Archives /// Matthew Blackett
Matthew Blackett is the publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing magazine.
As publisher, Blackett has helped shape the magazine into one of Canada's top small magazines: Blackett was named Editor of the Year for 2007 by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors and Spacing was named 2007 Best Canadian Small Magazine. In 2006, Spacing won a National Magazine Award for Best Editorial Package. Blackett was recently awarded a 2007 Canadian Urban Leadership Award for "City Soul" by the Canadian Urban Institute for his part in creating Spacing. The magazine has also been awarded international design awards for its layout, photography and TTC-inspired subway station buttons, as well as garnering numerous industry nominations. Matthew's writing on Toronto issues can be found on Spacing Toronto, the magazine's daily blog.
Blackett is a graduate of Humber College's journalism school where he won the Toronto Star Award for excellence in student journalism, Kodak Canada Award for student photography, an Ontario Community Newspaper Association award for digital illustration, and a Columbia University Press awards for student newspaper design. In 2005 he returned to Humber to teach journalism students the finer points of newspaper and magazine layout and design.
EMAIL: matt@spacing.ca
September 19th, 2007
A look at the referendum ballot question
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Referendum Ontario provides us with what the referendum question will look like on election day.
Also check out the widget on the right sidebar that provides our readers with direct links to information on our current electoral system and the proposed MMP system.
Not Toronto-centric enough vs. Too Toronto-centric
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As Torontonians wonder if the provincial parties honestly care about the future of Toronto, voters outside of the city see things differently; they accuse the Librerals and Conservatives of being too Toronto-centric. From the Globe and Mail:
In eastern Ontario, Liberals and Progressive Conservatives seem to be spending as much time campaigning against Toronto as each other.
It's the national political dynamic, writ small.
As they compete for voters' affections in the Oct. 10 election, the two main contenders in the region are hurling the usual invective over the usual issues: Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty's broken promises, Conservative ...
September 7th, 2007
How toxic are the provincial leaders?
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The eco-advocacy group Environmental Defence has released the results on how many toxins exist within our provincial leaders. No word yet why Green Party leader Frank De Jong was not included in this testing. From the Globe and Mail:
Earlier this year, the leaders gave blood and urine samples to environmentalists to be analyzed for chemical contaminants, and according to a report on the results being released Friday, the three men carry in their bodies a bewildering variety of pesticides, residues from stain and grease repellants, and compounds used in plastics.
Progressive Conservative Leader John ...
September 3rd, 2007
Librerals propose February stat holiday
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Libreral finance minister and election campaign chair Greg Sorbara announced that, if re-elected, the Liberals would give Ontario residents a statutory holiday in February. The proposed name is Family Day (seriously).
The new holiday would bring Ontario up to nine statutory holidays, pulling the province even with Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the three territories.
From CBC.ca:
The holiday, proposed for the third Monday in February, would be called Family Day and focused [sic] on giving families more time to spend together.
...
"Ontarians work very, very hard. Ontario winters are very, very long and Ontarians deserve a statutory ...
Candidate lists for all parties
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I apologize right off the top for stating the obvious, but web sites now play a very central part of any political campaign. During the duration of the election, I will occasionally look at what each of the parties are doing with their Ontario-wide web sites and how local candidates are using the internet to stand out from the crowd.
But throwing up a web site doesn't immediately put you in the game -- it has to be functional and easy to use. I believe there are two things voters are looking for on political web sites at this point in ...
November 18th, 2006
Saturday’s links to election news
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The quest for more [Toronto Star]: With barely half the polls reporting, Sean Hill erupts with words nobody wants to hear, let alone believe. "We lost." Gnawing worry in the campaign office dissolves into stunned disbelief. Gulping back tears of disappointment, Alejandra Bravo buries her head in her campaign manager's shoulder as Hill throws his arms around her. "It's okay," she murmurs. "We did everything we could."
Miller's time to take a stand [Toronto Star]: The next 10 to 12 months could be the most pivotal in Toronto's history, and it's up to newly re-elected ...
November 17th, 2006
Jane had a chance for two minutes
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/2bprBuuzwek[/youtube]
On election night, CityTV was the only station carrying live results. At 8:02, two minutes after the polls had closed, they had already declared David Miller the winner. A reporter caught up with challenger Jane Pitfield at her downtown party and asked her a fluff question about what she did that day, followed by this awkward exchange:
CITY: City News is declaring David Miller the winner at this point. You said you would take this loss very graciously (puts microphone in Pitfield's face)....
JP: (Leans back and looks at TV screen behind reporter) They've already announced him the winner?
CITY: Ahh... Yep. We're ...
November 13th, 2006
Live election night blogging
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Mayor David Miller speaks to City TV from the Steamwhistle Brewery
Adam Vaughan at victory party, Super Market in Kensington Market
Miller takes mayoralty over Pitfield. The tightest races turned out how we predicted they would: Perks in Parkdale-High Park (Ward 14), Mihevc in St. Paul's (Ward 21), and Adam Vaughan in Trinity-Spadina (Ward 20).
Most races were decided within 30 minutes of the polls closing. And much to our surprise Diane Alexopoulos, running against crusty incumbent Case Ootes, seemed to have victory within her grasp. At both Vaughan's victory party and at Miller's bash at ...
ELECTION PREDICTIONS: Spacing vs. Globe vs. Sun
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I got together with other two Toronto election bloggers Rob Granatstein of the Toronto Sun's X Marks the T.Dot and Marc Weisblott of the Globe and Mail's Campaign Bubble, to make some extremely unscientific predictions on the mayoral race and the hotly contested ridings of Ward 14 (Parkdale-High Park), Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina), and Ward 21 (St. Paul's).
MAYOR:
Matt Blackett, Spacing Votes
Miller 60%
Pitfield 30%
LeDrew 2%
Bruce 2%
others 6%
Marc Weisblott, Globe and Mail Campaign Bubble
Miller 58%
Pitfield 23%
LeDrew 6%
Bruce 3%
Muir 2%
others 8%
Rob Granatstein, Toronto Sun X Marks the T Dot
Miller 65%
Pitfield ...
November 12th, 2006
City-wide endorsements from local media
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A number of local newspapers and weeklies like to give out their endorsements to specific candidates in specific wards. Spacing has compiled the published endorsements from the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, NOW, North York Mirror, Scarborough Mirror, York Guardian, Etobicoke Guardian, the East York-Riverdale-Beaches Mirror, and the Bloor West Villager. The * indicates which candidate is an incumbent. There are seven wards without an incumbent running. No councillor was acclaimed.
If you want to look up the website of a candidate in your ward, you should check out Who Runs This Town, which lists every candidate in the ...
