With Hamilton 350 and Environment Hamilton, briefing Hamilton residents on how to defend their city's plan to build tens of thousands of family-sized homes inside existing neighbourhoods rather than squandering their construction and infrastructure on inefficient sprawl.

With every year I find myself falling ever further into the stereotype of an Indo-Canadian dad. While it's a bit much to expect that my kids, their spouses and my grandkids will all live with me, it's reassuring to know there will be LOTS of options in my neighborhood.

To each of the 8000 new families who'll soon be moving to my neighbourhood: Welcome home! To our governments: it's long past time to get cracking on new and expanded community centres, public squares, and much expanded public schools on OUR "side of the tracks". image @futuremodelTO

We’re now hearing rumors that Transportation Services, in their collective fear, will recommend further abandoning the RapidTO plan on Bathurst, North of Bloor. Councillor Saxe wants to delay the project until AFTER the election. A tremendous disservice to the people of Toronto. Shame! 13/

Now onto GO Expansion - enough has been said about this terrible tragedy. This project would’ve served as the backbone of our network, bringing suburban cities like Oakville, Brampton, & Markham closer to downtown than the city’s inner neighbourhoods. That dream has largely been de-scoped. 14/

And because of a few loud NIMBYs, Toronto’s spineless municipal politicians (Perruzza, Nunziata, and Pasternak) have now effectively killed the Jane RapidTO project, starving their wards of better transit service. This is all while they concern-troll the community with excuses. 12/

To date, only one corridor has been built, with the rest being stonewalled by countless political delays and endless rounds of community consultation. Remember - this is for a project that consists ENTIRELY of RED PAINT! If you're wondering why soft costs are so high even for simple projects... 11/

Unfortunately, as we know, two pillars - RapidTO and GO Expansion - are currently in a sorry state. RapidTO originally consisted of 5 initial corridors - Jane, Dufferin, Bathurst, Steeles, and Eglinton East - which by my rough math would’ve served more than 272,000 RIDERS PER DAY. 10/

This is a common misunderstanding about the project: OL provides network relief precisely because it makes 2nd order connections to the bus network through GO - not just because it connects to the existing subway at Pape! Our 3 pillars MUST work together to deliver the new transport paradigm. 9/

By rolling out bus lanes quickly with cheap RED PAINT, these corridors instantly gain better service - higher frequency, reliability, capacity, & speed. The first iteration on Eglinton East has been a smashing success - delivering nearly ALL the benefits of the $4 BILLION EELRT for $4 MILLION. 6/

Our first pillar, RapidTO, capitalizes on this. Toronto’s wasteland suburbs have many of the highest ridership bus lines on the continent - busier than frequent bus lines in central Manhattan! Currently, packed suburban busses are stuck in traffic, giving way to a small minority in cars! 5/

With fare integration - that number is growing, with more riders transferring from the GO network. This is why Toronto’s subway has been successful despite being small; although the vast majority of riders DON’T live on the subway, they DO live on a frequent bus that takes them to a station! 4/

Take the Yonge subway - the city’s most important transit artery. Many people think that its crowding comes from all the dense development along the line - this is FALSE. The vast majority of trips on the subway - 77% - come from Toronto’s world-class grid of connecting local busses. 3/

It's a depressing time in Toronto - a city that once had the continent's most ambitious city-building initiative. This transformation had 3 KEY PILLARS: 1. RapidTO 2. GO Expansion 3. Ontario Line Two pillars have been watered down beyond recognition - DEVASTATING for the region. Here's why: 1/🧵

Bill C-5 is being rammed through the House via a ‘non-democratic’ process and would result in governmental overreach, say the Bloc Québécois, who plan to vote against the bill. www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/0...

@brenttoderian.bsky.social hope you'll add me to your starter pack. Ontario Environment Program Manager and lead on land use and land development at Environmental Defence

It's amazing how the federal Liberals to seesaw between two, ideologically very different identities, while maintaining the loyalty of the same people. A centrist party espousing sympathies w progressivism... vs. European-style *right-leaning* classical liberal part (as under Chretien & now Carney).

Ontario: neighbourhood character is very important if you’re adding a four-storey apartment building into a de-populating established area, but if you’re building a key transport hub to anchor a new neighbourhood of thousands of people who gives a shit what it looks like

The centrepiece of a $30 billion transit system. Absolute bottom of the barrel crap designed by an engineering firm.

Mexico President: 🇲🇽 "US Customs and Border Protection data show that 80% of those arrested for fentanyl trafficking at US ports of entry were US citizens" #cdnpoli

Justin Trudeau is cool to the idea of a "middle ground" settlement and will reject any scenario where Canada has to rescind all its counter-tariffs to get partial US tariff relief, a government official tells Bloomberg. Trudeau is set to speak to Trump later this morning.

Amazing. He has published *numerous* columns arguing that housing supply is not a useful goal. Utter hypocrisy.

A big shout out to Derek from Ottawa Police. He was my "liaison" when OPS heard I was supporting the Ukraine protesters. When the convoy crew showed up to confront me Derek said "Oh these are local journalists. You won't need me here anymore." And he tiptoed away. Classic Ottawa police.

Unlike the Maga-Maple Conservatives I don't feed coffee and donuts to trolls. Especially when they show up to harass peaceful protesters at the Russian Embassy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6N...

I think it's partly that we've forgotten what a *normal* winter looked like. Thanks to climate change, it takes an extreme La Nina year to bring NORMAL winter back.

This!

Toronto streets have looked basically fine the last few days. Seven days after an exceptional storm, things are clear. Is there any evidence that this snowstorm was badly handled? Or was this simply a case of limited resources being swamped by a massive storm?

Tomorrow is election day in Ontario - so tonight's the night to evaluate the platforms. If your top priority is ending our province's housing shortage, THIS should be your litmus test. 🧵👇 environmentaldefence.ca/2025/02/20/o...

Please enjoy my cartoon for Thursday's Toronto Star

Let's be clear, there is NO constitutional path for AB, BC or SK to join the United States & no plausible constitutional path for Canada as a whole to do it. Even if there weren't crushing majorities opposed in all 3, the Constitution would require consent from all 10 provinces AND Parliament.

Sharing these numbers because I wasn't aware of them myself. In the US: * 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who get measles are hospitalized * 1 in 20 children with measles get pneumonia * 1 to 3 in 1000 die If you're not immune, close contact with an infected person gives you measles 90% of the time

Canada +EU

A person who talks about AB or Sask simply joining the U.S. isn't merely advocating an extremely unpopular idea, that *could* legitimately be pursued if they somehow changed people's minds. It is something not achievable through legal / constitutional means.

My column on Doug Ford’s housing record: the wrong things, done badly. Gift link www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/90421fe...

Europe's reliance on fossil gas made it vulnerable to Putin. By making Ontario's power grid reliant on fossil gas (mostly from the U.S.)- government plans for fossil gas plants would make CANADA vulnerable to Trump. Love Canada? NO MORE GAS PLANTS! environmentaldefence.ca/2025/02/25/i...

NEW: Gas-fired power plants made Europe vulnerable to Putin. To protect Ontario from Trump's annexationist "economic force" we must CANCEL plans for power plants that depend on (mostly American) fossil gas. To save Canada, Ontario must stay laser focused on Made In Ontario energy.

Let's be clear, there is no constitutional path for any province to join the United States & no plausible constitutional path for Canada as a whole to do it. Even if there weren't crushing majorities opposed in every province, Constitution would require consent from all 10 provinces AND Parliament.

I grew up in an evangelical town, & was force-fed a diet of those "End Times" books and movies. It is just astounding that a GOP base raised on the same depictions of the Antichrist & narratives about his designs for this exact territory have become Trump & Musk's most adoring fanatics.

Let's be clear, there is no constitutional path for any province to join the United States & no plausible constitutional path for Canada as a whole to do it. Even if there weren't crushing majorities opposed in every province, Constitution would require consent from all 10 provinces AND Parliament.

The idea that there is a single "government official" in British Columbia who'd contemplate joining the U.S. British Columbians are even more appalled by the prospect of annexation than the other provinces, & supperers of their governing party (the social democratic NDP) oppose it 99-1 (literally!).

Same here in Canada! apnews.com/article/ukra...

I agree Canada can't & shouldn't strip the Nazi Elon Musk of his Canuck citizenship. However, I signed the petition because he's a petulant thin-skinned baby who might in reaction take his ball and run home to mom - voluntarily renouncing citizenship a la fellow Trumpist Lord Black of Crossgarters.

I interviewed the co-founder of Chocosol Traders for my podcast Future Mending Radio. I new they took sustainability very seriously, that's why I interviewed them, but I did not expect him to take a stand on @thewaroncars.bsky.social while talking about chocolate.

Canada lures US doctors amid authoritarian shift canadahealthwatch.ca/newsletter/2... @nicktsergas.ca 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter 🍁

"Elon Musk's father, Errol, says "[Elon's Mother's parents] came to South Africa from Canada because they sympathised with the Afrikaner government. In fact, they were very fanatical about apartheid," www.marca.com/en/lifestyle...

According to Musk's father "They [Musk's grandparents] used to support Hitler. Obviously I don't think they knew what the Nazis were doing".

"Elon Musk's father, Errol, says "[Elon's Mother's parents] came to South Africa from Canada because they sympathised with the Afrikaner government. In fact, they were very fanatical about apartheid," www.marca.com/en/lifestyle...

NEW: Gas-fired power plants made Europe vulnerable to Putin. To protect Ontario from Trump's annexationist "economic force" we must CANCEL plans for power plants that depend on (mostly American) fossil gas. To save Canada, Ontario must stay laser focused on Made In Ontario energy.

J.D. Vance is too smart not to recognize that he's ushering in fascism. He's too smart not to see through the excuses others fascists make for for hating liberal democracy. But he's so malevolent that being unambiguously on the side of evil turns him on.

if it sounds both classist and racist it's because it is.