Hello again, people who step up to lead London, Ontario by understanding its issues and paying attention to what’s happening in our city. That’s all it takes, in my opinion: some news sense and engagement, and you’re good to go as a London Leader who reads The Loon.
And this is City Hall Notes, where I seek to brief my fellow citizens on the multi-billion-dollar structures that provide our local services. For the new people joining us (and there were lots), please know that every Wednesday you get this skimmable, selective briefing that seeks to guide you. Usually this lands at lunchtime but I’m done early this week and I see no reason to wait. Good morning!
London, Ontario has so much to know. We had a Full Council meeting yesterday, and it has left the cat among the pigeons after a long discussion about drugs in homelessness shelters. Meanwhile, there’s a trade war and a lot more going on, and we want to make it consumable for you all. So this column - which, notably, relies heavily this week on the great work of local TV reporter Daryl Newcombe - will go by the issues, and, like all comic book fans, I have issues, for sure.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s below:
A reflection on Deadline Day at City Hall
Some notes on the current trade war with the U.S.
The latest from the London Police Services Board
And a look at that Full Council meeting
Cedric and I were welcomed to CBC London Morning yesterday to talk about The Loon, and you can listen to the segment here. Thanks to the team at CBC London for having us on!
We’re a media start-up led by public interest, seeking to be an added voice in London for the right reasons. These five local citizens have stepped up to tell stories about our city in a way that helps everyone, and we want everyone to join in.
Thank you so much for subscribing to The Loon. Thanks, also, to our five sponsors, who are mentioned in every article. We’re building a resource for everyone.
Off we go.
Deadline Day at City Hall
I had a lovely Friday afternoon skulking around City Hall and I’m grateful to everyone who was nice to me. This was the big day - the last chance to file if you wanted to run in any city council or trustee races.
And seven people did indeed show up. The local media were there, too, catching up with the final filers, who did not disappoint and brought some actual news stories.
Closing the doors to nominees gives us a full, confirmed list of 113 candidates, from Ward 6’s Ian Sterling Leishman on opening day to Denise Brown on the deadline, and you can find them on the City website here.
Daryl Newcombe of CTV London produced comprehensive report here, and it’s my selection for a media hit to target. He features a few of the candidates, including surprise comeback kid Denise Brown, the former Ward 11 councillor who is back to challenge Skylar Franke. She immediately said she doesn’t approve of councillors’ recent pay raise and she will donate it to charity if she wins.
Since then, Daryl has returned to the issue of councillors’ pay with this follow-up about busy ward races:
Did 35 per cent pay hike boost the number of candidates running to be a city councillor in London?
And, in Monday’s Buckle Up podcast, which you can find here, Matt Brown and Steve Cordes had an interesting chat about old faces coming back: Denise Brown, Roger Caranci and Stephen Orser are all blasts from the past1, and making an impact now.
Krose launches campaign
Mayoral candidate Kirsten Krose launched her campaign, and Daryl Newcombe covered it here. Here’s a quick extract:
The four pillars in her platform are:
A city that feels safe for all
Services that work
Traffic that moves
The taxpayer is respected
Sarnia mayor goes for an even dozen
Going beyond London for a remarkable local government story, let’s look at Mike Bradley, who is seeking his 12th term per this story in the Free Press and elsewhere. He’s been in office since 1988, when I was selling yellow Walkmans in my after-school retail job. Astonishing.
That’s a syndicated piece by Terry Bridge, and shows the value of the regional approach by the Free Press as part of the Postmedia Network, connecting communities with relevant stories while filling gaps in news holes.
The 14 Wards of London Ontario
Want to find out more about your ward? We’ve got you.
East London
Ward 1 - Where The Wooden Things Are
Ward 2 - With More Than A Commercial Corridor
Ward 3 - Coming soon
Ward 4 - All About Neighbourhoods Now
South London
Ward 12 - Which Seems To Work Pretty Well - NEW
Ward 14 - With All The Rural Areas Now
West London
Ward 8 - With A Bog and Many Beds
Ward 10 - Coming NEXT
North London
Ward 5 - With The Mall and So Much More
Ward 7 - With The Mayors
Central London
Ward 11 - With The Village
Ward 13 - Downtown. This will be our final stop.
Let’s take a quick break for an ad from the superb-est lawyers in town:
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City Hall Notes is sponsored by Spero Law
www.sperolaw.ca
Supporting independent local journalism in our community
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Next, a massive international issue with a profound local effect.
Canada/U.S. trade war hits home
Looks like it’s elbows up again, as the United States of America shows its current colours in new ways. It’s difficult to keep up-to-date with this fast-moving story, and I can’t do that for you, sorry, that’s above and beyond. But I can give you a few choice tidbits from recent reporting to aid your awareness. And I can focus on local elements, so we can make decisions with them in mind. This is all about making our community better.
Local impact
CBC London immediately went to the heart of the matter, and addressed the local effect in this excellent piece by Matthew Trevithick. That’s a local expert talking about the widespread impact on small and medium-sized businesses in our region.
Notably, London MP Peter Fragiskatos popped up early in the narrative to hint (CBC story here) at help for businesses, and since then the main reporting shows Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a series of announcements designed to protect our industries.
The wider story
At the highest level, the BBC has a good timeline in this online asset, showing how we got here, and CBC has an in-depth piece about why the trade talks fells apart, with the subheds:
Pickup trucks left out
Sovereignty threats
Steel, aluminum, lumber
Culture
Concessions Canada was willing to make
And of course you can follow the latest - retaliatory tariffs and all - through mainstream stories like this from CBC today.
Language and culture
On the issue of bilingualism, CBC has of course covered this well. In this report, Trump now says he loves French-Canadians and denies he wants to interfere. Carney seems to be saying different.
Opinion alert: The Americans’ apparent attack on bilingualism goes straight to the heart of Canadian culture - and that’s precious. Make no mistake: this trade war involves hostile actions using economic means and this was a salvo aimed at the Canadian constitution and the values that underpin it. Rarely have I seen a hill more deserving of a battle to retain it - and we should support the leaders in Canada who are standing against this.
Hell yeah, Canada. This is a red line and Carney is absolutely correct. Hell yeah.
Also oui.
Ford vs. Trump
Meanwhile, there is Doug Ford.
Somehow, the funniest part of all this is the Premier of Ontario finding himself in an old-fashioned war of words with Donald Trump. This seemed to start with “kiss my ass” and escalate from there. I liked when he called Donny a “loser”. So, even as we fear the ruin of our economy, there’s a fascinating experience in watching folksy Ford go at it here. There’s lots of online content spreading his choice of words, including those all-important short video platforms, and here’s a good summary from CBC.
“I have a lot of real estate on my ass,” the man Trump called “Flunky Ford” joked on the radio yesterday. “I’m a big guy - what can I say?”
I mean - he’s actually funny. This was not on my bingo card.
Then Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, suggesting a rerun of all that nonsense with the Gulf of Mexico. At this rate, all landmarks will be called Something America by two weeks on Tuesday. The vast American Ocean will separate Europe and America, and also Asia and America, and possibly Australia and New Zealand. Love-struck couples will stroll hand-in-hand through Paris along the famous banks of the River America to kiss beneath the Tower D’America. In Scotland, all lochs will be Loch America. Also all toilets. And we’ll all change our names to America McAmerica of the Clan America.
Oh Donald, do piss off.
Opinion alert (because I’m really cookin’ now): Ford is right, in his own way. On paper, he’s probably a more successful businessman and certainly a more popular politician than Donald Trump. He’s dropping the truth bombs that Canadians need to hear and doing well, actually. I’m just not sure how we got to the point that Doug Ford is somehow Canada’s anti-Trump voice. It’s not the weirdest thing that’s happened lately but it’s still pretty weird.
And breathe.
Next issue.
Latest from London Services Police Board
Did you know that London’s police board, the group of seven local people providing oversight for local policing, met last week? I suppose you do now. You might also have read reporting from CBC London and the London Free Press.
It’s an important Board, producing the single largest budget of all of London’s Agencies, Boards & Commissions (known as the ABCs), and generating controversy every year, without fail, regular as clockwork - such as this CTV reporting of the last process, a mere 11 months ago - and it’s coming again soon.
We’ll keep watching, of course. You can watch the meetings, too, if you want - see below - or read the handy guide here. I’ll start with a quick summary.
The August 20 meeting heard about consecutive annual increases in use-of-force incidents, attributed partly to wider access to conducted-energy weapons, greater deployment of the canine unit, more encounters involving suspected handguns, and operational changes including higher staffing and improved officer availability.
Despite the increase, use-of-force reports represented less than one per cent of all public-police interactions, according to the London Police Service’s annual reporting.
Dramatis personae
Who’s involved in the London Police Services Board? Its membership is on its website here and there was this recent CTV story saying it would retain its seven-member structure. I’ll also provide some context. Most of this information can be found in the public domain.
Ryan Gauss is the Board Chair. He managed Josh Morgan’s last successful campaign. Nancy Branscombe, former city councillor, is Vice Chair. Three members of council sit on the board: Mayor Josh Morgan and councillors Steve Lehman and Susan Stevenson.
You might also spot Mike Wallace, Executive Director of the London Development Institute, and Ali Chahbar, a former police board chair and now employed in a legal role (which caused some controversy, as CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell explained here). The other Board member is Jeffrey Lang, who is the CEO of WSIB.
And of course Chief Thai Truong, who leads the London Police Service, and various service members and support staff.
A deeper dive into the meeting
Video of the LPSB meeting is online in two parts - the first part is just 39 seconds of opening the meeting and moving to private session, so not worth your time. If you want to watch the actual meeting, which is one hour and 24 minutes, you can find the video here.
I’m not ready to invest the time in watching all of it, but I do have an A.I.-supported summary and some time stamps. Let’s have a wee glance at that.
Key events covered in this meeting:
Chief’s Gala (05:13 - 24:51)
The board reviewed the second annual Chief’s Gala, which raised $250,000 for the community, and $125,000 checks were presented to the Bethany’s Hope Foundation and Victim Services of Middlesex-London.
2025 Annual Report (25:00 - 52:13)
The service presented its 2025 report, which highlights a 6.9% decrease in the Crime Severity Index. The report focuses on the progress of their strategic plan and the increasing complexity of police operations.
Strategic Planning (59:05 - 1:02:28)
The board discussed the upcoming 2027–2030 strategic plan, directing the Chief to define clear performance measures and resource requirements.
Asset Management (1:02:31 - 1:04:04)
A review confirmed the service’s Asset Management Plan is on track with no current infrastructure gaps identified.
Professional Standards (1:04:09 - 1:15:25)
The Chief provided updates on three Special Investigations Unit (SIU) cases, noting that while no officer misconduct was found, procedural improvements were implemented.
Closing Remarks (1:15:35 - 1:24:29)
The meeting concluded with a somber acknowledgment of recent line-of-duty deaths across the Canadian policing community.
Full Council meeting - drugs in shelters
And amid all this we had a meeting of London City Council this week, progressing all of the various stories and issues of the recent cycle and very much with the election on everyone’s minds.
The main event was the winter response for homelessness, which started with admirable clarity about what services would be offered and when, and ended in abject confusion and even anguish among some members: “We almost had it,” Councillor Sam Trosow kept saying. The discussion went on and on2, amid proposals and amended amendments and more, and the outcome was London City Council ditched its policy on drugs in shelters.
Deleted it. It ain’t there no more.
Don’t get me wrong - this is a municipality, so there are plenty of policies in this area. We just don’t want any rules about drugs, it seems.
Daryl Newcombe, of course, has great reporting on this, and here’s an extract from his main story:
Council voted 9-6 in support of an amendment by Coun. Susan Stevenson to “remove any provision that permits illegal substances to be brought into or possessed within emergency shelter locations.”
That’s all of council voting for Stevenson’s amendment, except Anna Hopkins, David Ferreira, Elizabeth Peloza, Skylar Franke, Sam Trosow and Hadleigh McAlister, who voted against.
Daryl served us with two strong stories at CTV London and he’s obviously my pick for getting the background:
This one is going to take some time to shake out. It’s unclear what the effect will be on shelters and streets, with every org asked to make its own drug policy. We’ll keep watching.
Enough
It’s been another remarkable few days in our local government - and the local journalism ecosystem which we merrily disrupt every day - and we are here for more, all the way up to Election Day on October 26. And those advance polls open on the October 1, oh my.
Thanks again for following The Loon, especially to the 10 subscribers we picked up during the 10 minutes Cedric and I were on-air at CBC London Morning, and the many others who followed through the day. Huge thanks to everyone signing up, and again thanks to CBC London for the opportunity - and look out for us popping up again in local media, always with a public interest message.
That’s plenty for now.
- Mike
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My opener with Denise was “Do you remember me?” It really was a huge surprise to see her.
I watched online. I knew how it was going to go.