to ensure that Ontario contributes more to land and water protection in Canada?

Smith: We all have a role when it comes to protecting the environment, and the Ontario PCs will do so in a way that respects the taxpayer.

Bell: We believe water is a public trust, and an Ontario water strategy will prioritize planning for water needs now and for future generations, based on the public interest and sustainable public access to water. The Ontario water strategy will be based on the principle that the public should have access to water for drinking, sanitation, and food, and ensure that communities have water for planned sustainable growth. The strategy will create an inventory of water use and return across the province, prioritizing sustainable long-term water use planning.

Christoff: Our built ecosystems provide our clean air, water, and food. All water bodies should be safe, but pushing to protect 17 per cent of our land should be a minimum. We believe 25 per cent of land and water in Ontario should be protected to ensure our large ecosystems and biodiversity are protected for today and our future generations.

Davis: Ontario has committed to supporting a coast-to-coast-to-coast network of nationally protected land and water and as MPP I would do what I could to see that this commitment is met. A Liberal Government would continue to build on its record of environmental protection by expanding the Greenbelt into ecologically sensitive areas like the Waterloo and Paris/Galt Moraine complex, the Orangeville Moraine, the Oro Moraine, and the Nottawasaga River corridor, as well as additional wetlands and small moraines in Dufferin and Simcoe counties.

Grant: Greens would set aside a minimum of 17 per cent of the land base in protected areas according to the internationally-agreed-upon Aichi biodiversity targets. In support of this, we would establish a rigorous biodiversity monitoring and reporting program as an early warning system of species loss. We would freeze urban boundaries now to stop sprawl and expand the Greenbelt to protect a “Bluebelt” of significant hydrological and ecological areas. And we would invest in the monitoring and protection of the Great Lakes. Finally, we would significantly raise royalty rates paid by companies that extract aggregates, ground water, and minerals. This would ensure that Ontario fully recovers the costs of monitoring and managing these essential resources, while providing companies with a financial incentive to prioritize conservation.

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

EDITORIAL: The market has no moral compass (Election Special 2018)

GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Bold new initiatives for Ontario (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Reducing downtown’s vehicles by 25 per cent (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of Ontario do we want? (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of province do we want? (March 2018)

Peter Steen receives Community Builder Award

Annex Residents’ Association board member Christine Innes, vice-chair Albert Koehl, Peter Steen, and chair David Harrison (from left). Steen received the Community Builder award for building and maintaining an ice rink at Jean Sibelius Park over many years. COURTESY ALBERT KOEHL

By Ahmed-Zaki Hagar

Development and politics were the main subjects at the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) annual general meeting at a packed Friends’ House (60 Lowther Ave.) on April 26.

Former Member of Provincial Parliament (Parkdale-High Park) Reverend Cheri DiNovo was this year’s keynote speaker. Known as the “queen of the tri-party bills,” she sponsored many private member bills that had the support of the three major political parties, like the one in 2007 that raised the minimum wage to $10.

Now a minister at Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, she hosts Radical Reverend, a radio program on CIUT 89.5 FM, the University of Toronto’s campus radio station.

During her remarks, DiNovo touched on the provincial election, particularly a potential Doug Ford premiership. She said that she will work with Ford if he wins and urged the audience to “vote with their heart.”

“No matter who gets in, make sure you are knocking on their door, calling them up on the phone, writing to them,” she said. “You are your own best lobbyist for whatever your interest is.”

The ARA also announced the winner of the Community Building Award, Peter Steen. He was recognized for building and maintaining an ice rink at the Jean Sibelius Square Park on Kendal Avenue since 1998.

Created last year, the Community Builder Award is given to an Annex resident who makes a significant contribution to the neighbourhood.

“It is an honour, it is a really sweet thing and I appreciate it,” said Steen. He wanted to make sure that all those in the community who helped him over the years were acknowledged too. It was “always appreciated” as it’s “never one person’s work, there was a lot of help”.

Steen says that he always loved hockey, which was his motivation to build the rink. He has also seen the popularity of the sport grow in the neighbourhood in the past few years.

“I have certainly seen an increase in skaters coming out,” he said. “I do not think you can ever not have a neighbourhood in this country without someone playing hockey if it is cold enough.”

Steen added that a family will take over the task of maintaining the rink, and that there has been growing interest in the community rink over the past couple of years.

Finally, Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) spoke about how the city is doing very well economically, but still has to address things like homelessness.

“I encourage all of us, and every neighbourhood in the city,” he said, “as we move into a discussion about the future and vision of the city, that as we succeed, we only truly succeed if we care for the most vulnerable.”

Cressy spoke about the downtown core’s growing population and said that more people will work and study downtown. He said this shows the need for better transit and “livable neighbourhoods” marked by new parks and community centres, adding that the design for a new public park at Spadina and Sussex avenues will soon be released.

Another topic Cressy addressed was fraternities and sororities, which he said should be licensed as multi-tenant housing, something he brought to Toronto City Council’s executive committee last year.

“This is entirely about ensuring, when you have large multi-tenant houses, that they are helped, that they are safe, and that they are good community neighbours,” he said.

Cressy also spoke about the changes to the ward boundaries, which has created three new seats at city council.

What is now Ward 20 will be split in half. The north part will become Ward 24, and run from Queen Street to the rail tracks just north of Dupont Street, bounded by University Avenue on the east and Bathurst Street on the west.

The southern part will remain Ward 20, and run roughly from Queen Street to Lake Ontario, bounded by John Street on the east and Bathurst Street on the west.

Cressy will run for re-election “in our home community [Ward 24]. I grew up in this area [and] it is home. I cannot imagine being anywhere else.”

On May 23, Toronto City Council voted to amend the city’s by-laws so that fraternities and sororities may be required to be licensed. Annemarie Brissenden, contributing editor, is the president of a not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates a women’s fraternity house on Madison Avenue. She edited this article.

The Royal Ontario of Museum (ROM) has been providing free access to the Daphne Cockwell Gallery dedicated to First Peoples art & culture since April 18. It’s all part of an initiative to educate Canadians on Indigenous culture and welcome more people to the museum.

Located on the main floor of the Hillary and Galen Weston Wing, the gallery has more than one thousand pieces by Indigenous artists, and has been one of the museum’s most important cultural spaces since opening in 2005. The museum has an Indigenous Advisory Circle, and an Indigenous Knowledge Resource Teacher is available Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The gallery is named for Daphne Cockwell, a nurse in the Second World War. Her son, Jack, is a dedicated ROM supporter and received its Distinguished Service Award in 2012.

—Billie Wilner/Gleaner News

Seaton Village resident Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene performs at Open Tuning’s 2015 festival, which returns June 9. GLEANER FILE PHOTO/COURTESY NEIL MUSCOTT

Musicians of all genres, ages, and levels are set to perform from garages, porches, storefronts, and restaurants when the Open Tuning Festival returns to Seaton Village from noon to 9 p.m. on June 9. Founded in 2014 by a group of local residents, the free music festival will feature over 100 performers and 20 venues.

Billed as a listening experience, Open Tuning encourages audience members to roam from stage to stage (or porch to porch as it were), taking in the music from all corners of Seaton Village, a historical neighbourhood bordered by Bloor, Dupont, Bathurst, and Christie streets.

Run entirely by volunteers, the festival is open to performers of all ages and skill levels. For more information on the festival, please visit opentuningfestival.wordpress.com.

—Billie Wilner/Gleaner News

READ MORE:

ARTS: Connecting neighbours through music (May 2016)

U of T study shows that anxiety can be productive

Researchers from the University of Toronto have recently published a study demonstrating that some workplace anxiety motivates employees to be more productive and focused on a task. COURTESY SHUTTERSHOCK

By Ahmed-Zaki Hagar

About 500,000 Canadians are unable to work during a given week due to a mental illness, according to a 2008 study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. And, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, mental illness affects seven out of ten Canadians in the workplace, with anxiety being the most common symptom.

However, a recent University of Toronto (U of T) study has found that workplace anxiety can be beneficial for workers.

Bonnie Cheng, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and U of T graduate, and Julie McCarthy, a U of T professor, say that their findings show how moderate levels of anxiety can motivate people.

[pullquote]“It just does not make sense that everyone is having a bad performance. You see people who are anxious who just get their stuff together and perform quite well”—Bonnie Cheng, assistant professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University[/pullquote]

Cheng says that she was interested in the growing public discussion on mental health and her study aims to show that anxiety “is something we do not have to run away from”.

“If we only accept that anxiety is bad for us, what are the implications of that, if you think about the workplace from so many people being anxious?” she says. “It just does not make sense that everyone is having a bad performance. You see people who are anxious who just get their stuff together and perform quite well.”

Going through past research on the subject, Cheng and McCarthy say that there are three facts that can impact a worker’s performance: motivation, ability, and emotional intelligence.

Cheng says that these factors can either aid with anxiety or “turn it into a fear and [let it] debilitate you”.

“Having some level of anxiety is good because that can stimulate you to put out your best work,” she says. “It is really about embracing that anxiety so that you can use it to facilitate your performance.”

Cheng and McCarthy break down workplace anxiety into two categories.

Dispositional workplace anxiety is based on a person’s traits, like their general level of anxiety. Situational workplace anxiety is how a person feels anxious in certain situations, such as from a job interview or a deadline.

Cheng explained how employees who have to provide a “service with a smile”, at times when they are not happy, have to suppress their anxiety.

The article says that jobs with high emotional labour demands coupled with high customer turnover could lead to heightened anxiety. Other characteristics that can trigger anxiety include office politics, high expectations, and tight deadlines.

Cheng says that these two types of anxiety are “tightly linked”, but can impact performance differently.

“For trait-levels of anxiety, you can think of it as something that is chronic. Over time, it can hurt your performance because it will exhaust you,” she says. “For situational levels of anxiety, because it is more short-term, it can hurt your performance because, in those situations, it will distract you.

“The facilitative side of anxiety for both of them is very similar, they both centre around self-regulation.”

Cheng says that organizations and employers can help their employees with managing their anxiety. She points to Google’s efforts to train managers with helping their employees with their emotional intelligence as an example to follow.

“Organizations can help to invest in employees in terms of offering the right training and giving them the right tools so that employees can feel that they have the necessary resources to perform their tasks,” she says.

More how nice!

EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (May 2018)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Spring 2018)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Mar. 2018)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Dec. 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON How nice! (August 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON How nice! (July 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: how nice! by blamb (June 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: TCHC (May 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: The Grand Tory (April 2017)

FORUM: Celebrating 20 years of cartoonist Brett Lamb (April 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: A second chance! by Brett Lamb 2037 (February 2017)

EDITORIAL CARTOON: Not really! It’s actually nice! by Stumpy the Subway(January 2017)

What’s lost in the provincial debate over whether minimum wage should be $14 or $15 an hour is an accompanying discussion of what full-time employment at minimum wage actually pays for. It’s a glaring omission when you consider that many people spent the biggest portion of their money on a place to call home.

The cost to keep a roof over one’s head is eating more and more of one’s paycheque, and a buck or two more an hour won’t make much of a difference. The increasingly stark juxtaposition of the cost of renting a dwelling and average wages is worth examining, particularly because all four provincial parties are promising the voting public the world.

The lack of affordable housing is a growing problem across the province, but even more so in Toronto. Given how much renters pay each month relative to their incomes, they cannot endure a single hiccup in their income stream or they will be out on the street. The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) recently released Where Will We Live? Ontario’s Affordable Renting Housing Crisis, which demonstrates that 46.9 per cent of Toronto’s renter households are spending 30 per cent or more of their income on rental costs. That means a tenant would have to earn at least $24 per hour to afford the average rent in the Greater Toronto Area.

(The 30 per cent margin of income is a widely-used benchmark to determine if rent is in fact affordable. It also provides a window into whether or not there will be enough left over for a decent quality of life after the rent gets paid.)

According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), a one-bedroom condominium goes for $1,800 and a one-bedroom apartment for $1,200. But these averages reflect existing rents in occupied dwellings instead of what is on the market, given a landlord’s ability to spike the rent once they have a vacancy, and do not reflect local rates in places like the Annex, which is a whole other kettle of fish.

According to ACTO, a renter here would need to earn $30 per hour in order to afford rent. At $14 an hour, one would to have to log 86 hours a week, which is equivalent to over two full-time jobs!

The federal government has committed $40 billion to a national housing strategy aimed at lifting 530,000 families out of unaffordable or substandard housing. Where is the province on this? The province needs a matching program — adding another dollar or two to minimum wage will not solve the problem.

Westbank Projects Corp.’s redevelopment of the former Honest Ed’s site is a local example of a developer identifying and filling a need for more rental units. They even made 10 per cent of the 850 units affordable, and included one, two, and three bedroom units in the affordable mix. But this will hardly meet all the rental needs in Toronto, where the vacancy rate for one bedroom apartments is about one per cent.

The peace of mind afforded by having a roof over one’s head is incalculable. When provincial candidates come knocking at your door, perhaps you’ll consider asking them what they plan to do about it.

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

NEWS: Grilling potential MPPs (Election Special 2018)

GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Bold new initiatives for Ontario (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Reducing downtown’s vehicles by 25 per cent (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of Ontario do we want? (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of province do we want? (March 2018)

READ MORE EDITORIALS: 

EDITORIAL: Lessons to be learned from Excessive Force (Spring 2018)

EDITORIAL: A social contract is a precious thing (March 2018)

EDITORIAL: Intolerance leading to Quebec’s decline (Dec. 2017)

EDITORIAL (Nov. 2017): Student safety suffers as trustees cave

EDITORIAL: Pandering to religious intolerance (October 2017)

EDITORIAL: Bike lanes, good for business (Fall 2017)

EDITORIAL: Don’t sacrifice safety for political gain (August 2017)

EDITORIAL: Thank you Mr. Asti (July 2017)

EDITORIAL: A watershed moment (June 2017)

EDITORIAL: Revoke U of T’s unchecked “licence to build” (May 2017)

EDITORIAL: Westbank’s positive precedent (April 2017)

EDITORIAL: Foreign buyers tax a necessary cliff jump (March 2017)

Making the case for the provincial Liberals

By Jo-Ann Davis

Elections have consequences. On June 7, voters in Ontario will make a choice that will have a profound impact on the welfare of students, seniors, families in our community, the economy, and environment.

Premier Wynne and the Liberal government are offering Ontarians bold new initiatives to grow an Ontario that’s fair, just, and offers new opportunities. One where human dignity is valued, climate change is combatted, a workforce is well educated, skilled, healthy and agile, and a business environment that is growing and innovating, while creating jobs and supporting workers’ rights.

A desire for change that lifts people out of poverty and improves our everyday lives is what brought Ontario a fair minimum wage, full-day kindergarten, expanded daycare, more skilled trades apprenticeships, free tuition for students from low income families, youth and senior pharmacare, expanded home care, a basic income pilot, a cap-and-trade system that reduces pollutants and raised $1.9 billion in 2017 to support green initiatives in our homes, schools, hospitals, and on our streets, and world-leading research and development.

Meanwhile, Doug Ford and his “Progressive” Conservatives (PC) would reverse change — abandoning the environment, taking away a fair minimum wage, axing rent controls, and a modern sex education curriculum, while threatening to cut billions. With no carbon tax, Mr. Ford needs to replace $4 billion — without any tax cuts — to make good on the PC platform. This means cuts to hospitals, schools, mental health, low income seniors, and supports for families trying to make ends meet.

At the same time the New Democratic Party platform is long on promises for additional funding for everything from health care to social housing, and education to public transit with no details on where the additional revenue will be found.

I support electoral reform, and therefore empathize with Green party supporters, and agree that new funding sustainable funding sources are needed for public transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

University-Rosedale needs a strong, progressive representative at Queen’s Park — one that listens to local voices, works effectively with other levels of government, and has a proven track record of success. That why I’m running to be your Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for University-Rosedale.

I’ve spent much of my life studying, volunteering and living in and around University-Rosedale. It’s where I went to high school, and completed my undergraduate studies, as a University of Toronto student. It’s where my son plays soccer for SC Toronto, and my husband coaches.

It’s where Torontonians from all walks of life live, work, study, volunteer and play, with a diversity found in few other places. This is a riding knitted together by distinct neighbourhoods — welcoming to all. Neighbourhoods seeking a local voice in development, main streets with local businesses, diverse housing that’s affordable, daycare that’s accessible, and urban spaces where children and seniors have a place.

In 2010, I chose to run to be the local Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee to advocate for vulnerable students and families, and shape a system built on public accountability, evidence and transparency.

As trustee for the last eight years, I’ve fought for students with special needs at budget time, focused staff resources on working to close the student learning opportunity gap between rich and poor, partnered with the City of Toronto to transform a pavement-covered playground into an urban garden and park at Markham and London streets opening this September, and championed making the TCDSB the first net zero energy school board in Ontario.

Professionally, I lead large-scale change for some of Canada’s biggest corporations. Bringing people with diverse perspectives together to achieve important change is a skill every politician should have — it’s what I’ve been doing for 15 years.

Knocking on thousands of doors, I’ve heard from people that they want an MPP who knows the community, who listens to and understands local issues, and who has the passion and skills to advocate for change at Queen’s Park. A proven community advocate with a track record of innovation is what I would bring as your MPP for University-Rosedale.

Jo-Ann Davis is the Ontario Liberal Candidate for University-Rosedale.

READ MORE BY OTHER CANDIDATES:

FORUM: The Green Party’s platform (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Reducing downtown’s vehicles by 25 per cent (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of Ontario do we want? (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of province do we want? (March 2018)

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

EDITORIAL: The market has no moral compass (Election Special 2018)

NEWS: Grilling potential MPPs (Election Special 2018)

GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)

Focus on innovative measures and renewable energy

By Tim Grant

I have lived all my life in our new riding of University-Rosedale. My involvement as a teenager in the fight against the Spadina Expressway propelled me into a lifetime focus on local and provincial issues. For the past 15 years, I have served on the board of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, one of the most active residents’ associations in the city, chairing the organization for the last seven years.

In this election, we have a choice. We have two parties that will fund new programs by adding to our debt, one party that will cut social programs, and another option: the Green Party. Here are a few examples of how we Greens approach some of our current challenges.

[pullquote]Rather than taking on debt, let’s look for stable sustainable sources of new revenue to pay for the things we need.[/pullquote]

Capture new sources of revenue to help pay for the services we need. As I’ve previously written in the Gleaner, we supported Toronto City Council’s request for road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. Had the province agreed, tolls would now provide $350 million annually to the Toronto Transit Commission. A $2 per day parking surcharge in commercial lots across the Greater Toronto Area would raise $2 billion a year for transit. If we increase royalties charged for the extraction of groundwater, gravel, and minerals, we can raise billions of dollars to pay for dental care and other new programs. Rather than taking on debt, let’s look for stable sustainable sources of new revenue to pay for the things we need.

Replace aging nuclear generators with clean green energy. Expensive nuclear refurbishments, perpetually over budget, are a major factor in hydro rate increases. The other three parties are willing to borrow now to lower electricity rates, leaving it to the next generation to pay for today’s wasteful consumption. We want hydro bills that don’t hide the real cost of electricity. If we replace nuclear with green energy, our electricity bills are going to be lower. We would close the 47-year-old Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and replace its power with safe low-cost hydro from Quebec, and renewable energy and conservation programs here in Ontario.

Fight poverty with innovative measures. Let’s implement a guaranteed annual income, which would remove the stigma experienced by those on social assistance and provide stability for everyone in a time when jobs are increasingly precarious. Let’s make sure that 20 per cent of all units in new condominiums are affordable. With rich and poor on the same elevator, we’ll have healthier communities. Finally, let’s copy European governments and focus on preventative health care. We would tax junk food to pay for school food programs — reducing child hunger — and ensure that those on social assistance receive a monthly $200 fruit-and-vegetable supplement.

Such measures will improve public health, and the savings in health care costs can be used to fund a wider array of health services.

Merge Catholic and public school boards. It is time to have kids of all faiths (and no faiths) growing up side by side.

Merging the boards would save $1 billion every year for use in reducing class sizes and repairing school buildings.

License local businesses to sell cannabis. With legalization around the corner, our goal should be to ensure public safety and capture revenue to fund health care and other programs.

Licensing only 40 Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) outlets this year and 120 within two years (only nine in Toronto) is not going to eliminate the black market or raise significant revenue. Let’s learn from our experience of supporting craft breweries against the beer monopolies and license local businesses to supplement LCBO sales.

Making significant progress on any of these issues will require a Green Party voice in the legislature. For years, I have worked on long-term solutions to enhance our downtown communities. It would be an honour to continue that work as your MPP.

Tim Grant is the Green Party of Ontario candidate in University-Rosedale.

READ MORE BY OTHER CANDIDATES:

FORUM: Bold new initiatives for Ontario (Election Special 2018)

FORUM: Reducing downtown’s vehicles by 25 per cent (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of Ontario do we want? (May 2018)

FORUM: What kind of province do we want? (March 2018)

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

NEWS: Grilling potential MPPs (Election Special 2018)

EDITORIAL: The market has no moral compass (Election Special 2018)

GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)

Assessing the parties through an environmental lens

At the risk of sounding like a single-issue voter, it will be no surprise to anyone who has read any of my columns that the environment ranks high. There are lots of other issues, such as healthcare, debt, economic growth, but all that is moot as we stare mass extinction in the face. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, you aren’t paying attention. Before his death, Stephen Hawking gave humanity another two centuries before we’re toast. To me, the long-term survival of our species trumps any short-term issue we are facing at the moment, no matter how pressing it might seem.

[pullquote]The Liberals have come up with a number of good ideas in the environmental department, but execution leaves a lot to be desired.[/pullquote]

The Progressive Conservatives under Patrick Brown’s leadership actually had a promising platform. They acknowledged climate change and would have followed the federal carbon tax rules. That was at least a start. His actions however were not becoming of a premier, or anyone in a position of leadership.

Doug Ford has reversed his promise to open up the Greenbelt to development. It’s a good thing he’s abandoned these short-sighted and ridiculous plans — you don’t fix the housing crisis by creating a food crisis.

How much farmland do we reduce down to before we realize we can’t feed ourselves? The Greenbelt isn’t just uninhabited tundra, it’s some of the most fertile farmland in the world.

We don’t need more McMansions on top of productive land. We need higher density in areas we have already inhabited. We need to put homes where people don’t need to get in their fossil-fuel-powered boxes and expel carbon dioxide in order to get to work or buy a carton of milk.

The policy reversal was a good step, but refusal to take on carbon pricing tells me he’s stuck in a model of growth at all costs. Extinction is too high a cost.

The Liberals have come up with a number of good ideas in the environmental department, but execution leaves a lot to be desired. Carbon tax is great, cap and trade, meh. Better than nothing.

They have recycling fees that are so pathetically low it makes no sense, but at least it’s there on items like electronics. The environmental fee they tried years ago was a fantastic idea, but the execution was so bad it didn’t last.

I’m very happy about the renewable energy capacity increase in the province, less so about our management of it. While not entirely the Liberals’ fault, they should have known the underlying issues and started trying to deal with them. When it comes to transit, I will never forgive them for giving Rob Ford the hammer he needed to reopen Scarborough subway.

While it is easy to criticize those in power, I actually couldn’t tell you what the New Democratic Party platform is without looking it up.

Upon investigation, there was some poetic waxing about a better environment, renewable energy that will be integrated responsibly (I don’t know what that means), but the thing that really stood out to me was a 30 per cent reduction in hydro rates. WHAT? We want to make it cheaper to use electricity when so much of it still comes from fossil fuels? WHAT?

I thought only the Liberals were nonsensical enough for this. Few details exist on the NDP’s website for me to make any determination at this point, but perhaps things will become clear.

The Greens are the closest to my heart. They want to axe Catholic schools so we don’t have redundant buses on the same route, and they want to let the city toll the Gardiner and DVP. They want to collect carbon fees, phase out internal combustion engines, and give incentives for energy efficiency.

They are after my own heart. It’ll be expensive, everyone will hate them for it, and we won’t be able to waste energy willy-nilly like we do right now without it costing a LOT.

I love this party, but let’s be honest, Schreiner’s not going to be premier.

Whoever sits in the premier’s office, I wager it will be a minority. I would love to see a handful of Green Members of Provincial Parliament elected so they can start to have meaningful influence over public policy.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy and distinguish environmental truths from myths.

READ MORE BY TERRI CHU:

GREENINGS: Reduce, reuse, and then recycle (May 2018)

GREENINGS: Car-free parenting is not rare (Spring 2018)

GREENINGS: The science of board games (Mar. 2018)

GREENINGS: Driving fuelled by unseen subsidies (Jan. 2018)

GREENINGS: No solutions for nobody’s problem (Dec. 2017)

GREENINGS: Celebrate science not milestones (Nov. 2017)

GREENINGS: Down to the data (Oct. 2017)

GREENINGS: Reducing paper waste (Fall 2017)

GREENINGS: Taking tolls to the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway (July 2017)

GREENINGS: Lessons from Madrid (June 2017)

GREENINGS: Thoughts on hitting the 400 benchmark (May 2017)

GREENINGS: Solving the food waste problem (April 2017)

GREENINGS: Kellie Leitch was right (March 2017)