Welcome back to another look at The City with Cedric Richards, where you can expect a look at the Forest City with a fresh perspective. Thank you to all of you who have chosen The Loon in reading and subscribing to us each day.

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Today, I’d like to make my way back to the city as a whole and talk about voter turnout. I mentioned in last week’s edition of The City that voter turnout in London increased from 25% in 2022 to 31% in 2026. That’s a good thing, even when people bemoan low turnout. In our post-annexation history, you have to go back to 1994 to find the highest voter turnout. The number was 43.39 percent, where first-term Board of Control member Dianne Haskett narrowly defeated three-term deputy mayor Jack Burghardt. A 33-year-old Stephen Orser ran for Board of Control, coming in eighth place.

But I’ve heard dismay over elections with turnout higher than 2026. London had two referendum questions in the 2003 election, One of which was about a smaller City Council, and the other being the abolition of the Board of Control. Both questions passed in the affirmative, but as turn out was under 50%, the referenda were considered non-binding. Interestingly enough, last week’s election had a similar voter turnout percentage to the 2003 election, when Anne Marie de Cicco-Best was seeking a second term herself, turning back a former city councillor on the right side of the political spectrum named Vaughn Minor.

The Methods

Much post-election discussion is centred on well-intentioned ideas to increase voter turnout. The idea of online voting has been floated as a way to bring people out to the polls and increase convenience to the democratic process. Per the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, it is mostly small and rural communities like townships that are using Internet and telephone voting as the sole electoral options for Election Day. It makes sense in those places, due to limited resources and scale. However, there are concerns raised about the security of that voting method, as well as the integrity of the vote. How would we know that the voters behind the screens are making their own decisions?

St. Thomas is one of those municipalities that offered Internet and telephone voting, queuing the boring clarion call of “if St. Thomas can do it, [London] can too”. I heard a bit of it during the aftermath of this election and the previous election. London is the sixth-most populous city in Ontario; London and the five larger cities conducted their entire elections by paper ballot, with some adding in vote-by-mail as an option. Other than Ontario’s big cities sticking with the paper ballot, there are about 80 other municipalities where you have to cast a paper ballot, places like Caledon, Kitchener, Amherstburg, Neebing, Newbury, and Gore Bay.

There are a lot of other ideas that people have, but they require changes to the Municipal Act, and there may be a wonder if the provincial government considers this a priority. 2020 saw British Columbia’s provincial Election Day occur on a weekend, similar to municipal election days in that province. Another idea is introducing officially recognized political parties much like British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. People also float the idea of incentivizing voters with treats similar to the democracy sausages in Australia (although, voting is compulsory there).

Maybe there’s the issue with how our votes are counted? Before ranked balloting was removed by the provincial government in 2020, London became the first municipality in Ontario to conduct a municipal election with this method. On that same day, Cambridge and Kingston passed referendum questions approving of ranked balloting. This could once again be a way to get people out to the polls who do not necessarily want to vote against a candidate, but want to vote for someone. However, because of how our Constitution works, this is something that the provincial government would have to authorize, and after banning ranked balloting in 2020, it would be up to them to have a sudden change of heart.

What about polling stations? Counting advance and vote-by-mail, we have hovered around 200 polls since the 2014 election. That is down from about two-thirds the amount from the 2010 election. Imagine living in a high-rise but you could go vote on the ground floor of your apartment. Imagine living in Glanworth proper, and you could walk down the street to the library to vote in the advance polls. About a few weeks ago on The Craig Needles Podcast, the panel lamented the logistical challenges in getting out to the advance polls as some wards did not have a polling station.

The Disparity Between Votes

There’s something of concern within the city, from the information we do have. West London turns out to vote, disproportionately more than East London and the core. Ward 1 consistently has the lowest voter turn out in the city. Ward 2 is very close to last place in turnout. In the last three elections, in terms of raw vote total and/or voter turnout, Ward 9 has had voters consistently turn out in the highest numbers, citywide. Part of this is because Ward 9 is one of the largest wards in London. The other part is frustration about the pace of development, in one of the fastest-growing areas of the Forest City. This term saw a lot of frustration with both infill housing and urban sprawl, with voters looking to vote against incumbent councillor Anna Hopkins, who was re-elected with just under 40% of the vote.

Among school trustee races, in Thames Valley, the constituency representing Wards 1, 11, 12, and 14 (southeast London) is consistently third and last among London constituencies in voter turnout. The constituency representing wards 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (northeast London) is second place, but still low. And the constituency representing Ward 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13 (west London and the core) is first and far out front in voter turnout.

In the elections for London District Catholic School Board, the same pattern repeats. In the northwest and west end of London, there is substantially a higher voter turnout than in the south and the east. In the six elections since 2006 for the constituency representing Wards 8, 9, and 10, there have been three acclamations, all of whom belong to Linda Steel. In the other three elections, twice this constituency has led voter turnout. Wards 5, 6, and 7 had the only constituency with over 50% voter turnout. The constituency of Wards 1 and 14 consistently has the lowest voter turn out.

The elephant in the room is differences in demographics. In my dwelling about demographics mixes across London over the last year, I have noticed that the north and west ends of London have communities that have higher levels of education, higher incomes, higher homeownership levels. The core, east, and south parts of London, are on the lower ends of these quantitative measures. The result is a feeling like a vote does not matter in municipal politics. It means the apartment dweller on McNay Street whose door does not get knocked on by a candidate. It's the student being told that they're only here for seven months of the year, so they don't count as a Londoner. It's the shift worker in Old East Village who feels they may not have the time to look up what their candidates are about. Maybe increasing turnout could come from within? Maybe we could campaign like everybody’s voices matter, and not just the choir we preach to?

On a candidate’s end, especially citywide, they know that while every vote matters, most of the votes are in places like Hyde Park, Oakridge, and Byron, and in newer communities like Talbot Village, Fox Hollow, and Riverbend. This leads to nail-biters like last week’s election where Dan Meinen lost to Jonathan Sher by 82 votes, or in Ward 9 where Luke Thomas and Anna Hopkins alternated between first and second places during the live voting count. Or in Wards 5 and 8 during the ranked ballot election of 2018, which saw councillor candidates go the distance, and were some of the last ward races have final results released. And of course, there’s that one election where Josh Morgan lost to Paul Hubert by 23 votes.

When I biked all over this city for the tour of wards, I noticed stark differences in outward political engagement. It is apparent common knowledge that people start paying attention to municipal elections after Labour Day. It’s when politicians really ramp up campaigns. It was literally during the season of spring that I saw candidates’ lawn signs pop up in the Fox Hollow neighborhood. In Ward 9, I saw mayoral and ward candidates’ signs in tandem on lawns in August. In Old South, the challenge was to try to find a lawn without a Skylar Franke sign. Throughout east and south London, the challenge was to find a sign on a lawn at all during the summer. A sole exception to this was on Queens Avenue, when I saw Roger Caranci and Susan Stevenson signs, together on multiple lawns.

The Takeaway

With this disparity between different communities in voter turnout, the best thing I believe we can do is to focus on what we can control instead of waiting for the provincial government to change its mind. We could make our political discourse safer to discuss the issues of the day. Our forums, whether online or in-person, should be more welcoming to non-voters as well as those who regularly participate in politics. We need to actively remember that our London includes all communities in the city limits, not just those we are demographically aligned with.

We also need to give up the idea that directly paying property taxes infers a better or morally superior stake in political participation in our city. We all contribute to London in different ways; there is no singular Forest City experience. We all get the same vote, and we must treat it that way.

I hope you enjoyed our time together today. We processed some numbers on voter turnout, and when the city releases more in-depth numbers, we’ll go through those numbers too. I believe that we can and should find ways to increase voter turn out as a whole in London. But we should also find ways to fix the disparity between different areas in London. Not only should every vote count in London, but that vote should count, no matter what community you may live in.

Check back each Tuesday for my take on experiencing London from a fresh perspective. I am excited to bike around the city and report back to you. I welcome comments, suggestions, and topics to discuss each Tuesday. Please subscribe and let’s talk soon!

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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November 2, 2026

Good morning, London. I’m Matt Brown and this is Buckle Up.

This is your weekly update about all things London, brought to you by London Ontario Online News. That’s The Loon for short

Listen to this week’s episode:

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Special guest co-host, Ward 11 Councillor Skylar Franke, is joining us today fresh off a successful campaign for re-election.

We’re going to take one last look back at the 2026 municipal election and we’ll discuss what we can expect in the term ahead, too.

Skylar is here with us now. So let’s go.

On this episode, Skylar and I discuss:

• Election results - close calls, big wins and a surprise

• What Skylar heard while knocking on doors

• What it takes to beat an incumbent

• The sophistication of Susan Stevenson’s campaign & Josh Morgan’s campaign 2.0

• What happens next?

Sponsor Highlight: Hamilton Road BIA

Thanks, as always, to our show sponsor, Hamilton Road BIA. Through advocacy, investment, beautification and promotion, the BIA works to strengthen the Hamilton Road community while celebrating the rich history and diversity that make the area unique.

Buckle Up is Sponsored by Hamilton Road BIA
www.hamroad.com

Supporting independent local journalism in our community

Construction:

• Monday, Nov. 2 at 8:00 PM: Kensington Avenue Reconstruction scheduled completion | Kensington Ave. (Wharncliffe Rd. N to Wilson Ave.) | Final asphalt replacement and sidewalk work wrapping up to restore full traffic access.

• Friday, Nov. 6 at 3:00 PM: Ontario Street Reconstruction scheduled completion: Ontario St. (Central Ave. to Dufferin Ave.) | Water main, sewer, sidewalk, and asphalt upgrades reaching completion following local traffic restrictions.

• Through to Nov. 27: 2026 Local Road Reconstruction Program | Atkinson Blvd. (Falcon St. to Whitehall Dr.) & Whitehall Dr. (Atkinson Blvd. to Merlin Cres.) | Road closed to through traffic for watermain replacement, sidewalk installation, and new asphalt.

What’s happening in London this week:

Festivals, Theatre & Community

• Tuesday, Nov. 3 through Saturday, Nov. 7: Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors | Grand Theatre

• Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Wednesday, Nov. 11: Beasts of Burden | AlvegoRoot Theatre | Manor Hall

• Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Saturday, Nov. 7: Sorry! Comedy Festival (Matteo Lane, Steph Tolev, Chris Fleming & More) | Centennial Hall

• Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Sunday, Nov. 8: The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical | Palace Theatre Arts Commons

• Thursday, Nov. 5: Mrs. Doubtfire: The New Musical Comedy | Canada Life Place

• Sunday, Nov. 8 (7:00 PM): 100 Years From Now: An Original Musical of the Great War | The Aeolian Hall (795 Dundas St.)

Music & Concerts

• Tuesday, Nov. 3 (7:30 PM): Roch Voisine: The Lightfoot Sessions | The Aeolian Hall

• Wednesday, Nov. 4 (6:30 PM): KPop Dreamworld: The Ultimate Tribute Experience | Centennial Hall

• Thursday, Nov. 5 (8:00 PM): The East Pointers: Schoonertown Tour (with Emilea May) | Rum Runners at London Music Hall Music Complex

On the weekend:

• Friday, Nov. 6: London’s 3rd Annual Concert for the Kids (7:00 PM) | London Music Hall

• Dead Days & Resistor (8:00 PM) | Rum Runners

• Saturday, Nov. 7 (10:00 PM): System Saturdays: Open Decks | Rum Runners at London Music Hall Music Complex

Movies & Cinema

• Hyland Cinema

  • All Week (Nov. 2 to Nov. 8): Independent & International Feature Screenings

  • Wednesday, Nov. 4: Everyone’s a Kid: Muppet Treasure Island

  • Saturday, Nov. 7 (9:30 PM): Performance of the Year (Special Screening)

Sports

• Friday, Nov. 6 (7:00 PM): London Knights vs. Saginaw Spirit | Canada Life Place (99 Dundas St.)

• Saturday, Nov. 7: OUA Football Semifinals over at Western

• Sunday, Nov. 8 (2:05 PM): London Knights at Sarnia Sting | (Away Game)

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

• Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

• Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Editor’s Note: Subscriber Ron Royal kindly sent the skyline picture featured in today’s publication to The Loon. This gave us an idea - maybe you have a picture you’d like to share with us, too? If you do, please email it to: LondonOntarioOnlineNews@gmail.com.

Please provide you full name and a short note saying the you are givng us permission to use the photo in a future Loon publication.

Hello London - I’m Matt Brown and this is The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too.

London’s 2026 Municipal Election is behind us. Western’s Director of Urban Policy and Local Government, Dr. Martin Horak, watches every election at every level closely and London’s 2026 municipal election was no exception.

We have a lot of ground to cover over the next 25 or so minutes. So, let’s go!

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

At least every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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October 30, 2026

What Lessons and Opportunities Come From London’s 2026 Election?

Well, we did it! London has made it through another municipal election, and there are some important takeaways worth reflecting on.

More than 100 candidates put their names forward to serve our community. Several ward races were strongly contested, and voter turnout increased from the disappointing levels of 2022. These are encouraging signs of civic engagement and a reminder that there are many Londoners who care deeply about the future of our city.

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At the same time, despite a strong theme of change throughout the campaign, we have a lot of familiar faces returning to the horseshoe. London has elected its first incumbent mayor in almost 20 years, along with 10 returning councillors. Congratulations to everyone elected to represent Londoners over the next four years. And a sincere thank you to all the candidates who put themselves forward and campaigned so vigorously for the opportunity to serve.

But an election is about more than who wins and who loses. It is also an opportunity to listen, learn and consider what kind of community we want to build together.

Our new council has plenty of challenges ahead. Calls for greater success in addressing homelessness, improving transit, better garbage collection and more effective management of infrastructure projects were pervasive throughout the campaign. So too was the desire for more restrained property tax increases.

These are important issues, and Londoners have expressed a range of views about how best to address them. The question now is how our new council will bring those perspectives together to make decisions that move our city forward.

Winning an election gives candidates the opportunity to lead. It does not mean they have all the answers, nor does it mean the concerns of those who voted for someone else can be set aside.

How will our new mayor and council engage with Londoners whose preferred candidates were unsuccessful? How will they ensure that the ideas and perspectives expressed during the campaign continue to inform decisions? And how can we create opportunities for those who ran for office, but were not elected, to continue contributing to our community?

These are important questions because building a stronger London is not the responsibility of elected officials alone.

In this week’s Steve’s Reflections, I explore the lessons and opportunities emerging from this election. I offer some thoughts and challenges to our new council about the importance of listening, engaging and governing inclusively.

But I also have a challenge for the rest of us.

If you supported a candidate who wasn’t elected, don’t walk away from the issues that motivated you to get involved. Stay engaged. Share your ideas. Hold our elected officials accountable. Find opportunities to contribute to the solutions our community needs.

And to those who ran for office but weren’t elected: your willingness to step forward, offer ideas and advocate for change is valuable. I hope you will continue to be part of the conversation.

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The election is over, but the work of building a better London continues. Let’s make sure the energy, ideas and community engagement that were part of this campaign carry forward into the next four years.

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

New content every day.

We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Welcome to London Ontario Online News, everyone, and your compact weekly guide to what’s happening in our local area. This is your ROUNDUP, where we seek to keep you well-informed, in the interests of us all. And this is The Loon, your locally-owned, independent media start-up, where we promote storytelling that makes a difference to our community and share this skimmable guide to it all.

We’re exulting in our time in London, Ontario, a city we share, sometimes noisily and always in a newsworthy way. We had an election this week and that’s filled London’s news hole like a faceful of candy. It wasn’t very nutritious and we’re not sure if every bite was part of the candy or the wrapper or what, but we’re still chewing it over and everything seems OK for now. chomp

So it’s Halloween and you feel like dancin’, and you feel like shinin’, and you feel like letting loose. Wait, no, that’s a Dead Kennedys song and I would never suggest your role is planned for you and there’s nothing you can do1. Certainly not – this is where we share the useful information and combat misinformation and disinformation so we can all make better decisions.

Great song, though.

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Soundtrack of the week

We do need some Halloween music, right? We need to shake off the election and have a little fun. Let’s hold the evil spirits at bay!

Mwa haaa haaaaa!

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Now let’s go!

Election 2026

The bloody election is bloody over, and it was less bloody than it looked. I shared my take on it here the other day and of course the reporting keeps coming. I’ll round up a little bit more, if you can handle it.

• Want a fresh summary? Try these Rogers tv video reports on the mayoral race and the ward races.

• Digging a bit deeper, Jack Moulton at the Free Press has a good Q&A with the re-elected Mayor Josh Morgan here.

That’s worth reading to the end. Asked if he has anything to add, Morgan points out that his re-election is a rare phenomenon, with chains of office changing hands all over Ontario before the snow flies. And he’s right. He deserves his moment of celebration before people like me start muttering about making good and all that.

And here’s a little more commentary about the result, if you feel like it.

• The LFP talked to three chief executive officers: Jared Zaifman of the London Home Builders’ Association, Scott Collyer of the London Development Institute, and Kapil Lakhotia, heading up the London Economic Development Corporation. The story is here.

• Meanwhile, CBC London is talking turnout, which was up, but not by much. (From about 25% to about 31%.) Here’s their report.

OK, really enough for now. Other issues matter.

Steam heating and public money

In City business, which is continuing despite all the election shenanigans, let’s note that five downtown municipal buildings have switched off Enwave’s steam system ahead of the Oct. 31 shutdown of its medium-pressure line.

The city says the work was completed as expected at Museum London, Central Library, City Hall, Centennial Hall and RBC Place, after council approved $17.8 million from reserves to install boilers. Enwave had warned that parts of the aging system were becoming unreliable and could pose future safety concerns.

Dynamite Daryl Newcombe with the story there.

Geeksplosion occurs downtown

The news can get a bit dry, can’t it? Let’s take a break with some good news, and a quick look at a geeky London business that’s doubling its space.

As covered here by Andrew Lupton at CBC London, Mana Lounge owner Jeff Evans is expanding his Dundas Street gaming store, buying the vacant building next door to add room for about 100 players, a cafe, a performance stage and pinball machines. The expansion will bring the combined space to just under 4,500 square feet, with a tentative opening planned for late November. Evans says he sees long-term potential in downtown London despite its challenges, with new residential buildings bringing more people looking for things to do and places to meet.

Isn’t that exciting? I love the Mana Lounge as a House of Geekery, though I’m totally foxed by the whole thing and much better with comic books.

(If you’re interested, you might check out this recent interview I did with Dan Abnett, writer of 73 novels including most of the Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy series. That chat is really about 2000 AD, the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, and that’s my jam, praise be to Tharg, for he is mighty.)

And back to work.

By the issues...

Construction and getting around

The Bradley Avenue extension between White Oak Road and Wharncliffe Road is expected to open the week of Nov. 9, providing a new route through London’s south end. The $21-million project is expected to carry 25,000 vehicles a day, easing pressure on parallel roads and reducing cut-through traffic in the Copperfield subdivision. Some neighbours remain concerned about speeding and safety. Final work, including resurfacing, is planned for spring.

Here’s CTV on it: LINK

Education

Two stories in this space today. (I also want to take a closer look at the trustee races soon.)

• Locally, there is dismay among trustees about the role of student trustee being eliminated. A report from the LFP’s Heather Rivers Davey is here.

• And trustee will be sworn in after all. There was doubt about this, but the relevant minister wants the successful candidates to be subject to a code of conduct, so ceremonies will go ahead. Here’s a CBC story.

Healthcare

London researchers are combining artificial intelligence, health data and frontline experience to help identify health risks earlier among people experiencing homelessness. The study, led by LHSC Research Institute and ICES Western, will examine anonymous data from more than 35,000 Ontarians with a history of homelessness, with the long-term goal of helping doctors and shelter workers provide more proactive care. It will also explore gaps in the data, which capture only those who have interacted with the health-care system.

Here’s the story from Reta Ismail at CTV London.

Enough

There’s new content here every day, and we’ve been riding a wave lately. As I shared on Wednesday, I’m feeling the need to take a pause and think, which is often a good idea after an intense time. Thanks to the folks kindly sending me feedback by various means, and please keep that coming.

Hey, look out for the return of the United Way Ultimate Burger Battle. What’s that? It’s a way to help a good cause while also eating fabulous burgers. Find out more here.

and… RIP Sir Patrick Stewart

I can’t write anything today without due recognition of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart, everybody’s space dad. There’s a lot of sadness around the geek community this week, with Star Trek’s Walter Koenig also joining the In Memoriam list. Both great losses and impactful on many people. (Last month, I shared a heartwarming Koenig clip in this post, to celebrate his 90th birthday.)

I think about Patrick Stewart quite a lot, and always when I reach a line I’m considering crossing, in real life or figuratively. That’s the impact of popular culture on our values: I ask myself, where’s the line? Is it HEAH?

What a guy.

Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

- Mike

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

Subscribe now

Halloween may be almost here, but this week I’m looking beyond the spooky stuff (although I’ve still got a couple of last-minute picks for you).

We’re saying goodbye to a terrific Forest City Film Festival, and look ahead to an unusual new play about the animals who went to war with Beasts of Burden from AlvegoRoot Theatre.

I also interview the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director of AlvegoRoot to get to know one of London’s independent theatre companies a little better.

The Loon Recommends for Oct 29 - Nov 4, 2026

• Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the Grand Theatre
  (click for this pick from last week which runs until November 7)

• Scared Stiff Exhibition at The Benz Gallery
  (Another pick from last week - a spooky art show runs until October 31)

• That’s a Wrap on Forest City Film Festival 2026

• The Animals That Went to War - Catch the play Beasts of Burden

• Behind the Beasts: A Conversation with AlvegoRoot Theatre

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That’s a Wrap on Forest City Film Festival 2026

The credits have rolled on another Forest City Film Festival, with the 11th annual festival wrapping up Sunday after showcasing 144 films, many with connections to London and Southwestern Ontario.

Organizers say the festival exceeded its projected attendance of more than 10,000 people, with sold-out screenings, standing ovations and plenty of conversations continuing long after the credits rolled.

The festival concluded with its annual awards ceremony at Wolf Performance Hall, recognizing filmmakers across narrative, documentary, experimental, music video and other categories.

The Stunt Driver, directed by Michael Dowse, took home Best Narrative Feature, while Jay Baruchel received Best Performance for his work in the film.

And a film previously recommended right here in The Loon earned some love from festival audiences: Thunder Queens, from Directors Dustin Seabrook and Tobin J. Stewart, won the Old Oak Audience Choice Award.

This is a homegrown story executive produced by Tegan and Sara that follows Londoners Violet, Lola and Clara as they grow up together, find their voices and turn their love of punk into a band. It’s a coming-of-age rock documentary about friendship, music and the community that helped make it all possible.

I was one of the people who voted for Thunder Queens to win the Audience Choice Award, so I was thrilled to see it take the prize. The film is terrific, but what made the screening even more special was seeing Violet, Lola and Clara take the stage for a Q&A afterwards. Their love of music was obvious, but even more apparent was the genuine affection they have for one another.

That sense of community started before we even entered the theatre. In the lobby, a young fan had set up a table for a Thunder Queens fan club, alongside original paintings of all three musicians by local artist Jeremy Bruneel (Lola’s dad).

I’ve been a big fan of Jeremy’s work for years, so it was lovely to see the paintings in person. His artwork is also incorporated into the film through animation, to wonderful effect.

• Read the full list of FCFF winners at this London Free Press article

Congratulations to all of this year’s filmmakers, and to the Forest City Film Festival on another successful year of putting London and Southwestern Ontario stories, talent and filmmaking on the big screen!

The Animals That Went to War - Beasts of Burden by AlvegoRoot Theatre

November 4-11 | Manor Park Memorial Hall | 11 Briscoe St. West | $33 per ticket

What do a bear, a goat, a horse, two dogs, a pigeon and some African pouch rats have in common? They’re all at the heart of Beasts of Burden, the latest original production from London’s AlvegoRoot Theatre.

Written by Kydra Ryan and Adam Corrigan Holowitz, Beasts of Burden looks at war from a perspective we don’t often consider - the animals who experienced it alongside soldiers.

Among the stories in the play are:

• Winnie, the Canadian black bear who inspired the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh.

• Sergeant Bill, a Saskatchewan goat who was smuggled across the English Channel in an orange crate.

• Gander, the Newfoundland dog who died saving Canadian soldiers during the Battle of Hong Kong.

• and Bonfire and Bonneau, the horse and dog who accompanied In Flanders Fields poet John McCrae.

It’s a fascinating premise, but what really interests me is that Ryan and Holowitz aren’t simply telling a collection of quirky animal stories. Through them, the play explores love, loyalty, loss and the remarkable bonds that developed between soldiers and the animals around them.

Video above from AlvegoRoot’s October 14, Instagram post.

The production also incorporates music and poetry from the period, including some of McCrae’s lesser-known writing, and the animals are brought to life without puppets or actors dressed up in animal costumes.

There’s also something particularly fitting about where and when the play is being performed. AlvegoRoot’s home is Manor Park Memorial Hall, a neighbourhood community hub. The Hall sits beside the Manor Park War Memorial, where the figure of a WWI soldier stands over his lost comrades.

It is dedicated to the men of the Manor Park area of London who served in First World War, with plaques later added recognizing those who served in the Second World War and Korean War.

With Beasts of Burden exploring the experiences of animals and soldiers during wartime, staging it in the shadow of that memorial feels especially meaningful.

And with the run culminating in a final performance on Remembrance Day, November 11, the setting and timing give the stories an added resonance.

Show Details

• Beasts of Burden runs November 4–11 at Manor Park Memorial Hall, 11 Briscoe Street West.

• The play stars Taylor Bogaert, Eve Cohen, Jeff Culbert and Kydra Ryan.

• Tickets are $33.90, with $14.99 tickets available for people under 30 and arts workers.

• The production is recommended for ages 14+.

Get your ticket from AlvegoRoot Theatre

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Behind the Beasts: A Conversation with AlvegoRoot Theatre

London has a vibrant theatre community that extends well beyond the stages of the Grand and Palace theatres.

Now in its 18th season, AlvegoRoot has built its identity around locally created theatre and stories with connections to London and the surrounding region. I wanted to learn more about the creation of Beasts of Burden, and about the company behind it, so I caught up with Adam Corrigan Holowitz, AlvegoRoot’s founder and Artistic Director, and Kydra Ryan, Associate Artistic Director.

The two co-wrote the play, bringing together some remarkable pieces of Canadian history to explore war and our relationship with the animals who experienced it alongside us.

We talked about everything from AlvegoRoot’s evolution over the years and the research behind the play to a court-martialled goat, the bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh and why these stories still resonate today.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

1. Adam, you founded AlvegoRoot 18 years ago. What inspired you to create the company, and how has it evolved over those 18 seasons while staying true to its original vision?

AlvegoRoot has existed in three stages. When I was in high school, we were an amateur company, then when I was in theatre school, AlvegoRoot was a summer theatre company of mostly early career artists, and now we are a professional theatre that champions local plays and theatre artists.

In our first few years, before AlvegoRoot found its artistic voice, we were doing classics like Waiting for Godot, Uncle Vanya and Macbeth. They were fulfilling plays to put on, but they were not connecting with an audience.

In 2011, I wrote and performed a play called Manor Park, which was about the neighbourhood I grew up in. That play connected with people unlike anything we had done before. From that point on, we found our purpose: to tell local stories and create local theatre.

What has remained the same throughout AlvegoRoot’s existence is that we have always been a very community-focused organization. It is important that theatre does not just speak to communities but also strengthens and builds community.

We pick our plays to connect to local experiences so the plays themselves bring people together in shared experience.

2. Kydra, this began with your idea. Where did Beasts of Burden come from? Was there a particular animal or story that first sent you down this path?

We have been wanting to do a war story for a while now. I can’t remember the exact way the idea came about, but we had the idea of doing a special event reading about war animals, and this idea eventually grew into creating a full play.

Through the playwriting unit that Adam hosted, I tested out a concept with a monologue about a canary in a coal mine. After his partner had died, the canary was relocated to the tunnels at Vimy Ridge to detect gas.

3. How did the writing partnership between the two of you work on this show? Did you divide up particular animals and stories, or was the play developed more collaboratively?

Kydra: Usually our writing is more collaborative, but in this case we had an impending deadline thanks to picking up gigs this summer. That’s when I asked Adam to write with me instead of just as dramaturg. Plus, he was already having ideas about Sergeant Bill, the goat, that sounded better than anything I could come up with.

We split the first draft up by scenes for the most part, and then came together to edit the subsequent drafts. It worked out well because the play is very modular.

Adam: I feel very lucky to be able to co-write plays together. There are a lot of variables that go into making a successful writing team. The amazing thing about collaborative writing is that the play is unlike anything either writer would create on their own.

In plays like London Fog, the audience probably can’t tell where one of our voices ends and another begins. Beasts is a bit different as there are scenes, like Sgt Bill, which I wrote and Gander which Kydra wrote. Then there are scenes which were more fluid collaborations— so audiences may pick up on some distinct stylistic shifts between each story. But that is part of the design of the play. Each story is very unique and each animal has its own energy.

4. You’ve chosen very specific stories rather than trying to tell a comprehensive history of animals in the World Wars. How did you decide which animals and moments belonged in the play?

Kydra: Winnie, the black bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, was one of those stories I knew needed to be included, despite the fact that she never saw battle. Winnie got halfway around the world only to be donated to the zoo when she became too big to accompany Lieutenant Harry Colebourn to war. Her story gave us a way to explore the experience of animals being left behind, which was sadly not uncommon during the war.

I also found the connection between John McCrae and his animals fascinating. Bonfire, his horse, was a huge part of McCrae’s life, while Bonneau seems to have been a rescue off the street. McCrae even wrote letters to his nephew from Bonfire’s perspective.

Sergeant Bill the goat is just the most hilarious story ever. He was smuggled across the English Channel in an orange crate, saved lives by headbutting soldiers into a trench, and was even court-martialled for eating the company roll.

Gander was the toughest story to write because his story is so tragic. He lost his life saving wounded soldiers during the Battle of Hong Kong. We knew we had to include him, but I spent a lot of time figuring out how to get to the heart of his story without sensationalizing it.

Adam wanted to include a bird to add some range, so we made an exception for Beach Comber, a pigeon who worked with the Canadians.

Finally, we wanted to bring the play into the present day and show that the work of animals in conflicts still isn’t done. The last story is about African pouched rats specially trained to detect landmines and save lives around the world. We wanted to show animals and humans as collaborators and the potential for good that brings.

5. How much historical research went into the writing, and what were some of the most surprising things you discovered?

We researched about twenty different animal stories to start with, and then went on a deep dive of each one, once we decided what to write about. There’s so many fun or weird facts.

What is surprising is how freely the animals could roam in the war. They were fed beer and treated like part of the regiment.

Christopher Robin-Milne was a child star, and was bullied in boarding school because of it. He grew distant from his family over this, but also because he married his first cousin.

We also discovered that Teddy Bears are named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who famously refused to shoot a bear on a hunting trip and objected to the cruelty of tying bears to trees to make them easy marks.

Also surprising is that WWI was first referred to as WWI in 1918, because even then it was already understood that it would not be the last world war.

6. The production incorporates music and poetry, including work connected to John McCrae and A. A. Milne. How are you using those elements within the storytelling rather than simply as historical references?

We tried to incorporate something that complemented each piece. Some connect more directly to the plot than others. The actors are never all onstage together except when we sing, so those moments also give us a chance to connect as a group.

For the Christopher Robin scene, we use Buckingham Palace, which complements the story and helps bridge a shift in time. We also have a war parody song to accompany the cantankerous goat.

We wanted to share some of McCrae’s work beyond the well-known In Flanders Fields. His poetry became incredibly sad and dark following what he saw during the war, so we chose a poem that ties into the story while reflecting a different side of McCrae and the war itself.

If folks know these poems and songs, they might find that the words resonate differently when heard alongside the scenes of this play.

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• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
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In the end, it ended not with a bang but with a whimper... and life goes on.

When Election Day arrived and all the shouting was done, up stepped an electorate that quietly knew what it wanted.

And it wasn’t Susan Stevenson.

Don’t get me wrong: she was a huge influence on this election, and on the change that’s in the air. Notably, we can expect action on a flurry of late election promises such as late-night construction. But it’s not the change that some had feared; it’s gentler, more measured. City business continues and its leadership, strategies and plans will be much the same.

We all know the election outcome by now, but here’s the gist. Incumbent Josh Morgan was re-elected by a wide margin from his main challenger, Ward 4 councillor Susan Stevenson. Some down-ballot mayoral candidates polled respectable numbers but didn’t threaten the outcome. This came as much of the rest of the province was replacing its municipal leaders – there are new mayors in Brantford, Cambridge, Hamilton, Kingston, Sarnia… oh my, it’s a list… Waterloo, Welland and Windsor, and also Mississauga, Niagara Falls, North Bay and Timmins – and can be seen as a resounding endorsement for Mayor Morgan. It’s a pivotal moment in his political career.

As for the rest of London City Council, almost all incumbent councillors kept their seats and we have four new members who appear to have a good understanding of City business. So that means a level of continuity, even as everyone has listened to – and accepted – voters’ desire to see London’s challenges met head-on. The electorate has made a clear decision about who they trust to lead them, and those people have power now.

It’s time to get to work.

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Wait, what is this?

It’s City Hall Notes, the blandly-named Wednesday column here at The Loon, all about local government.

Hi, I’m Mike. I work in Communications and Public Relations and, as many readers know, I’ve spent the last 10 months paying close attention to municipal business and the election that has overshadowed it. This week, I’ve been privileged to be in the room with many of those involved, and heard many opinions, reasoned and otherwise.

Here are my clickbaity seven thoughts about it all. Thanks for reading.

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1. Stevenson wasn’t even close

All through the campaign, I was convinced that Susan Stevenson had the noise but not the numbers. And, the closer we came to election day, that noisy strategy – with lots of social media, generalized statements about services, challenging comments and so on – commanded the headlines; sometimes it looked like it might be working. Against a history of low voter turnout, was she creating or converting the votes she needed to challenge Morgan?

Well, no. She was not. We know that now.

With 103,163 people exercising their franchise, Josh Morgan polled 46,405 votes – almost exactly the same number as four years ago. In fact, he totalled only 122 more votes than the 46,283 he had in 2022. This number is astonishing in its consistency, even if we did have 50,000 more potential voters this time. He’s the first mayor to be re-elected in 20 years, and the result is a Xerox. That, right there, is a mandate.

(I said this on Devon Peacock’s radio show yesterday and messed up the math. I feel bad for the notional people who briefly existed and then vanished. I hope they’re OK.)

The unconfirmed results showed Morgan’s share as 45.42%, down from the 65% four years ago when his challenger, Khalil Ramal, was perhaps less effective. So, though it’s a strong victory, Morgan did lose some vote in percentage terms – just not in a way to make a difference.

As a challenger, Stevenson was not the shatterer-of-worlds she may have appeared. Her 27,259 votes represent less than 27% of the total. That’s lower than, for example, Paul Cheng managed in total votes (38k) and vote share (34%) in the 2014 election, but better than Ramal in 2022 (16k and 23%).

Otherwise, we have respectable showings in 2026 from Kirsten Krose (10.75%) and Bronagh Morgan (7.25%). Even if we add Stevenson, Krose and Morgan B.’s totals, Morgan J. still wins a first-past-the-post vote. It’s only when we get to the fifth candidate, Tariq Khan (4,090; 4%), that the numbers stop working.

That’s a remarkable achievement for Morgan, who’s been put through the wringer for months as he has sought re-election. All those mayoral candidate debates, all the arguments in council, all the holding-to-account that happens to politicians… led us here.

Despite all the noise, the quieter candidate won.

2. This looks like a progressive council

Now let’s look at the council we just chose. The factors in the 15 races for London City Council members are complex, of course, and we can spot themes in the campaigns.

In particular, many incumbents found themselves facing challengers who were fiercely critical, often using similar approaches or messages to Susan Stevenson: it cost too much for bus shelters, or bike lanes, or BRT, or homeless shelters, or whatever bête noire. The lightning rod issue of homelessness had challengers het up and making statements that were often upsetting, inaccurate or at least lacking important context. But throughout, in ward after ward and especially at the all-candidates meetings, we heard incumbents (and some well-informed new candidates) cut through the noise with actual answers about what London is doing to address its problems.

And it looks like the voters listened well, because the loud folks ain’t on council now.

As part of this outbreak of common sense, it’s my opinion that progressive, arguably left-wing thinkers won the argument in key wards. I’ll take care before I ascribe views to everyone too readily but, broadly speaking, we now have perhaps seven or eight councillors who might be in that area, plus three or four centrists who are socially progressive, suggesting common ground.

Contrasting with recent times – and especially the days of the Fontana 8 – there are apparently fewer conservative-with-a-small-c councillors such as Paul Van Meerbergen, who was re-elected in Ward 10 for an incredible sixth term. And, among the newbies are progressive voices in Tom Cull, who succeeds Stevenson in Ward 4, and Ward 3’s Ben Durham, the only new member of council who defeated an incumbent on Monday, sending Peter Cuddy packing. They also feel they have a mandate, and they’re bringing it to 300 Dufferin as soon as they can.

What does this mean for our city? Don’t ask me – I’m jaded. But I know this: whatever your political bent, it’s evident that all of council must work together at times, and alliances are formed for all kinds of reasons in politics. Here, natural alignments are visible already, in contrast to the last council, a group that couldn’t even agree when to take a bathroom break.

Having listened to these successful candidates during their campaigns, I’m hopeful we’ll hear fewer dogmatic arguments in the chamber and see a better focus on making an impact on Londoners and our quality of life.

Opinion alert: I think that should include strong support for our most vulnerable neighbours this winter – yes, the ones on the street.

And for God’s sake, let’s stop complaining about the damn bus shelters. Things cost money. You can stand outside in the rain if you like, but leave the rest of us alone.

Breathe…

Let’s move on.

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3. Ward 13 was the story of the night

I keep calling Ward 13 a poisoned chalice because it’s hard to survive as the downtown councillor. Well, David Ferreira survived and thrived, turning the tiniest majority on council (just 34) into one of the most powerful seats, pulling in 4,308 votes – a massive 69% of the ward’s total. He’s the first council member the core has returned in a generation and it’s happened in a landslide. At the same time, he handily defeated one of the loudest and most visible challengers among the ward races: Andrew Crook, with widespread signs promoting his “name that demands honesty”, polled just 735 votes, a little under 12%.

Make no mistake: Ferreira won this by campaigning hard. That’s also a theme in this election, with many victors confirming that votes are won by showing up at front doors and winning people over. In downtown and its nearby neighbourhoods, this councillor and his extremely loyal team won the race by making a stronger argument. It’s inescapable that hard work and worn-out sneakers have been key to success in Election 2026’s ward races, at least.

4. Massive vote of confidence in incumbents

We may have spent recent months listening to people complain and hold councillors to account but, in the end, they voted almost all of them back into office with strong majorities. All the winners had to work for it – see those comments about sneakers, above – but this remains a remarkable story of incumbents just destroying their challengers.

In the end, Elizabeth Peloza (Ward 12) had the biggest per-cent share at 78, with Skylar Franke (Ward 11) on 75%, David Ferreira’s remarkable 69%, Steve Lehman (Ward 8) with 67% and Shawn Lewis, facing a stronger challenge than when he commanded 86% last time but still scoring 65% of the vote in Ward 2.

Even where were there multiple challengers, incumbents won the popular vote. In Ward 6, for example, Sam Trosow had what looked like a tough battle against Stephanie Marentette and Ian Sterling Leishman as he defended a majority of just 299. In the end, Trosow’s 2,466 votes (48%; majority of 1,019) were more than the next two combined.

In Ward 10, Paul Van Meerbergen saw off all comers and starts his sixth term of office with 43% of the vote (3,498) – just a little more than the combined totals of the next two candidates, Lois Ward and Alex Moore. Neither of these wards was a “split vote” that gave a pass to sitting councillors. They’re both straight wins.

But, as mentioned, there was an unhappy outcome for single-term incumbent Peter Cuddy in Ward 3, where 208 votes separated him from victor Ben Durham, with 34% and 37% respectively. Cuddy is the night’s only exception.

5, 6, 7… The Lightning Round

That’s a lot to digest, and I am grateful for your indulgence if you have read this far. Finally, some quick hits that might interest you.

Turnout was up. Some of the numbers are interlaced above but it comes down to this: 31.01% of eligible voters cast their ballots, up from 25.5% in 2022. In numbers, that’s 103,163 voting this week, against 71,678 last time. The total number of eligible voters also increased, of course, from 281,073 to 332,688.

Council is very white. I can’t be sure how everyone identifies and I’m open to hearing from anyone whose ethnicity I may have misconstrued, but it looks like 14 of the 15 council members are white. The exception is Ward 5’s Corrine Rahman, the nearly-incumbent who was elected as expected (boundary changes put her home in Ward 5 instead of Ward 7).

Council gets its pay raise now. The councillors elected this week will be paid about $94,000 a year, a 35% increase on last term. All through this campaign, when facing critics, incumbents have been pointing out they did not vote themselves a pay raise, and instead the voters would have to decide if they would be paid the money in the next council term. I’d say that’s a done deal now. They’re all full-time and I understand some have been resigning from other jobs this week, to become councillors.

And some links

I’ll close with resources from the local media, who have this well-covered, as expected. For my part, I’m glad to provide an additional voice and, I hope, an accessible way to make sense of it all; I’m also very aware that there’s a great deal of content out there already. I hesitate to keep adding more and more and I’m seeking to be thoughtful about my contributions.

Here’s a roundup of the superb election coverage provided by local journalists.

Hard-working reporter Jack Moulton has led exemplary and comprehensive coverage in the London Free Press:

• An analysis piece with the outcome and context

• A full guide, ward-by-ward, of all winners

• Interviews with all four new councillors

• Three Josh Morgan campaign promises to watch (controlled tax hikes; special constables; and late-night construction)

• And the big decisions facing city council (the budget, homelessness, development, and a new City Hall)

And don’t forget the trustee races. Here’s the Free Press’s Heather Rivers Davey interviewing re-elected trustee Sherri Moore. I’m sure we’ll hear more on the trustee elections as the dust settles.

More coverage? Oh, I suppose

• CTV London’s Daryl Newcombe interviews the new councillors: LINK

• And CTV sums up the whole election in a chunk of video here: LINK

• Podcaster Craig Needles interviews councillors Shawn Lewis, Skylar Franke and Tom Cull: LINK

• Here’s The Morning Show with Devon Peacock on AM980, with former police chief Murray Faulkner and departing councillor Jerry Pribil, who really did play for Celtic. (Also me, ugh, I should stick to writing.) LINK

• Matt Brown and Steve Cordes were part of the panel for the Rogers tv coverage: LINK

And let’s not forget our public broadcaster. CBC London was actively reporting on our local election, even as its gigantic operation covered so many others.

• Stats fans can revel in this outline of the election by the numbers: LINK

• Here’s a news piece by Travis Dolynny, summing it all up: LINK

• Andrew Lupton gives us five takeaways (including a victory that Ward 1’s Hadleigh McAlister richly deserves to celebrate): LINK

• And Jack Sutton takes it wider, looking at elections around our region: LINK

I’ll leave it there, knowing I could be sharing everything to the GTA and beyond, and of course that’s already in everyone’s faces and is out-of-scope for a London City Hall column.

Enough

What a big week for London! After all the shouting was done, it turned out to be a traditional London election after all. Aside from a few scares (I’m still convinced infill housing was the reason Luke Thomas ran Anna Hopkins close in Ward 9), the leaders of our city rode out the storm, emerging with a stronger mandate and a more aligned council. This looks promising to me… though I’ll watch with care, having met politicians before.

And it’s been a big week for City Hall Notes. The municipal election has been the focus of this column since January, when it didn’t even really exist as a column yet, so I’m delighted to make it this far and, at your indulgence, perhaps make a small contribution to public discourse. Frankly, it’s been a mixed experience for me and I’m glad to reach this opportunity to stop and take stock. I’d be happy to hear folks’ opinions about City Hall Notes, especially any thoughts you have about what London needs and the service that could or should be provided. I’m staying open-minded on it.

Thanks again for following along, subscribing and otherwise supporting. It’s been great to connect with so many people and to learn together. What fun!

All the best

- Mike

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Today, I’d like to make my way to Old East Village. By the end of this week, the Canadian Football League will be starting its postseason games. But in London, the core and beyond is a political football of sorts.

One of the hot topics in this election centred on the interrelated issues of homelessness and public disorder. Prior to launching her mayoral campaign, Ward 4 councillor Susan Stevenson described her ward as Ground Zero of London’s drug crisis. Every candidate seemed to have a platform plank in which they promised to do something about homelessness, especially its prevalence in the core. And among them, 14 ward candidates and a mayor were elected.

In yesterday’s municipal election, we had a voter turnout of about 31 percent. This was an improvement from the previous election of 2022, but not as large of a turnout like the three consecutive “change” elections of 2010, 2014, and 2018. We heard from the voters. In two-and-a-half weeks, council members will begin a four-year term and will have to hear from the people of London on a regular basis. But did we hear from all possible voices yesterday? Will we hear from them over the next four years?

I have been thinking about this on my regular visits along Dundas Street in Midtown and Old East Village. There are a lot of places and people that I love to visit along this corridor. I get donuts from DoughEV, I know quite a few people who are vendors at The Market at Western Fair District, and on a regular basis I go to a writing group inside The Club House at 100 Kellogg Lane. Interspersed along Dundas Street are clear examples of policy failures over the last number of decades at all levels of government that have led to problems with homelessness, addiction, and apparent public disorder.

The homeless by-name list is at 2,391 people as of the end of September 2026, per the city’s own dashboard. One glaring note is that Indigenous people are over represented on this list; they make up under three percent of the city’s population, but just under 20 percent of the homeless population.

Over the last term, our municipal council tried a multitude of things to help mitigate the crisis: we aimed to construct 15 homeless hubs across the city, but could only manage to open two of them. These two hubs are each operated by Atlohsa and Youth Opportunities Unlimited and located within the complex of hospitals around Wellington Road and Commissioners Road East.

Neighbourhood opposition caused the City Council to scuttle the idea of a homeless hub at Wonderland Road North and Fanshawe Park Road West. The city was further shamed out of entertaining the idea of a hub at the former CJBK Studios on Wellington Road near Southdale Road East.

A HART (Homeless & Addiction Recovery Treatment) hub did open at The Salvation Army Centre of Hope on Wellington Street, about a year ago. After public shaming on winter temperature thresholds, council had to act on establishing newer guidelines for warming centres. Mayor Josh Morgan also used strong mayor powers to bring on the construction of modular shelters on Cheese Factory Road, funding which expires in the spring.

The discourse on homelessness is really contentious. Around the watercooler and on social media, people have staked out a side with their words and their ballots. But have they discussed it with the people who are at the center of these issues?

As you can see here, in this series of photos, a lot of people have opinions about homelessness, housing, funding for social services, and what should be done.

Some people have contrasting opinions. Some are not opinions about homelessness but about general minutiae of everyday life. Regardless, I wonder if their voices were heard amongst the election results? I wonder if whoever wrote these were engaged by London’s voters and council candidates?

I kept walking along Dundas Street and cycling through the municipal parking lot that are along both sides of Dundas Street. I also walked through the alleys that connected to Dundas, which smelled of bodily fluids I could not readily identify.

You might ask, “Cedric, why did you even go here? It’s a sketchy place and it’s unsafe. You’re not supposed to go east of Adelaide.”

The answer is simple. It’s important to know what people are thinking in all areas of the city, and how they are living. I do not want to live in an echo chamber, and it would be wise for all Londoners to heed this.

The election may be over, but did we listen to everybody? In 18 days, a new council will be sworn in and we can only hope that all voices in this city can be heard over the next four years.

Thank you for our time together today in exploring the area around Dundas Street and Adelaide Street at a level I think we all should get to know a little better.

Check back each Tuesday for my take on experiencing London from a fresh perspective. I am excited to bike around the city and report back to you. I welcome comments, suggestions, and topics to discuss each Tuesday. Please subscribe and let’s talk soon!

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New content every day.

We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - The City with Cedric Richards
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• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
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• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
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• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
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Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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October 26, 2026

Good morning, London. I’m Matt Brown and this is Buckle Up, sponsored by the Hamilton Road BIA.

It’s Monday, October 26, and this is your weekly update about all things London - it’s brought to you by London Ontario Online News, that’s The Loon for short.

Listen to this week’s episode:

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Steve Cordes is back to co-host again this week. Of course you know Steve as one of the 5 co-owners here at The Loon as well as the producer and host of Steve’s Reflections, the video blog that runs every Friday.

Like I said off the top, it’s Monday, October 26 and you know what that means - it’s vote day.

Steve’s here with us now to share some insight and some reflection on London’s 2026 Municipal Election. So let’s go.

On this episode, Steve and I discuss:

• Voter turnout

• The themes that have emerged over the course of the past 5 months

• The trouble with taxes and the record 4-year incread (approx. 25%)

• The London Chamber of Commerce is looking for return on investment

• Change is in the air - even the incumbents are promising change

• A big thank you to humble leader Joe Preston, Mayor of St. Thomas, for his service

• Ward races to watch

• And more…

As results come in, you can join Steve and me live on Rogers tv. Programming starts at 8p.m.

The polls close at 8p.m. The Loon’s Steve Cordes is joining political insiders Adam Thompson and Steve Peters on a panel that I am hosting over on Rogers tv.

Sponsor Highlight: Hamilton Road BIA

Thanks, as always, to our show sponsor, Hamilton Road BIA. Through advocacy, investment, beautification and promotion, the BIA works to strengthen the Hamilton Road community while celebrating the rich history and diversity that make the area unique.

Buckle Up is Sponsored by Hamilton Road BIA
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Supporting independent local journalism in our community

Construction:

• Friday, October 16, 2026: Wellington Gateway Project Update | Wellington Road (between Wellington Crescent and Thomas Janes Drive) (london.ca): A new temporary diversion road is open on Wellington Road between Wellington Crescent and Thomas Janes Drive to keep traffic moving while crews tackle major underground infrastructure replacements beneath Wellington Road as part of the rapid transit project.

• Monday, October 19, 2026: York Street Reopens | York Street (between Wellington St. and Colborne St.) (london.ca): York Street between Wellington and Colborne has reopened to traffic as the underground utility renewal project nears completion, bringing upgraded water, stormwater, and sewer capacity to downtown.

• Friday, October 23, 2026: MTO Highway 401 Interchange Improvements & Overnight Closures | Highway 401 at Colonel Talbot Road (london.ca): The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is continuing interchange improvement work at Colonel Talbot Road, requiring overnight closures and detour routes for bridge and road work.

Festivals, Theatre & Community

• All Week (Oct. 26 to 31): Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors | Grand Theatre (471 Richmond St.)

• Nightly through Oct. 31: Pumpkins After Dark | Storybook Gardens (1958 Storybook Ln.)

• Opens Thursday, Oct. 29 (runs through Nov. 8): The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical | Palace Theatre (710 Dundas St. E)

Film & Cinema

• All Week (Oct. 26 to 31): Specialized Halloween & Horror Screenings | The Hyland Cinema (140 Wharncliffe Rd. S)

• Special note: The 10th annual Forest City Film Festival is officially in the rearview mirror after its biggest and best run yet. Huge congratulations and much appreciation to the organizers, filmmakers, and volunteers.

Music & Concerts

• Tuesday, Oct. 27: Waylon Wyatt: Dustpiles World Tour (with Noah James) | London Music Hall (185 Queens Ave.)

• Thursday, Oct. 29: Loreena McKennitt: The Mask and Mirror | Centennial Hall (550 Wellington St.)

• Friday, Oct. 30:

  • Owen Riegling: In The Feeling Tour (with Dalton Davis) | Centennial Hall (550 Wellington St.)

  • Hot Mulligan: North American Fall Tour | London Music Hall (185 Queens Ave.)

Sports

• All Week (Oct. 26 to 31): Western Mustangs Fall Athletics (Varsity training & conference matchups) | Western University Campus (1131 Western Rd.)

• Thursday, Oct. 29 (7:00 PM): London Knights at North Bay Battalion | North Bay Memorial Gardens (Away)

• Friday, Oct. 30 (7:05 PM): London Knights at Sudbury Wolves | Sudbury Arena (Away)

Last chance to see what the candidates have to say:

The Rogers tv Mayoral Debate

• Christine Taleski, Rogers tv: London: Mayoral Debate - The Local Campaign

  2026 Mayoral Debate

The Urban League’s 14 All Candidate Meetings Now Available for Viewing

• You can learn more about these meetings here.

  

• Rogers Television has been broadcasting each of these meetings regularly over the course of the election. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year.
  
  We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings and helped promote the events, too. For a grassroots, not-for-profit, volunteer-led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

• Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

• Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Hello London — I’m Matt Brown and this is The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too.

We have a good show for you today.

The election is now just 2 days away. Graham Henderson is joining us today to give us the Chamber’s take on where he and his membership think candidates need to focus to move London forward

He joins with me in the studio.

So, let’s go!

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London Chamber of Commerce Candidate Survey

As London prepares for the 2026 Municipal Election, the London Chamber of Commerce invited candidates to share their perspectives on issues affecting London’s business community, economic growth and the future of our city.

Explore the responses below to learn more about where candidates stand on the issues that matter to London’s businesses and residents. You can read it here.

Note: My conversation with Graham Henderson was recorded on the afternoon of October 22, just under 24 hours before this announcement from the Josh Morgan Campaign.

I’m including a link to an article that Alessio Donnini wrote for CBC News:

• Morgan pitches $10M downtown fund, expanded office-to-housing program ahead of election.

There is still time to check out what the candidates in your Ward have to say

Rogers Television is broadcasting each of them regularly as election day approaches. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year.

We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings and helped promote the events, too. For a grassroots, not-for-profit, volunteer-led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative. You can learn more about these meetings here.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel and are running regularly on Rogers tv.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

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For details: LondonOntarioOnlineNews@gmail.com

Check out the Rogers tv Mayoral Debate

Moderator Christine Taleski masterfully moderated this 90-minute debate and The Loon developed and asked the questions. You can catch the entire 90 minute debate regularly on Rogers tv or watch it on Rogers tv’s YouTube Channel here.

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

At least every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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October 23, 2026

What Can London Learn from St. Thomas About Ending Homelessness?

For the past few years, something remarkable has been happening in St. Thomas. Following the closure of the region’s Ford plant in nearby Talbotville, the city has attracted major new industries, with PowerCo and Vianode representing approximately $10 billion in construction investment. But there is another story unfolding in St. Thomas that deserves our attention — one that has as much to do with leadership and community as it does with economic development.

Earlier this year, St. Thomas announced that it is working toward achieving functional zero homelessness by 2027. Through investments in shelter, housing, supportive housing and social supports, the city has helped hundreds of people move out of homelessness. At a time when so many communities are struggling with a growing homelessness crisis, St. Thomas offers an important example of what can happen when a community commits to a common goal.

For this week’s Steve’s Reflections, I sat down with St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston to learn more about the city’s approach — and, just as importantly, the leadership that has helped move it forward.

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I’ve known Joe since he first became an MP in 2004, representing St. Thomas, Elgin and a small corner of London that gave us the opportunity to work together. Over the years, I’ve appreciated his ability to work across political lines, bring people together around shared concerns and focus on finding solutions.

My conversation with Joe took place just days before his retirement from municipal politics, providing an opportunity to reflect on more than 20 years in public office and the approach he has taken to solving complex economic and social challenges.

What struck me in our conversation was that St. Thomas’ progress on homelessness is about more than investing in housing and services. It is also about making homelessness a shared community priority, embedding that commitment in the city’s strategic plan, bringing partners together around a common vision, and celebrating progress along the way.

These may sound like straightforward leadership practices. But they require a willingness to establish clear priorities, build consensus, maintain focus and hold a community together around a challenge that can otherwise seem overwhelming.

As Londoners prepare to vote in the upcoming election, homelessness has emerged as one of the defining issues of this campaign. We have no shortage of debate about the problem, its impact on neighbourhoods and businesses, and the resources required to address it. What we need is a clear and shared vision of what success looks like — and leadership that can bring our community together to achieve it.

St. Thomas offers London an opportunity to reflect on some important questions. What would it mean to make ending homelessness an explicit community goal? How can a mayor help align municipal priorities, community organizations and other partners around that goal? And how do we move beyond managing homelessness toward measuring our progress in actually ending it?

In this week’s video, Joe shares insights into how St. Thomas has approached these questions. As Londoners consider the leadership they want for the next four years, I think there are lessons here worth paying attention to - because while homelessness is a complex issue, that doesn’t mean we should accept it as an ongoing one.

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The Urban League’s 14 All Candidate Meetings Now Available for Viewing

• You can learn more about these meetings here.

• Rogers Television is broadcasting each of them regularly as election day approaches. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year. We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings we and helped promote the events, too. For a grass roots, not-for-profit, volunteer led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel and are running regularly on Rogers tv.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

Rogers tv Mayoral Debate:

Moderator Christine Taleski masterfully moderated this 90 minute debate and The Loon developed and asked the questions. you can catch the entire 90 minute debate regularly on Rogers tv or watch it on Rogers tv’s YouTube Channel here.

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

New content every day.

We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Happy Friday, everyone! Welcome to London Ontario Online News, and the weekly local news ROUNDUP, your free collection of good-to-knows that support engaged London Leaders. Thanks for signing up and following along!

And this is London, Ontario, where feelings are running high and much of the city seems to be grumpy. It’s clear the municipal election is on many minds, and it’s been an increasingly fractious affair in the last couple of weeks as various folks wonder what might happen on Monday. We live in challenging times and this election has reflected that at every stage.

Here at The Loon, we’re committed to sharing good information and battling misinformation and disinformation - all in the public interest. So we’ll suppress any inherent grumpiness and continue to equip subscribers to make strong decisions that benefit our City and the people here. And we’ll share some storytelling that will help, we think.

Soundtrack of the week

First, a little background music. Thanks to Cedric for stepping in to handle last week’s ROUNDUP, and for sharing a Metric song that stuck with me much of the week. Very good Cancon there, and let’s have more from as-Canadian-as-it-gets band The Tragically Hip.

That’s a nice noise to keep in our ears as we stay calm and measured on this fabulous Friday. Thanks and all that.

Please tell your network about this free weekly service.

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Let’s take a look at what’s been hoppin’ and poppin’ in London this week.

Election 2026 latest

If we can bear any more of it.

So very wearying, the municipal election is almost over and done with, and let’s give thanks to any deity that may be of comfort right now. The various characters in this huge, complicated drama continue to push hard, with one weekend left before voting day on Monday, October 26 and clearly an unshakeable feeling that every vote will count. T-minus three days and all that.

For now, let’s see what we can do about the confusion. We can’t tell you what will happen next, but we can probably provide some clarity as you think about it. And, in this, we have the enormous local benefit of a CBC newsroom in our community.

CBC London has made a simply wonderful guide to the election here, in a neat package organized by mayoral, ward races and so on. As you know, Cedric and I enjoyed a summer touring wards and writing/podcasting about them, but this CBC content is a great, up-to-date snapshot of now, far exceeding what our resources will allow. My hat is off to them - what a great service.

If you click one link before you vote, it’s that CBC guide. That’s public interest journalism right there.

And there’s more

Yes of course there is. We know I could share story after story and all kinds of resources, and we also know we all have a problem we call TOO MUCH INFORMATION. As others have commented, it’s quite late in the day for new information; most voters are processing what they have, or are already in a spot to make a decision.

But the campaigns keep making announcements. Some are gaining more traction than others, but I suspect few of them are doing anything more than confirming decisions that voters have already made.

Try this:

Garbage collections back in the news

Josh Morgan challenges Susan Stevenson on her garbage proposals. That’s a hard sentence to write; these are proposals about garbage collection. Reporting from Jack Moulton at the Free Press. Somebody buy that hard-working man a pint.

Or this:

Soccer, hotel and Swiss Chalet

CTV News’ Daryl Newcombe has this report on plans for White Oaks Mall in south London.

White Oaks Mall announces hotel, new tenants as transformation builds momentum along upcoming BRT route

Is this a City Hall issue or an election issue? It’s tough to tell the difference these days, and I had a good ponder about whether I should add it under an ‘election’ heading. It’s definitely a good news story for the local economy and business community, and a really big deal for the mall, directly tied to the revamped bus facility and BRT, a massive public project.

And, it’s worth noting the development community making an announcement alongside Josh Morgan at this stage of the election campaign. He has support there. That story names Iyman Meddoui, President of Westdell Development Corporation, the mall’s owner and developer. Also involved are incumbent councillors Elizabeth Peloza, whose ward includes White Oaks Mall, and Corrine Rahman.

Here’s what’s coming, we’re told:

• FOOTLAB: Soccer training and entertainment facility.

• Marriott: Planned hotel.

• Splitsville: Planned entertainment centre.

• Swiss Chalet and Wingstop: Incoming restaurants.

And just one more

Craig Needles’ series of interviews with candidates continues with Ward 13’s Stephen D’Amelio: LINK This has been great work and I’ve enjoyed sharing Craig’s links all through the campaign.

But do you see what I mean about TMI? And this is me resisting. In These Times, we are swamped by information and must choose well. I hope The Loon feels like a good choice.

EDITED TO ADD THIS:

Oh the humanity

I just can’t stop. More and more. Sorry not sorry, but I’m also adding this great Daryl story about Kirsten Krose and her plan for the first 100 days, if elected mayor.

I could revisit this again in an hour and I’d want to add even more. I’ll stop now.

EDIT OVER

Let’s take a break.

Mmmmm… candy…

We absolutely deserve to have some fun. Want some candy? I certainly do, and this Sunday we get some pre-Halloween fun with the Downtown London Candy Crawl. Downtown London are Loon sponsors, but I’m highlighting this because I like candy and basically live in Heroes, who shared this:

…and that looks like marvellous fun. Next week: ghosties and ghoulies and long-legetty beasties and things that go bump in the night…

I mean Halloween1, not the election.

And here’s a poster that made me smile.

And let’s move on with some newsy issues that tend to pop up, so we highlight them. Let’s run through three now.

Housing

London’s developers are busy creating new housing all over town, and here are a couple of examples of recent announcements.

Shuttered retirement home Maple View Terrace is to become more than 100 apartments, the London Free Press reports. That’s a promising project with rents starting at $990 including utilities. That’s at 279 Horton Street.

And here’s a CTV News story about housing on Sarnia Road. That’s 120 apartments, again with rents starting at $990 for some units.

Education

It’s an awful shame that the elections for school board trustees haven’t managed more attention this election cycle, and I feel like it was ever thus. Regardless, here’s a share from CBC:

What you need to know about Ontario school trustees before casting your vote

That has some good background on the issue in general.

One other education story, also from CBC:

London’s Catholic school board slashed two dozen librarian jobs. How will this impact student literacy?

Healthcare

And another good issue for our news-sharing. The healthcare sector touches us all, in one way or another.

There’s a new board at LHSC, and here’s wishing them well in their work to recover from recent challenges, including that legal case. We should all form hugs around hospitals. LINK

Troubling news, however, from our local top doc, Alex Summers. Our region has an increase in opioid deaths. LINK

Two more shares

Movies…

I enjoyed this Norman DeBono story in the London Free Press, highlighting local filmmaker (and son of a councillor) Sylvester Pribil, whose name looks like it would be a good Scrabble score but is in fact only 25 points.

Anyway, the Forest City Film Festival continues this weekend and I’m hearing all kinds of buzz about it. Find out more here.

And a good cause to support…

Ark Aid Street Mission has launched its BE WARM winter campaign, inviting London schools, churches, businesses and residents to organize fundraisers and collect winter essentials for people experiencing homelessness.

Donations will support emergency shelter, meals, warm clothing and outreach. The campaign includes Holiday Big Give: An Evening of Warmth, with dinner and live entertainment at Top of the Fair on November 24, from 5 to 9 p.m. Find out how to participate or buy tickets.

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Enough

And there’s a roundup. How does it look to you? We enjoy hearing constructive feedback and have been hearing from readers more and more, as we grow. We remain part-time and will keep doing what we can, as far as resources allow, and stay grateful for all of your support. Thanks for subscribing, sponsoring, sharing and more.

As for the election, let’s just be glad it’ll be over soon, one way or another, or another, or another, or another and now my brain hurts again.

wait

Hey, did you really think I’d use the phrase “sanity clause” and miss sharing this absolute treasure of comedy?

Of course not. A Night At The Opera is 92 years old and still laugh-out-loud funny, if a little unkind in its terminology about mental health.

That’s really enough now.

Thanks for voting if you can, and for being a London Leader. This is what it’s all about: good decisions, based on real information, to benefit us all. We’ve been working hard to keep you informed, and now it’s up to you.

No pressure, eh?

- Mike

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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Halloween is just around the corner, so this week’s recommendations are taking a spooky turn.

At the Grand Theatre, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors puts a campy, laugh-out-loud spin on Bram Stoker’s famous Count. Meanwhile, over at the Benz Gallery, Scared Stiff proves that horror, nostalgia and fine art make good gallery mates.

I also caught up with artist and gallery owner Greg Benz to talk about the annual exhibition, and his vision for supporting contemporary art in London.

The Loon Recommends for Oct. 22 - 28:

• Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the Grand Theatre

• Scared Stiff Exhibition at The Benz Gallery

• Beyond the Gallery Walls - An Interview With Greg Benz

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Count on a Good Time - Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors

October 20 - November 7 | Grand Theatre | Tickets from $25 per ticket

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors takes Bram Stoker’s classic tale and gleefully turns it on its head. This new production is fast, campy and unapologetically silly, with five actors juggling a multitude of characters, making for lightning-fast costume changes.

Director Krista Jackson says audiences who know the original story should have plenty of fun with what the production does to it.

“It plays with the novel, and it subverts the novel. It’s loosely based on the novel, so folks that come and know it will have some fun with how it’s adapted. It’s camp.”

And just how camp? Jackson says the creative team pulled from a wonderfully eclectic mix of pop culture.

“We pulled from a lot of pop culture, like Dracula and Scooby-Doo and What We Do in the Shadows. Those were all great influences, as well as Young Frankenstein. So Mel Brooks is in there, too, and a little bit of Monty Python. So there’s some fun, recognizable pop culture in the show.”

Grand Theatre Artistic Director Rachel Peake says the company fell for the script early in the process.

“This script I particularly loved when I was looking at it. We actually started this one quite early because we all sort of fell in love with it. It has that beautiful, big, bold humour that audiences in London here really love.”

And speaking of big, bold humour - Grand audiences who enjoyed last year’s Clue will recognize Jesse Gervais as Dracula. Gervais played Wadsworth, the butler who managed to die a memorable number of times on stage.

The rest of the cast includes Reena Jolly and Nora McLellan, alongside Grand newcomers Nathan Howe and Constant Bernard. And while the show has been performed elsewhere, everything audiences see on the Spriet Stage has been designed for the Grand and built right here in London.

Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing the show!

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors runs October 20 to November 7 on the Spriet Stage. The show runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

• More information and tickets

Downtown London - Sponsor of The Loon

Join us October 25 for the Downtown Candy Crawl! Dress up, explore downtown and trick-or-treat at 38 participating businesses handing out candy, goodies and more.

👻Sign up for the digital itinerary at DowntownLondon.ca/Trails

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Art That Goes Bump in the Night

October 9 - October 31 | Benz Gallery | 1038 Adelaide St. North | FREE

Now in its sixth year, the Benz Gallery’s annual Halloween exhibition, Scared Stiff, brings together Canadian artists working across painting, sculpture, limited-edition screen prints and movie posters, all exploring the scary, eerie, strange and occasionally unsettling side of art.

And clearly Londoners are into it. This year’s opening drew a packed crowd, and a walk through the gallery reveals plenty of red dots marking works that have already found new homes.

Gallery owner Greg Benz, a longtime horror fan and collector himself, says part of the show’s appeal may be the nostalgia surrounding horror movies and pop culture. But Scared Stiff also makes a convincing case that darker subject matter deserves a place on gallery walls.

Whether you’re a serious collector, a horror fanatic or just looking for something suitably spooky to do before Halloween, there’s plenty here to sink your teeth into.

• 🎃 Scared Stiff continues at Benz Gallery until Halloween

Beyond the Gallery Walls - An Interview With Greg Benz

Artist and gallery owner Greg Benz has spent years on both sides of the gallery relationship. A practising artist himself, he opened Benz Gallery in a space with deep roots in London’s art scene.

The space is the former home of the Thielsen Gallery (the first privately run gallery in London), and like its predecessor, the Benz Gallery focuses on contemporary Canadian art and spotlights emerging artists.

The gallery’s walls are usually filled with landscapes, abstract work, ceramics and sculpture, but every October, Benz indulges another of his passions - horror, with the current Scared Stiff show.

With this year’s exhibition underway, I caught up with Benz to talk about the show, his experience as an artist, the relationships he’s built with the artists he represents, and his vision for the gallery and its place in London’s arts community.

1) This is the sixth year for Scared Stiff. How did the show originally come about,
and did you ever imagine it would become an annual tradition?

I’ve been a horror fan since high school, reading Stephen King and Clive Barker and watching horror movies. Over the years, I’ve also become a passionate collector of movie memorabilia, film posters, pinball machines, and darker original artwork. Eventually, I thought it would be fun to bring those interests together, so I reached out to a few people I knew who worked in this genre and decided to take a stab at putting a show together.

We had a fantastic audience for the work right from the first year, which was really encouraging. From there, we’ve continued to build on that success and grow the show a little more each year.

Now, heading into our sixth year, it’s exciting to see how much it’s developed. I’m not sure I ever imagined it would become an annual tradition, but it’s been great to watch it evolve and see people come back year after year.

2) Benz Gallery is probably better known for contemporary Canadian landscapes, abstract work, ceramics and sculpture. What does Scared Stiff allow you to do as a curator that’s different from the rest of the year?

Yes, our main focus at Benz Gallery is contemporary Canadian art, which we showcase year-round. But Scared Stiff gives us the opportunity to shine a spotlight on another side of the Canadian art scene and introduce people to artists who make a living creating darker, more unconventional work.

The movie poster artists are a great example. Many of them are commissioned by major film studios to create their own interpretations of classic movie posters, which are then hand screen-printed in limited-edition runs. It’s a fascinating art form, and one that deserves to be seen and appreciated by a wider audience.

It’s also a lot of fun to challenge our regular roster of artists to step outside their comfort zones and create work specifically for the show that they might not normally explore.

3) This year’s show brings together artists from across Canada and includes everything from original artwork and sculpture to limited-edition prints. How do you choose the artists and pieces that make it into the exhibition?

Most of the artists in the exhibition are artists we represent year-round at Benz Gallery, but for Scared Stiff, they get the opportunity to explore a darker side of their practice and create work they might not typically show in the gallery.

I also work closely with Sarah Legault, who has been instrumental in helping grow the show by introducing us to a number of artists from her Shadow Woods collective. That collaboration has brought some fantastic additions to the exhibition, including the movie poster artists, sculptural works, and some really exciting original talent.

We want the exhibition to feel cohesive, but also showcase the incredible diversity of talent working in this darker genre.

4) You mentioned that the opening night for the show was crazy busy and I saw a lot of red stickers beside pieces - meaning much of the work has sold. Obviously the response to this year’s show has been really strong.

What do you think has made Scared Stiff resonate so much with people? Is there an audience for this kind of art that traditional galleries sometimes overlook?

I definitely believe there’s an audience for this kind of art that traditional galleries might sometimes overlook. Through the various collecting hobbies I’m involved in, I’ve noticed a huge resurgence of nostalgia, particularly among people looking to reconnect with the movies, imagery, and pop culture they grew up with.

There’s a real appetite for collecting pieces that bring back those memories, and I think the success of Scared Stiff reflects some of that.

My focus with this show has always been to present high-calibre, gallery-quality artwork that might not otherwise get the attention or recognition it deserves.

I think people are excited to discover work that connects with their personal interests and memories while also being something they can appreciate and collect as original art.

5) You’re an artist yourself as well as a gallery owner and curator. How does being a working artist influence the way you run the gallery and your relationships with the artists you represent?

Being an artist myself, and having gallery representation across Canada for over 20 years, has taught me a lot about what I appreciate in a gallery relationship, as well as some things I haven’t liked along the way. Those experiences have really shaped how I run Benz Gallery and how I work with the artists I represent.

I try to be very open and honest with the artists I work with, and my goal is to showcase the full range of what they’re creating rather than dictate the direction their work should take. I believe artists do their best work when they’re given the freedom to explore and develop their own practice.

At this point, many of them are more like friends than anything else. Having that shared experience and mutual respect makes a huge difference in how I approach the gallery.

6) The gallery occupies a space with a long history in London’s art scene, formerly home to the Thielsen Gallery. What did you want Benz Gallery to contribute to London’s arts community when you opened it, and has that vision changed over the years?

That’s a good question! Thielsen Gallery has a tremendous legacy in London, having exhibited major artists from the Group of Seven and the Painters Eleven to the London Regionalists — so those were certainly big shoes to fill.

When I took over the space, I had a roster of artists in mind and a vision for the kind of gallery I wanted to build. We started there, and the gallery has continued to grow and evolve along with the artists we represent.

We’ve also had some wonderful opportunities to connect with the space’s history and showcase artists from earlier generations. We took on the estate of Rudolf Bikkers, who had exhibited at Thielsen Gallery, and put together a fantastic exhibition of his work.

We’ve also had the opportunity to show pieces by artists such as Greg Curnoe, Tony Urquhart, Clark McDougall, and Karel Appel.

As the gallery continues to grow, I’m looking forward to expanding our offerings in the secondary market while continuing to support contemporary artists.

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

Well, then. It’s time for the election.

This week, I’m thinking a lot about how we’re all feeling, as individuals and as a community, and how that might affect the results we’ll hear on Monday. We stand at a crossroads and our next turn is unclear. Great confusion surrounds this election: the issues; the arguments; the individuals; the eventual outcome. Nobody seems to know what will happen next. I certainly don’t, so please stop asking me, everybody, unless it’s for money, and in that case I still won’t know but will feel a lot happier about it.

But I do have some thoughts to share.

Let’s do that now.

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Hang on, first, the housekeeping

I should establish what I’m up to.

Hello - my name is Mike and, in my spare time this year, I’ve been writing about local government for some kind of local entity that has developed into The Loon. Welcome aboard, you dashingly-attractive new subscribers, and thanks for your clicks and eyeballs. This is City Hall Notes, your Wednesday guide to the running of our city. And, if there is an air of completion here, it’s because it’s my last one before London elects a mayor, councillors and school board trustees on Monday, October 26. We’re poised for the sound of the other shoe dropping. This is it.

I could approach this task in a number of ways, and - as long-term subscribers have been able to see - I’ve developed my approach over the last 10 months. Usually, I’ll stay informational and share summaries and links, all designed to support good thinking over time. This is more of an acute issue, however, and I am very much aware we’ve had hundreds of new readers arrive recently. (Our thanks go to Rogers tv, CBC London, AM980, and so many others for the partnerships and media appearances that are spreading the word.) So, I’ve written a more reflective piece, even as we look ahead.

I hope you find this useful, and readable, as you ponder important decisions in your future. That’s the idea: we share reliable information and combat misinformation and disinformation in our community. It’s all about clarity and, boy, do we need some of that right now.

Let’s begin.

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Here we go with three front-of-mind thoughts with five days to go. Take ’em or leave ’em, and my thanks for reading.

1. Change is about to take place - the question is: how much?

It’s unmissable in this heated political contest: everyone is promising change. I know they all have to keep those promises (yes, let’s keep an eye on that) but I haven’t heard a single voice say “London should stay the same”. Notably, even incumbents are saying “things must improve” and, to some extent, getting quizzical looks for it. Try this CTV London report about construction, for example:

Morgan pitches shifting roadwork into high gear, Stevenson asks what took so long

That’s Daryl Newcombe, of course, doing his usual excellent work. He sums up the Morgan re-election pledges as:

• 24-hour road construction - just not near homes

• Changed procurement policies to help local businesses compete

• Strict fines on late construction projects, and rewards for early finishes

• Better communication about construction

And, we might add “What took so long?” to a number of election pledges, including those by Councillor Susan Stevenson, who has just spent four years as a member of council, if an iconoclastic one. That story also includes incumbent councillors Shawn Lewis (Ward 2) and Peter Cuddy (Ward 3) standing with Morgan to promise change. All their opponents (Lewis has three and Cuddy has five) are also promising change. Do you see what I mean?

And construction is just one issue. We can expect change in homelessness services, too, with either an increase in services (Morgan, for example, has pledged 200 more supportive housing spaces) or more disruptive change (Stevenson promises a review and a plan to more support from the Province) and of course all the other mayoral candidates are making their own pledges (Kirsten Krose has a 10-year plan, for example, and Bronagh Morgan has a plan to review services, and so on).

At the same time, everyone - and I mean everyone - is hitting us with some variation on “clean up City Hall” and bring more efficiency, and so on. Incumbents talk that way all through the term and then everybody else joins in at the end, like a big choir. It’s a wave of change, to some extent, and somehow things also do not change in many ways. That’s politics.

My point is: nobody’s voting for the status quo here. We are at a crucial time in our city’s history, with massive economic and social challenges, and we are choosing our leaders. This election is all about how much change we want, what that change will bring, and - crucially - how much disruption to public services we can tolerate to make the change happen.

Worth thinking about, when making a choice.

2. The next mayor will seek allies and that will influence policy

This has been a stormy election, as we all keep saying. Don’t get me wrong - I know elections are often noisy bouts (and I have a great “after six beers” story about a British by-election) but this has been a contest that’s highlighted significant divisions in our city, especially when we discuss homelessness and the connected-but-separate issue of drug use, crime and general mess on the streets. People have opinions and it has often been emotional. Heated.

This may have generated the most publicity for the mayoral contest, but it’s a seething undercurrent present in every race in town. Meanwhile, localized issues such as infill housing projects and, yes, all the construction continue to influence ward races in ways that are hard to track. On Monday night, we will have the names of 14 people with whom our mayor must work, and every one of those 14 people is arriving with an agenda and their own promises of change ringing in their ears.

The mayor needs council, more than ever.

But what about those Strong Mayor Powers, I hear you cry? I’ll refer you to guest writer Paul Hubert’s excellent thoughts on that matter from the weekend, and his discussion with Matt Brown on Monday.

Paul says: “Strong mayor powers should be used sparingly, as a last resort.”

And, among Paul’s examples in that article, I’ll point to recent history. Back in January, I wrote about Josh Morgan’s pitch to business leaders. That was supposed to be a use of those powers, or at least some kind of agreement on housing incentives for homebuyers. Despite repeated attempts, that didn’t go through council in this form and was eventually subsumed into other efforts to stimulate the housing market. Councillors were not aligned ahead of time and basically dismantled the whole project.

More recently, challenger Susan Stevenson, when asked about Strong Mayor Powers during the Rogers tv debate (full recording here and LFP analysis here), said she’d use them to fire someone.

And that has caused quite a stir, especially among staff at City Hall; I saw some social media comments in which folks openly questioned the stability of their own jobs. And the outcome of all of this is: Strong Mayor Powers will always be controversial, and used “sparingly and as a last resort”, if at all. Maybe the Budget process will see them used, but they are not a replacement for a united, aligned council.

My argument? While everyone’s watching the mayoral race, they should be counting wards. A 7/7, or even 6/8 split between newbies and incumbents could have a profound effect on local services, starting immediately. We know we’ll have at least three new faces, and I see three to four wards that may change hands. (No, I’m not identifying them. That gets me the angry messages and I have to block more people.)

tl;dr: The mayor will have to build a team with whoever wins in the 14 wards, and we’re back to those calls for change. Just what kind of change will it be?

We find out next week.

Quick break. Here’s this column’s sponsor.

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Back for more!

3. Turnout matters but we just don’t know how

The numbers for the advance polls are in and, with so little information available about the likely outcome of the election, everyone is taking a close, close look at them.

And it’s unclear what they say, except: more people are voting than last time.

Here is a CBC story that puts the numbers together for us simply, and I’ll summarize here:

More than 16,500 Londoners voted in advance polls from Oct. 1 to 11, up about 27 per cent from 2022. The increase follows a broader trend toward early voting, although London’s estimated eligible electorate has also grown by roughly 17% to 330,000. Advance ballots represent about 5% of eligible voters, and the increase does not necessarily signal higher overall turnout, which hit a historic low of 25.5% in 2022. City officials reported no major disruptions and will confirm final figures after election day.

Full credit here must go to Jack Moulton at the London Free Press, who produced this excellent piece about advance voting. Jack talked to political scientists about what the numbers might mean, and his piece is totally worth a read. Among other points, it includes a suggestion that this may benefit challengers over incumbents, and also a conclusion that this is less of a big deal than 2014, when the Fontana 8 were booted from council en masse.

My opinion: turnout will be crucial in ward races, and political trends in those ward races will inform the future direction of council. We have incumbents defending slim majorities and hearing tough criticism from at least some of their electorate. One poorly-handled infill development could swing it. Somebody’s going spend Tuesday wishing they’d canvassed just one… more… street…

Enough

I’m going to leave it there. Thanks for reading this far, and for reading at all these last 10 months - French-style air-kisses to anybody who’s been here that long. I feel quite flattered to see so many people clicking on my articles and to be approached to discuss these issues in the media, although less so when it happens in the street. (People keep asking me if I’m Mike Donachie and I’m fairly sure I am.) Please know I do as much of this as I can, because I hope I can make some kind of positive impact on my community.

Of course, there is so much more to do, particularly in covering the school board races, which continue to be underreported. I’ll keep sharing what I can find and round up some pre-election news on Friday.

Oh no he’s going all Jerry Springer now

My final thought: if you have a vote, please use it well. I keep thinking how we’re feeling at this notional crossroads, where it’s midnight and maybe we’ll be real good on the guitar after this, or maybe not.

The confusion is present, and it is up to us to cut through it. We can all do our part, stand up for our values, and - preferably - breathe through the emotions to make decisions thoughtfully. Please look at the promises and decide who you believe.

Thanks for being London Leaders. This is your time to step up.

One quick postscript…

Get your local independent journalism

We love to connect with other local journalism outlets and I am happy to point everyone at the vibrant Forest City Insider, which you can find here. Led by Susan Goebel, it features local news, events and more, and has kindly been recommending The Loon. Thanks, Susan!

And that’s really it from me.

Choose your leaders and place your trust.

- Mike

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

Today, let’s visit Citi Plaza. This is a place that is many things to many Londoners. There is a great chunk of Londoners who still call this place Galleria London, even though I was a child when they still had that name.

Citi Plaza presently has 21 tenants, down from 66 in the years after rebranding from the name Galleria London. I remember around 2011 when they scored a longtime tenant from White Oaks Mall to come downtown. Today, there are times I’ve walked through the place that I wonder if I’m the only person in the entire building. But there were points in time when it seemingly changed downtown London forever. It’s imposing structure comprising two city blocks. It makes things very clear: it’s not going anywhere. Let’s walk through this place and maybe you can get an idea of what kind of future it has in the future of downtown, a place we all talk about.

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The History

What is now Citi Plaza was originally called Wellington Square, bounded by Wellington Street, King Street, Clarence Street, and York Street. The mall, developed by Webb & Knapp, opened on August 11, 1960. Even as suburbanization had taken hold in cities like London, this mall’s opening was a statement as it was one of the first enclosed downtown malls in the country, with Eaton’s as an anchor tenant.

Wellington Square continued to be the prominent shopping center in downtown London for the next two decades even as the London Mews opened in the 1970s. Eaton’s further entrenched itself as the centrepiece of the shopping centre when the mall was renamed in 1980 as London Eaton Square, and was renovated with help from the provincial government as part of the Ontario Downtown Redevelopment Program. The mall underwent major construction later that decade, with an extension northward with bridges over King Street. The mall gained a new tenant in 1989 with The Bay which was relocated from Dundas and Richmond and was rebranded from Simpsons only 3 years earlier.

On August 16, 1989, the mall was rebranded as Galleria London. But that peak later became a valley, as the 1990s recession was not kind to the mall. The mall was composed of high-end international chains as well as locally-owned businesses that had moved from Dundas Street. Stores left the mall (and downtown) in droves over the next several years, creating large voids throughout the building.

In a harbinger of things to come, GoodLife Fitness opened a location in the basement of the mall, in 1997. This was a big deal because this was a non-retail business that became a tenant. In the future this mall would be reorienting itself to become a mixed-use building rather than an outright shopping mall. The Eaton’s store, alongside all other locations in Canada, closed down when the company declared bankruptcy in 1999. The Eaton’s became an office building aptly named Wellington Square.

This concept of mixed-use was further entrenched when The Bay moved out of the mall, and north to Masonville Place in 2001. Filling that vacancy was the Central Branch of the London Public Library. Further construction throughout the aughts oriented most stores and restaurants to the ground floor, with offices stationed on the second floor.

On May 7, 2009, Galleria London was rebranded as Citi Plaza, naming itself after a then-major tenant in Citi Cards Canada.

The building adopted the tagline “Work | Shop | Dine | Play | Learn”, owing to the mix of uses of the tenants in the building. It seemed like Citi Plaza was having a moment, people walking through the mall through most of the operating hours, with a full food court during the daytime, with people going into offices during all hours of the day, and a social media presence, but death by a thousand cuts happened to the mall over the next decade.

Remember The Bargain Shop? It closed and was soon replaced by the Middlesex-London health unit, which opened its office in 2021. Subway is the only food-adjacent place in the food court, and has stood alone for the last three years. Many units remain vacant and you can see hints of what they once were.

In recent years, there has been lots of discourse on what to do with the building. Let’s take a walk through the place many Londoners have an opinion about.

New Block - With The Library and Little Else

Let’s start on Dundas Street. This side is the main entrance to the Central branch of the London Public Library. London’s largest branch opened in its current iteration on August 25, 2002. I remember that opening day like it was yesterday. I had never seen such a crowd in that building, mainly because it was a big important day, but also during much of my lifetime the mall had always seen better days.

The library has three floors, and the third floor is the only place on the entire property where such a floor is accessible to the general public. I figured this out first-hand when security chastised me when I walked up the escalator in the centre court in 2019.

The ground floor hallway is known as the Hudson Bay Passageway, in honour of the previous tenant. Across from the main entrance to the library is the library’s last remaining washroom open to the public. The other floors’ washrooms were closed at the start of the pandemic; they remain closed due to public safety concerns. As a frequent patron of this branch, it is not ideal that the only washroom is a long jaunt away if I plan to be on the upper floors, and it does make me consider visiting the other branches near this one. A push for public safety should not come at the expense of user experience and convenience. It should not be a zero-sum game.

The ground floor inside the library is where many patrons check out their materials. Closer to the main mall area once housed a row of computers named the CHUM Media Literacy Center. This was one of those community benefits that CHUM bequeathed upon London when they acquired CFPL-TV, now known as CTV London. There is also a Friends of the London Public Library bookstore; they often run a book sale every October at Centennial Hall just a few blocks north. Just outside of the bookstore was one of London’s three Speakers Corner locations where much like the Citytv counterpart, people would get the word out to the public long before YouTube was a thing.

The third floor contains the London Room, which has been the greatest archive of local history anywhere in the city. Check out the Johnny Cash cardboard cut-out while you’re in there.

The north half of this mall is very vacant except for a Dollarama, a CIBC branch, and hair salon, and H&R Block which is seasonally open. You can see remnants from past stores throughout the corridor that arches from Clarence to Wellington.

Escalators are hit and miss in this building; much of this place may be difficult to navigate for those with mobility challenges.

On the second floor are many offices. Similar to the second floor, you can see the remnants of former offices here, most notably Western Continuing Studies, the continuing education branch of Western University. The corridor outside of Western Continuing Studies is such an interesting liminal space. Every time I’m up here, I wonder if I am allowed to be here. Will I get accosted by a security guard telling me I’m not supposed to be here? The answer is revealed with a further walk which takes us over King Street and to the original mall block.

Original Block - Imagine Cinemas, Subway, and Offices

This block, bounded by Wellington Street, King Street, Clarence Street, and York Street was Wellington Square and later London Eaton Square. Wellington Square now lends its name to an office building component of the property.

Also on the second floor of the original block is Imagine Cinemas, having been rebranded from Rainbow Cinemas in 2016. This is downtown London’s last remaining movie theatre, with the closure of the Capitol Theatre about a quarter of a century ago. I remember it as a kid for a few distinct things: it had cheaper ticket prices and second-run movies. It was the ultimate place of entertainment if you had a working class background.

Adjacent to Imagine Cinemas is a City of London satellite office that houses several different departments, most notably social services.

Going downstairs on what feels like the only functioning escalator in the building, we make our way to the ground floor. The restaurant space oriented towards the street is vacant, last used by the Fox & Fiddle (formerly Elephant & Castle) who left in 2021. You can also see remnants of former tenants like The Source and the 1850 clothing store. You can still see hints of where the Booster Juice was. The food court is empty, save for a Subway.

Across from the Subway and three vacant restaurant units, there is a black countertop. I remember the sushi place that was here and always relied on it for a quick lunch. One of the seating areas in the food court was converted from a Country Style Donuts; this seating area has since been sealed off from the public.

The Bargain Shop closed its only London location years before the pandemic and was replaced by the Middlesex-London Health Unit, which moved from the now-demolished 50 King Street building.

In between - King Street

It is very dark in between the two blocks that make up Citi Plaza, mainly because of the two bridges that connect both sides of the mall. The west end of this block has a mural as I mentioned in an earlier column. At the east end of the block is the Wellington and King rapid transit station. Over the last two years since the shelters have been erected, there has been a great deal of misinformation spread out around them. Presently, council candidates are using the shelters as the poster child of the perceived failures of the current city council. I have used them over the last year whenever I have had to ride the bus, and I have liked the wayfinding, lighting, seating, and the new glass used for these structures. Transit users deserve good things, much like all Londoners who have to navigate throughout this city.

The Future

I also wonder, what is next for Citi Plaza?

As I mentioned above, many people in this city have thoughts on what the future of the building should be. Citi Plaza’s management currently maintains that it is no longer a mall, but a mixed-use building. The real estate agent representing Citi Plaza put forth the idea that this could be home to an interim City Hall while a new municipal headquarters is constructed elsewhere. The city’s own plans are shelved for now, but I think they should have given Citi Plaza’s idea a second look.

The mall (er, mixed-use building) has hosted a number of events like a roller skating night, arts exhibitions, Earth Fest, and was a last-minute replacement venue for a romance novel convention just a few weeks ago.

There are so many things that this place can evolve into. Stakeholders could be more receptive to ideas that can make the building more inviting and less dreary. We cannot go back to the downtown of old, the photos and newsreels of which pepper our social media pages. We can only go forward.

I hope you enjoyed our time together today. We spent time in a place, albeit empty, is one of London’s most interesting buildings. 66 years, two blocks, and so many possibilities.

Check back each Tuesday for my take on experiencing London from a fresh perspective. I am excited to bike around the city and report back to you. I welcome comments, suggestions, and topics to discuss each Tuesday. Please subscribe and let’s talk soon!

Correction Notice: the Central branch of the London Public Library also includes the studios of CBC London and Wolf Performance Hall. The public washroom policies have changed this year to allow public access to washrooms on all floors, including the children’s library. I regret the error.

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

New content every day.

We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - The City with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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October 19th, 2026

Good morning, London. I’m Matt Brown and this is Buckle Up, sponsored by the Hamilton Road BIA.

It’s Monday, October 19th and this is your weekly update about all things London brought to you by London Ontario Online News, that’s The Loon for short. If you’ve listened before, you know that every Monday morning, I co-host this program with a member from our team or a special guest, giving you the information you need to prepare for the week ahead.

Listen to this week’s Episode:

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Paul Hubert is our special guest co-host this week. Of course you know Paul as the recently retired Executive Director of Pathways Skill Development Paul served as London’s Ward 8 councillor for 3 terms of council and during his last term of council, from 2014 to 2018, he served as Deputy Mayor, too. These days Paul is the founder and lead consultant over at Delta Leadership Consulting.

On this episode Paul and I discuss:

• The guest column, “Strong Mayor Powers: Where do we draw the line?”, that Paul wrote for The Loon which was published yesterday.

• How Josh Morgan has used strong mayor powers effectively and unsuccessfully.

• How Susan Steveson and Kirsten Krose suggest how, if elected, they might use strong mayor powers.

Links to examples of how Josh Morgan has used strong mayor powers in the past & how Susan Stevenson and Kirsten Krose could use them if they were elected.

Josh Morgan

Examples of how Morgan used strong mayor powers effectively:

• Daryl Newcombe, CTV News: Mayor Morgan won’t flex strong mayor powers to hire London’s next city. manager.

• Andrew Lupton, CBC London: London mayor pushes for temporary emergency homeless shelter before winter.

Examples of how Morgan used them unsuccessfully:

• Ben Harrietha, 980 CFPL Turning parking lots into housing.

• Daryl Newcombe, CTV News: Mayor abandons home buyer incentive announced in State of the City Address, seeks options council might support.

Susan Stevenson

How Stevenson suggests she might used strong mayor powers:

• Jack Moulton, London Free Press: Does London need a leader who will lean into strong mayor powers?

Kirsten Krose

How Krose suggests she might used strong mayor powers:

• Jack Moulton, London Free Press: London mayoral rivals spar over taxes, construction and strong mayor powers.\

3 of the many mayoral debates:

• Christine Taleski, Rogers tv : London: Mayoral Debate - The Local Campaign

  2026 Mayoral Debate

• Devon Peacock, 980 CFPL: 980 CFPL Mayoral Debate.

• Daryl Newcombe, CTV News:

Note: there are 12 candidates running for mayor. You can learn about all of them by visiting The City of London’s list of candidates.

The Urban League’s 14 All Candidate Meetings Now Available for Viewing

• You can learn more about these meetings here.

  

• Rogers Television is broadcasting each of them regularly as election day approaches. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year. We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings we and helped promote the events, too. For a grass roots, not-for-profit, volunteer led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel and are running regularly on Rogers tv.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

Sponsor Highlight: Hamilton Road BIA

Thanks, as always, to our show sponsor, Hamilton Road BIA. Through advocacy, investment, beautification and promotion, the BIA works to strengthen the Hamilton Road community while celebrating the rich history and diversity that make the area unique.

Buckle Up is Sponsored by Hamilton Road BIA
www.hamroad.com

Supporting independent local journalism in our community

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

• Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

• Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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An editorial by guest writer Paul Hubert

Amid the 2026 mayoral race, the topic of strong mayor powers has emerged as a key issue. Not so much whether we should have it, but how and when to use it. What guardrails should there be?

Mayor Josh Morgan has tried to use strong mayor powers several times this past council term, with mixed success. Attempts to fast-track projects such as high-density development on municipally owned parking lots or development charge rebates for homeownership have run into procedural, environmental or community roadblocks. Strong mayor powers were used to jump-start the homeless micro-home shelter project and introduce the budget.

Councilor Susan Stevenson complains that council was not involved in the Homeless Community Plan and seeks greater transparency and accountability. However, she states that she would unilaterally terminate the council’s only employee, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).

One would assume she would also then hire a new CAO of her choosing who agrees with her and will do her bidding. Where does this leave council? What role does the Mayor have in the hiring and performance management of the CAO? One could naturally see this extending to the senior staff and deputy CAOs.

The heads of road, planning, finance, social services and housing all bring extensive training and expertise to their roles. This expertise is built over decades. I don’t suggest senior staff get a free pass. They must execute council’s direction and report back to council in a clear, transparent and timely manner. How then does strong mayor powers impact the independence and professionalism of staff?

Should strong mayor powers be used to bend council to the mayor’s will when there are differences of opinion?

Councils are rarely unified. They reflect the diversity of the community’s voices. Tension is often part of decision-making, and vigorous debate is a sign of health.

South of the border, we have seen overreach in the President’s use of executive orders. This bypasses democratically elected representatives, silences dissent and opens the door to groupthink.

Strong mayor powers should be used sparingly, as a last resort. The Canadian Constitution includes the notwithstanding clause, which, while available, was intended as an exceptional measure rather than a routine tool of government.

Community-based democracy is always gritty and messy. Vision, collaboration, and a sense of city-building should drive the decision-making process.

Paul Hubert, M.A.

Paul Hubert served as City Councillor and Deputy Mayor representing Ward 8 from 2006 to 2018.

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We have a good show for you today. London Free Press City Hall Reporter Jack Moulton is joining us to talk about all things municipal election.

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Jack has been covering London City Hall over at The London Free Press for the past three years, and you can bet he’s been following the municipal election very closely.

The election, of course, is right around the corner and Jack’s going to spend the next 30 minutes or so helping us get a better sense of what’s happening with the Ward Races. We’re going to take a close look at the mayoral race too.

There’s lots of material to cover and Jack’s here with me in the studio, right now.

So, let’s go.

The Urban League’s 14 All Candidate Meetings Now Available for Viewing

Rogers Television is broadcasting each of them regularly as election day approaches. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year.

We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings we and helped promote the events, too. For a grass roots, not-for-profit, volunteer led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative. You can learn more about these meetings here.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel and are running regularly on Rogers tv.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

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Rogers tv Mayoral Debate

Moderator Christine Taleski masterfully moderated this 90 minute debate and The Loon developed and asked the questions. you can catch the entire 90 minute debate regularly on Rogers tv or watch it on Rogers tv’s YouTube Channel here.

Mike Donachie published a comprehensive list of all mayoral debates in his most recent “Buckle Up”. You can catch it here.

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

• Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

• Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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October 16, 2026

What Makes a Good Mayor? Reflections on My Interviews with 3 of London’s Mayoral Candidates

What makes a good mayor? Is it leadership? Experience? The promises they make? Or is it something more?

Over the past three weeks on Steve’s Reflections, I’ve sat down with Josh Morgan, Susan Stevenson and Kirsten Krose to talk about their platforms, London’s priorities and what they’re hearing from voters. We also explored more personal questions: Why do they want the job? And what do they value about London as it is today?

I’ve enjoyed getting to know each of these candidates through what I hope have been open, free-flowing conversations. I want to thank all three for taking the time to participate.

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As I’ve reflected on these interviews, I’ve been thinking about the qualities we should look for in a mayor. Mayoral debates and candidates’ responses to specific issues are important. So are their policies, experience and promises. But I think character matters, too: those less tangible qualities that help us understand how someone listens, engages with others and navigates difficult relationships.

I can only imagine the daily pressures of being mayor — balancing social challenges, business opportunities, long-term growth, relationships with neighbouring municipalities and dealings with other levels of government. Doing that well requires more than good ideas. It takes tact, sound judgment, an ability to listen to competing perspectives and the talent to bring people together around common goals.

This series has also prompted some reflection on election coverage itself. How do we ensure Londoners have an opportunity to hear from a broad range of candidates, including those who may not receive as much public attention? It’s a question we’ve been discussing as a team at The Loon, and one we believe deserves attention as we continue to develop our approach to covering local elections.

Ultimately, voters must decide which candidates and qualities matter most to them. My hope is that these conversations have offered another perspective on people seeking to lead our city and helped you think about choices before us.

If you haven’t voted yet, there’s still time to get up to speed on the candidates and the issues. You’ll find links to all three interviews below, along with other helpful election resources.

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Week 1: Josh Morgan

Week 2: Susan Stevenson

Week 3: Kirsten Krose

Note: there are 12 candidates running for mayor. You can learn about all of them by visiting The City of London’s list of candidates.

Mayoral candidate John Feyer did an interview with The Loon’s Lisa Brandt here.

The Urban League’s 14 All Candidate Meetings Now Available for Viewing

• You can learn more about these meetings here.

• Rogers Television is broadcasting each of them regularly as election day approaches. The Loon was thrilled to partner with the Urban League this year. We wrote many of the questions asked at these meetings we and helped promote the events, too. For a grass roots, not-for-profit, volunteer led organization, the Urban League of London has really gone above and beyond with this initiative.

• All 14 Ward All-Candidate Meetings are available on the Rogers tv YouTube channel and are running regularly on Rogers tv.

  • Ward 1

  • Ward 2

  • Ward 3

  • Ward 4

  • Ward 5

  • Ward 6

  • Ward 7

  • Ward 8

  • Ward 9

  • Ward 10

  • Ward 11

  • Ward 12

  • Ward 13

  • Ward 14

Rogers tv Mayoral Debate:

Moderator Christine Taleski masterfully moderated this 90 minute debate and The Loon developed and asked the questions. you can catch the entire 90 minute debate regularly on Rogers tv or watch it on Rogers tv’s YouTube Channel here.

Share

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The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

New content every day.

We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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And this is London, Ontario where we have 10 days to go before London’s municipal election, the fifth such election to take place in my adult lifetime. I hope all of you reading this have already voted or are making a plan to vote on Monday, October 26. I think we can do better, so much better, than 25% turnout.

Welcome to today’s ROUNDUP, the executive summary and necessary collection of news stories and ephemera to get London Leaders caught up on the week that was.

Soundtrack of the week

This song is at the intersection for a few things in life for me. I saw Metric in concert about two weeks ago at Canada Life Place. There is a series of airings of Call The Office documentary at the Hyland, and this song below was one of the hits I heard during Indie Underground nights in London’s most famous music venue. It’s a callback to my optimistic, halcyon years as a college student.

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Local government

This past Wednesday was the last full council meeting for this term of London City Council. As you may know, there is an election on October 26. There are no committee nor council meetings scheduled during what may be viewed as a transitional period, and the new council will begin their terms on November 15. This will be the second consecutive term to begin on November 15, as the province moved terms up from December 1, several years ago. (However, London Transit Commission has one more meeting this term, scheduled for this coming Monday)

As we reported on Wednesday in City Hall Notes, the demolition of 100 Stanley Street will go ahead after a 12-3 vote at the last council meeting.

Jerry Pribil and Steven Hillier, the councillors for Ward 5 and 14, respectively, are not standing in this municipal election and gave final speeches in the council chambers.

Commercial break

I love telling stories about this city. I also enjoy meandering around the city to learn a lot about it. This week, I found myself at what may be London’s narrowest street on Queens Place in Old East Village. The street is going to be extended in the near future, to Lorne Avenue with a new subdivision of houses that will abut Lorne Avenue Park.

Election 2026

Josh Morgan made an announcement with two council candidates to extend construction work hours on arterial roads, with mayoral opponents pushing back and a local construction CEO weighing in. CBC has the story here.

CTV is reporting that Susan Stevenson is questioning if Josh Morgan is complying with election rules citing a shot of London’s city hall in one campaign video, among other accusations in a letter to the City Clerk.

CBC also reports that advance voting shows an increase of 27% from the 2022 election, however, London grew by a lot in terms of eligible electors. (You’ve heard the stories about London’s population growth in recent years) Down the road, sometime after the election, we will find out just how much of the advance vote comprises the electorate.

Business

A minister’s zoning order was issued by local MPP and minister Rob Flack to allow Dancor Construction to develop an industrial park at the corner of Highbury Avenue South and Green Valley Road. Check out this story from the London Free Press here.

The federal government is funding Deep Breathe, an AI-based lung ultrasound tech company to the tune of $1 million, per Rogers TV.

From CTV News, the WSIB Centre of Excellence in Immersive Technologies Simulation for Workplace Safety has opened at Fanshawe College. WSIB has been having a moment since the provincial government transferred the agency’s headquarters from Toronto to London’s east end.

From CBC, Hitachi, in partnership with the provincial and federal governments have announced a plan to construct a transformer insulation factory, to be completed in 2028. The factory will be located in Huron Industrial Park, along Huron Street near London International Airport.

Healthcare

The provincial government recently launched the Emergency Department Action Team, which will be working with hospitals to bring down wait times in the emergency room. London Health Sciences Centre will be one of the hospitals working with this team, per the Free Press.

CTV News reports that Mississauga-based pharmaceutical company Pharmaline is coming to London, with plans to build a factory in Southeast London’s Innovation Park.

The Lightning Round

Here’s some other things in London that you need to know:

• All charges against one accused have been dropped in the explosives probe, per the London Free Press.

• Richmond Street is closed at the CPKC rail crossing for repairs, per Rogers TV

• Needham Funeral Home, located in Midtown London, is closing its doors after 77 years, per the London Free Press

• And it’s Socktober! Check out Rogers TV’s coverage.

Just One More Thing

Elsewhere at the Loon, Matt Brown and Steve Cordes chatted about Steve’s conversations with the mayoral candidates on Buckle Up. I explored a place halfway between Blackfriars and Western University on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we took a look at City Council’s final meeting of the term. In case you missed it on The Loon yesterday, Diana Tamblyn had a great look ahead at our arts and culture scene including what to catch at the Forest City Film Festival. And later today, Steve Cordes releases his thoughtful-as-always Reflections.

Enough

And that’s all the time that we have today. I hope you got what you needed from this ROUNDUP and I can’t wait to see you on Tuesday for another edition of The City. Thank you again for reading and subscribing; you are a London Leader when you choose The Loon!

Subscribe now

The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup

Local independent journalism bringing you new content every day.

Find our editorial standards and policies here.

Meet the Londoners who team up to send you a new feature every weekday:

• Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
  SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA

• Tuesday - City Tours with Cedric Richards
  SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ

• Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
  SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW

• Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
  SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON

• Friday - Reflections with Steve Cordes
  SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA

Also on Fridays: the local news ROUNDUP.

Every other Saturday: The Matt Brown Podcast. It’s the show about all things local, and maybe some other stuff too. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE.

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