By John Lorinc
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LORINC: The back-channel lobbying of residents’ associations
Should residents’ associations be required to register as lobbyists? This loaded question, as it turns out, was canvassed, sort of, by council about...
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LORINC: Doug Ford’s electrification plan is actually a gas-powered climate nightmare
It being election season (and Earth Day), the Ontario government news releases are arriving a dime a dozen right now, and many seem to feature the...
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LORINC: The horrible lies of Pierre Poilievre’s real estate lessons
Why do we have a housing crisis? Let me count the ways: Low interest rates, restrictive zoning, permissive zoning, contractor shortages, building material...
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LORINC: Unspooling the rhetoric about ‘red tape’ and urban planning
There are few things more certain about political rhetoric than the appearance of conservative shibboleths about “red tape” come election...
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LORINC: Holding an easily re-electable Mayor John Tory accountable
Elections matter, as the old rule of thumb goes, but maybe some matter less than others? It certainly seems, at this point, that Toronto’s 2022...
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LORINC: NIMBYs vs Garden Suites, Season 2
Here’s an odd little mystery about a freshly filed appeal by a residents association coalition of council’s new “garden suites”...
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LORINC: Trying to police the way cops use AI-based investigation tools
Late last month, the Toronto Police Services Board released a new policy meant to guide the agency’s future procurement and use of artificial...
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LORINC: In praise of low-tech crowd control to thwart the trucker convoy
Like many angry and aghast Canadians, I felt deep satisfaction this past weekend watching the images of ordinary Ottawa residents blocking the route of a...
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LORINC: Debunking the misinformation about garden suites
While most people were riveted last weekend by the wretched spectacle of extremist-palooza in Ottawa, the busy beavers of the tiny world of ratepayer...
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LORINC: The paradox of the City’s new sidewalk snow removal program
A question for the immediate aftermath of the heaviest snowstorm in ten years: Following years of resident complaints and half-hearted lobbying from...
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Growing up in Eb Zeidler’s Toronto
For the record, I did not attend the infamous Teenage Head concert in June 1980, which turned into a melee, which became an excuse to shut down the...
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LORINC: Is the City of Toronto’s buffed up climate plan just hot air?
I’ve expressed this frustration before (here and here), and I suspect I’ll express it again: watching Toronto City Council’s response to...