Fellow Londoners, it’s Wednesday again, and that means you hear from me. Welcome to City Hall Notes and its parent company London Ontario Online News, all you splendid subscribers to our feisty little local media start-up.
Many of you just joined in, so I’ll say: this is about the public interest and making our community better. I’m Mike, a communications pro and sometime journalist, merrily disrupting local media and making everyone uncomfortable by pointing out almost none of it is locally-owned. Well, except for The Loon and a few others, of course. This is our tiny-but-mighty news service that gives local people an additional voice and seeks to brief our community, providing good information in a time of troubling discourse.
And this is the Wednesday column, where you get all the twists and thrills1 of local government and related impactful issues in London, Ontario. Mostly it’s City Hall, but we’ll bring in education (see below) and sometimes the world rolls in like a blanket of wildfire smoke and we talk about that, too. The idea is to make you - as London Leaders - watercooler-ready and equipped to make good decisions for our city.
So, amid my delight that I may become more European again, let’s grab a stroopwaffel and check out the latest issues and events popping in this vibrant city where we all choose to live.
How does that sound?
Good, I hope. I’m starting off with something that may be annoying.
100 Stanley Street is saved - wait, what?
You have got to be kidding me. After nearly a decade of argument, expropriation, council votes, bureaucratic process and more argument, London is once again talking about the heritage house at 100 Stanley Street, and now we’re not demolishing it…?
What? I mean, really, what? What?
What?
Let’s try to get this straight. It has been a saga for the ages and I’ll try a quick A.I. par to save my blood pressure.
The city expropriated Nan Finlayson’s property in 2020 to make way for Wharncliffe intersection/rail bridge improvements, after she spent years fighting to save it. Council voted narrowly in March 2021 to pursue demolition rather than pay the rising cost of moving the home. More than five years later, the house is still standing empty and the city has now scheduled yet another public participation meeting, on Sept. 29, to consider a formal demolition request.
It comes with this shocking development, extracted from the CBC story:
“Since that time, the proposed construction method for the CN Bridge has changed, reducing the original justification for the removal of the heritage house from the protected heritage property,” the report says.
“Consenting to the demolition of the heritage house at 100 Stanley Street would result in the irreversible loss of a significant cultural heritage resource,” the report added.
So we can save it? Except the front porch, it looks like. Poor, poor Nan.
Here’s a comment from the retired teacher who went through all this stress and now says she feels “embarrassed” by it:
The now-84-year-old said she still passes by the Stanley Street house on a regular basis.
“Every time I go, I say ‘I’m sorry, I tried.’”
And don’t miss that this is an excellent piece of journalism by CBC London’s Kendra Seguin. Superb work. It’s got me right in the feels.
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Canada meets Europe
Now for different feels: how exciting!
Here’s a BBC report saying the European Union wants Canada as an “associate member”. I used to be an EU citizen but some misinformed people voted to have it taken away from me, and the millions of other British people who believed in the European movement and did not want to lose its enormous value.
This move by Canada towards closer EU links is ironic and delightful to me. Here’s a Guardian piece with background, if you’re interested. (Short version: they printed lies on a bus and people were taken in.) Not in any way local news, though.
I’m all for a unique Canada-Europe alliance and hope it will mean more imports of chocolate from mainland Europe. And I have a university credit in European Union Law from long ago. I have to be able to put that to use somehow now.
What a time to be a city called London!
Break time - let’s do this…
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Labour Council says vote for these 14 people
I had fun in a Timmie’s parking lot yesterday chatting about the London and District Labour Council’s endorsements for council candidates with Fanshawe College journalism student Curtis Stokman, who helped me focused my thinking by pointing a camera at me and asking me really good questions. The outcome2, with further comment from Councillor Corrine Rahman, is here. Thanks, Curtis!
The Labour Council announcement is an important moment in any municipal race, because candidates can get themselves more than a couple of votes by making the effort to complete a questionnaire about issues that matter to the selection committee3. It’s my submission that, in a race where many candidates have little-to-no name recognition, a nudge from somebody’s union can secure a vote. (The Labour Council is an umbrella body made up of members from affiliate orgs, all of a particular type.)
Last time, Curtis tells me, eight of the 15 endorsements seemed to work. I don’t think it’s a guarantee of success but it’s potentially impactful in the whole “vote for me” thing they’re all doing.
All the details are in the release here, and let’s go with CTV London for their moving images here. And I’ll share the full list of endorsements, of whom eight (including ward-switching, not-quite-incumbent Corrine Rahman) are currently on council.
Mayor Josh Morgan - incumbent
Ward 1 Hadleigh McAlister - incumbent
Ward 2 Zack Ramsey
Ward 3 Leroy Osbourne
Ward 4 Tom Cull
Ward 5 Corrine Rahman - incumbent (sort of - currently Ward 7)
Ward 6 Sam Trosow - incumbent
Ward 7 Jonathan Sher
Ward 8 No recommendation
Ward 9 Anna Hopkins - incumbent
Ward 10 Lois Ward
Ward 11 Skylar Franke - incumbent
Ward 12 Elizabeth Peloza - incumbent
Ward 13 David Ferreira - incumbent
Ward 14 Sarah Lehman
So who’s not there? The omission of Ward 2’s deputy mayor Shawn Lewis, a former NDP staffer, may raise an eyebrow, but opponent Zack Ramsay is a former Green candidate and clearly on the left politically, so it’s perhaps less of a shock than it may look.
The others who are missing, and not really a surprise, are Peter Cuddy (Ward 3), Steve Lehman (Ward 8 had no rec made, the questionnaires not supporting one) and Paul Van Meerbergen (Ward 10). Obviously Ward 4’s Susan Stevenson is running for mayor.
Urban League still bringing us together
And we’re still out and about at these Ward events, where candidates answer a series of questions - some prepared, some from the audience - and everybody gets to decide if they’re worth voting for.
Spoiler: this is an excellent way to discern such a thing.
There are ward profiles popping up across the media, now the campaigns are well under way, and Jack Moulton has been working hard at the London Free Press. Here’s his latest, a profile of Ward 14. I may sometimes be a bit snarky about the out-of-town suits who own our local media, but I’ll never get tired of recognizing the great work of journalists in our community, whoever they work for4.
City Hall business this week
Here’s an unusually detailed and technical story about development. Despite it being a wee bit Inside Baseball, it showed up across the local media, probably because there wasn’t a lot of city committee business this week.
Here’s the gist:
London politicians have backed waiving an estimated $553,547 in interest on development charges for Westdell Development Corp’s planned 26-storey, 225-unit apartment tower at 15 Capulet Walk. The developer filed a complaint seeking the waiver after accelerating construction at city hall’s request.
The city asked Westdell to pour the building’s foundation in 2025 to help London meet federal and provincial housing targets. Because the project began only days before a provincial legislative change that would have eliminated the interest, Mayor Josh Morgan argued that Westdell should not be financially penalized for helping the city.
If you want to find out more, Jack-of-the-Freeps did a good job on this.
Municipal news - Lightning Round
The City has launched its annual resident satisfaction survey, if you want to take part in that. LINK
An important piece here: City of London marks half-century with Aaa credit rating. That’s mentioned in Josh Morgan’s campaign platform as an example of how well London has been run.
And the Wright Lithographing Building is to become housing, according to this excellent piece of work, also by Jack, who’s had a great week.
Opinion alert: That’s going to delight the local heritage community, of which I am proudly a part. It’s so pleasing to have hope for that local landmark. It’s a gorgeous bit of architecture.
Education, education, education
Just yesterday I was asked by Curtis (supra) about underreported issues in the election, and I picked education.
It’s a complex issue, with governance held locally and the added layer of provincial intervention, and I am so pleased to see special features from Jack Sutton of CBC here and Heather Rivers Davey of the LFP here, and a piece on EAs and classroom support from Kate Dubinski of CBC London, which is here.
Daryl’s gone Full Letterman
Apparently this is real, and not just a wonderful dream. Daryl Newcombe, CTV London’s City Hall guy and one of the best reporters in town, has his own chat show now.
Well, its a segment, and former mayors Matt Brown (now of The Loon, as known by anybody with a Monday) and Ed Holder are just the start, and I’m so pleased to see Daryl getting into some analysis, and that CTV London is giving this a try.
You can watch it here - it’s called Inquiry Now.
Enough
Keep me awake until September ends because we are having one heck of a busy time. Thanks for following along with The Loon, and for supporting however you can.
Look out for us on local television soon: we’re providing the Q&A panel for the Rogers tv mayoral debate5. That’s a great opportunity and we send our thanks to everyone at Rogers for the partnership.
Do you enjoy The Loon? You can partner with us, too, as a sponsor, a paid subscriber, or in other ways. We want more voices involved and think locals with something to say can make good use of a locally-owned media company like this. Come talk to me, or any of us. And thank you.
That’s it for now. I’m jumping back into the pre-election melee and will be back here with a ROUNDUP of general local news on Friday. I hope your week passes gently, for all things must pass, even if they feel a bit rough in the moment6.
All the best
- Mike
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We call this “overselling it”.
This involves my face, so I cannot watch lest I curl into a ball and expire screaming.
I’ve heard many, many rumblings from candidates who are putting time into questionnaires for various organizations. I hear they have to be selective now, and look for the ones with impact. It takes a lot of time and everyone is tired. It’s September.
My grammar is shocking today.
Recent chats with various candidates produced a number of chuckles as they tried to get hints about debate questions out of me. I was like Fort Knox - totally schtum - though I don’t think anybody will be surprised by the issues addressed when they hear the questions. It’s really obvious what this city needs to talk about.
This was almost scatalogical humour but I chickened out.