You love to see it

What folks often fail to realize is that in our biggest cities, homeownership skews old. Real old. The highest rate of homeownership in the City of Toronto, by age category is among... people over the age of 85. (Census 2021)

Platform doors make financial sense

Americans: we live in a fallen state—embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!

Spain is a core EU member, part of the customs union, and will enjoy the benefit of the EU’s anti-coercion instrument designed to shield members from trade blackmail, so this could provoke a wider trade war in the unlikely event the US does not TACO www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/f79388c...

Sad to see Halifax - which had been staying out of the way and letting the market build homes - moving to hike development charges. Municipal government by, of, and for legacy homeowners, dedicated to the proposition that property taxes should be kept down by taxing new home building, is wrong.

Data from October 2025 shows the streetcar travelled on average about 60-90 seconds faster going south (nearside stops) than north (farside stops) over this stretch. This suggests each farside stop adds about 20-30 seconds to a rider’s journey time. Thanks to @stevemunro.bsky.social for the data

Most TTC streetcar & LRT dedicated lanes have stops at the far side of intersections - this based on the theory that these let TSP work better, reducing delays. But many TTC riders feel the frequent double stops this causes (1st at red light, 2nd at farside stop) adds to delays. So who’s right?

One nice thing about Line 5 is that the LRV doors close quite quickly, in ~3 seconds, vs. the ~5 seconds it takes for streetcar doors to close. To save time, the TTC should re-program the streetcar doors to close faster, which should be possible as they use closely related Alstom vehicles.

New piece. The middle-class housing crisis harms the economy, social cohesion, and society writ large. That's not opinion: That's backed by 30+ academic studies. We bring receipts. How Canada’s Middle-Class Housing Crisis Is Undermining Its Future

Absolutely wild. WSJ reporting that some OpenAI staffers thought the Tumbler Ridge shooter's use of ChatGPT raised the potential of real world violence but leadership decided not to alert RCMP. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

ROK Judge properly recognizes that crimes against democracy are the ultimate domestic crimes, because like the crime of aggression between nations, they open the door to all other crimes

I hope for the best for the line 5 opening tmrw but increasing think there are too few doors, and this is going to cause slow boarding and delays. The subway has 20 ft of door width on a 75 foot car (26.7% doors) but Line 5 will have ~15 ft of door width on a ~102 ft car (~14.7%), only 55% as much.

This always gets me. ❤️ the Winter Olympics

Even if you don’t live in New Brunswick, I encourage everyone to give NB Premier @susanholtnb.bsky.social and @govnb.bsky.social a follow - we need to encourage ethical behaviour like getting off X. Congrats NB!

Pretty wild to suggest we need visitor parking minimums to force developers to build those spots, at great expense, whatever the market says, to protect people who can’t be bothered to ask about it when buying an apartment

Great presentation to the TTC Board today by @englishrail.bsky.social - in particular, I agree with his point that left turns reduce capacity at bottleneck intersections. E.g., here are my figures showing removing the left turn cycle at Spadina and Queen would increase streetcar & auto capacity:

Anytime a Canadian public service of any kind comes on here, it's really worth boosting to ensure that they get a lot of follows from their users (also, public policy nerds). Keeping them on alternative social media requires decent engagement metrics.

Using a two stroke gas leafblower for 30 minutes generates as many non-methane hydrocarbon emissions as driving a Ford F-150 Raptor for 5,108 km - it’s a scandal two stroke engines are still legal to use in cities given there are clean and safe battery electric alternatives

Newly released emails show Elon Musk was emailing with Jeffrey Epstein to potentially visit the child sex trafficker's island in 2012 and 2014. There's also an email from 2013 where Epstein discussed possibly bringing four "assistants" to a "facility" to meet with Musk.

Great new map of potential Union Station redesign to widen and lengthen platforms - if this happens it could unlock higher quality & safer boarding for Via trains, removing the need for crowd control and allowing direct access to platforms like a modern rail service

BREAKING: Toronto’s Line 5 Eglinton to launch service to the public on Sunday, February 8th. toronto.citynews.ca/2026/01/26/e...

🇳🇱 Netherlands - December 25 - BEV Trajectory 65.4% BEV 9.1% PHEV 25.5% ICE Trailing 12 months are: 41.3% BEV 17.9% PHEV 40.8% ICE Graphs are available in the Gallery: leraffl.github.io/LeRaffl-Gall...

We have reached the point where a judge literally has to order federal law enforcement officials not to destroy or mess with evidence from a homicide scene.

Regarding the ongoing signature collection in Alberta for a referendum on separation, @piosmo.bsky.social writes in Le Monde: "The MAGA ecosystem has seized on this political moment – the signature drive is scheduled to continue until early May – in an attempt to destabilize Canada."

Trump’s back to threatening 100% tariffs on Canada this morning, wow I can’t imagine why the Canadians now see the Chinese as a more reliable trade partner

This is the essential point - even if the threat to Greenland or Canada passes for now, we simply cannot return to normal and wish away the critical failures of US institutions & many US voters that made this possible

Coming off big canola win for Saskatchewan in China. Remarkable how quickly Carney has managed to bring the premiers of Canada's 2 largest oil-producing—and most conservative—provinces onside (AB MOU the other example) after decade of deepening animosity. Scott Moe, Sask Premier:

We’re in a real race between science immeasurably improving life by curing ancient diseases and social media and its reckless and hateful political spawn destroying civilization for the LOLs

Trump likes “Donroe Doctrine” but it’s really the “Darth Vader” doctrine: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.” Whatever government thinks they've reached an agreement with the US is deluding itself. These agreements are not worth the gold embossed napkins they are written on.

Our piece on single stair: a crucial change that is slowly coming to Canadian cities By me and @johnlorinc.bsky.social

It would be an honour to be subject to higher tariffs for opposing this insane and irrational need for conquest

Having seen several abductions up close, it is really hard to convey how much the thing they’re doing is roaming in military convoys until they see someone who is alone and isn’t white, and then jumping out in large numbers, pulling them into a van, and screeching off, all in 90 seconds or so.

The CBC has just posted a transcript of my recent As it Happens interview about X and Grok. I’m posting a couple of screen shots here - since they are a bit too long for alt text, I’ll post the link to the full transcript below. #cdnpoli #X #Grok #yeg #CSAM

Great news for Canada

The decline in market share for internal combustion engines and the rise of battery electric vehicles in even a cold country like Finland is nothing short of astonishing

Large protests are erupting across Iran tonight. In Tehran, gunfire can be heard as crowds gather in massive numbers. Despite nationwide internet disruptions by the Iranian government, aimed at silencing the movement, footage continues to emerge.

Hoping against hope the Iranian people can free themselves in 2026

Toronto should do this on the Allen Road, while adding housing

Absolutely fantastic piece from @chittimarco.bsky.social on the Finch light rail and why dismissing speed as some have done is a mistake. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

New billion-dollar transit lines shouldn't get stuck for *this long* waiting at red lights. That's why we're happy to see a motion coming to City Council this week to implement stronger transit signal priority and other measures to speed up LRTs - but it won't happen without your voice! 1/2

I wanted to compare what I saw on Seattle's Line 1 LRT with Toronto's Finch LRT. In Seattle, you can see left turning cars waiting while fast-moving transit gets priority. Help TTCriders make it happen in Toronto: www.ttcriders.ca/greenlight 📸: @wk1998.bsky.social / @kevinrupasinghe.bsky.social

Here’s my cut at what the stop removal portion of a St Clair streetcar upgrade could look like, cuts intermediate stops by a third, from 26 to 17, with only limited reduction in rider catchment within a 5 min walk. Together with signal priority upgrades, would cut travel times a lot -worth piloting!

It’s beyond unacceptable that Via Rail keeps stranding people for lengthy delays like this - perhaps some of the money going to frequent PR ads for Alto’s vague plans could be redirected to investing in actually existing passenger rail

Next challenge: crank it up EVERYWHERE there's a red dot below. We already paid for the infrastructure; make it work!

Happy IKEA Monkey Day to all who celebrate

Let’s do this on Spadina and St Clair and make give the streetcars a green light more of the time @joshmatlow.bsky.social @cllrjamaalmyers.bsky.social

Since Transit Signal Priority is a hot topic right now, here is a reminder of why. In a since deleted Q&A post from Metrolinx, they outline that the TTC essentially kneecapped transit priority on the Finch LRT and Eglinton LRT. We need to push Toronto to do better!