The confetti's been swept from the campaign room floor, but a whole new mess awaits Toronto's new city councillors. While their terms won't officially start until Dec. 5, the rookies are busy getting the lay of the land so they can hit the ground running. For Gord Perks, newly-elected to Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park, that means a whirlwind tour of local community and business groups. "Invitations are coming in at the rate of, oh, one every 15 minutes or so," he said last Friday evening. For many new councillors, meet-and-greets will be the primary initiation into their new job. Aside from ...

Miller won 42 of 44 wards [Globe and Mail]: "The two exceptions were in the former North York. In Ward 26 (Don Valley West), Ms. Pitfield's home turf as a city councillor, she outpolled the mayor by a slim margin of 227 votes, and in Ward 25 (Don Valley West), she edged past by 53 votes." A new face for a new era [Toronto Star]: "By relying on Armenian, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Turkish, English, Korean, Italian and Tamil-speaking volunteers — embodying the ward's diversity in his team — Kanapathi achieved what no other Tamil Canadian had ever done: ...

The losers: Chretien syndrome spreads to mayors [National Post]: "The cause-and-effect of the former prime minister's affliction was to take his initials a tad too seriously -- clinging to divine power for one term too many, which denied him a retirement date of his own choosing." Mayors will cash in on the way out [Toronto Star]: "A dozen mayors in the Greater Toronto Area are now out of a job.... But, for most of them, the paycheques will keep rolling in, since they're eligible to collect tens of thousands of dollars in severance pay, including pensions and benefits, from ...

Ootes political future lay in a box in a trunk of a broken down car [Globe and Mail] The tightest council race in the city hung in the balance for hours on election night after a volunteer poll worker left a voting machine in his broken-down car instead of taking it in to be processed. It took city election staff two hours to track down the machine that ultimately rescued the night for veteran Councillor Case Ootes of Ward 29 (Toronto-Danforth). City spokesman Brad Ross said the deputy returning officer was supposed to take the fax-machine-sized device to the ...

Miller's challenge [Toronto Star]: After his victory, Miller called for a "1 cent share of either the Ontario provincial sales tax or the federal GST as well as long-term sustainable funding for transit." Last easy victory for Miller [National Post]: "Mr. Miller’s second term is already fraught with challenges. His supporters are disaffected, his relationship with the federal government is strained, and his agenda, while modest, could be easily derailed. Worst of all for Mr. Miller, there are already political upstarts mulling bids to unseat him in 2010." Miller keep Toronto mayoralship [National Post]: "With 98 per cent of ...

Mayoral: Candidates play to strengths [Toronto Star]: "In a final push for votes, Toronto Mayor David Miller and his main challenger Councillor Jane Pitfield fanned out yesterday to where their support is strongest — Pitfield in the suburbs and Miller in the downtown core." Contrast in styles at campaign's end [National Post]: "While Mr. Miller focused on meeting residents one-on-one, Ms. Pitfield appealed to voters by the hundreds. In addition to participating in the two debates that the Mayor missed and the Santa Claus parades, Ms. Pitfield attended a church service." Campaigning as the clock winds down [Globe and ...

City: Race you to the bottom [Globe and Mail] A roundup of the wild and wacky in an otherwise "ho hum" election. Municipal races to watch [National Post] Wards 14, 17, 20, and 21, according to the Post. For one struggling city, two visions of the future [Toronto Star]: "The Toronto envisioned by Miller and Pitfield would be two very different places. Under Pitfield, Toronto will develop a results-driven business approach to governance.... If Miller runs the city, it will be a softer, gentler place." Ignoring the election's 'elephant in the room' [National Post]: "The unspoken elephant is that -- ...

Li Preti backer voted ineligibly in advance poll [Globe and Mail]: "A supporter of Councillor Peter Li Preti's re-election campaign in Ward 8 has acknowledged voting improperly in an advance poll." Who will pay for promises? [Toronto Star]: "Jane Pitfield would have her work cut out for her to find the money for $77 million a year in new programs, says Toronto's outgoing budget chief. And David Miller faces the same problem finding money for his initiatives, although they are more modest than Pitfield's, at just over $12 million a year, said Councillor David Soknacki, the budget chair, who ...

Mayoral coverage: `Tomboy' Pitfield is sacrificial ram of politics [Toronto Star] Jim Coyle investigates the "tomboy" theme in media coverage of Pitfield. Surely, it does not bode well locally for the goal of attracting more women to politics and improving the tone, depth and quality of political debate when the best that can be said of an aspiring female candidate is that she both acts like a man and, in fact, owns what was once regarded as a key part of that gender's defining hardware. Cost of a Pitfield City Hall [National Post]: "With four days left until Torontonians go to ...

Ward 42 all-candidate meeting set for Nov. 9 [Scarborough Mirror] Malvern residents and others in northeast Scarborough will get a chance Nov. 9 to compare their candidates for school trustee and city council in Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River). The Malvern Community Coalition hosts Malvern Votes! an all-candidates meeting from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Malvern Community Recreation Centre, 30 Sewells Rd.