Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory

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Sandra Yeung Racco and Gila Martow have now squared off twice in four months in the race to provincial parliament in the Thornhill riding. After a nail-biting race on June 12, with the lead shifting repeatedly between incumbent Martow and local councillor Yeung Racco, an ecstatic Yeung Racco celebrated with friends, family and supporters following her declared win, nudging out Martow by 85 votes.

Only one day later, Elections Ontario announced that it was actually Martow who had won by that same margin and not Yeung Racco.

The result was chalked up to human error — specifically a data entry error, according to Elections Ontario. Their communications coordinator Andrew Willis says that, though these types of errors are common, rarely do they affect the outcome.

“It was obviously a disappointment to learn that Elections Ontario has reversed the result reported on election night,” said Yeung Racco.

But Yeung Racco says she doesn’t want to take any chances, which is why she has requested a judicial recount.

“We owe it to the voters to determine the complete and accurate result.”

“Of 50,090 votes cast, the difference is less than 0.2 per cent of all votes,” said Yeung Racco. “When the results are as close as they were, it is imperative to ensure that every vote was counted properly.… We owe it to the voters of Thornhill [and] all candidates to determine the complete and accurate result.”

Martow downplayed any surprise at the snafu. “They’re very clear, Elections Ontario, on elections night, they say, ‘These are the numbers that we’ve got so far, but it’s not official,’” said Martow. “They always find mistakes. But usually mistakes, they don’t change the outcome.”

Now a judge has called for a recount of the ballots.

“[The Liberals are] worried that there’s something suspicious going on,” said Martow, who does not believe that the outcome will change. In Ontario’s history, the largest difference found after a recount occurred in 2008 in Kitchener-Waterloo, with a difference of less than 40 votes.

Post City will be updating this story on thornhillpost.com or richmondhillpost.com for up-to-the-minute results.

Thornhill’s new & improved parks

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Summer is here and residents are eager to spend their time at our neighbourhood parks. Over the next few months, we are looking forward to completing a number of parks in newer Thornhill communities.

When the city plans for parks, we try to create spaces with active and passive uses and provide a variety of amenities. Park amenities are determined according to the city’s “Active Together” master plan and planned so that a number of active spaces (soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, etc.) are provided.

Recently, the city had official openings for three parks in Ward 4: Forest View Park at 125 Lady Delores Ave., Pioneer Park at 105 Valley Vista Dr. and Heritage Park at 631 Valley Vista Dr.

There are also still two other parks within Ward 4 where the city is doing its utmost to work with the contractors to have these projects completed as quickly as possible.

Please remember that park completion entails that all deficiencies are rectified and all safety and certification requirements are met.

Parks under construction include Spring Blossom Park, on Apple Blossom Drive, as well as Mill Race Park on Thomas Cook Avenue. We hope to have these parks opened this summer. Although I am as eager as anyone to see the completion of the many parks within Ward 4, please remember that construction time frames are weather dependent.

For information on this or other topics, feel free to contact my office at 905-832-8585, ext. 8342, or email me at [email protected].

If you are interested in receiving e-newsletter updates, please contact my office.

Thumbs down to Baif project

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This is the second attempt that Baif Development has made to get their development proposal approved on the lands bounded by Harding Boulevard West, Addison Street, Yonge Street, Atkinson Street and Hopkins Street. Both times Baif Development failed to recognize the importance of the location, the town’s official plan and the concerns raised by the area residents.

In my opinion, as the ward councillor, they should eliminate the development along Addison Street, in order to create more green space, and also eliminate a block wall in front of the residents living just west of the development.

Also eliminate the two streets connecting east-west from Yonge Street to Addison Street to create more green space, walkways, an area for park benches, tree planting and gardens.

A greater setback along Yonge Street must be created in order to maintain the view of the church steeples just north of the development and provide better visibility of the future town hall at the southwest corner of Major Mackenzie Drive and Yonge Street, and not to mention that the development of those lands will affect the rejuvenation of the old part of the town.

These are the most important lands in the town of Richmond Hill and must be protected.

Thank you, residents, for attending our meetings to address your concerns for the second time, and thank you to town council for denying the application and for directing town staff to defend the town’s position at the OMB hearing commencing on Sept. 30.

Local festival celebrates fifth year

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I already know where I’ll be eating every Friday night this July. Deciding what to eat will be the more difficult choice.

Cultura, the festival I founded in Mel Lastman Square, has become known in recent years for its fabulous musical performances, the entertaining buskers, the strolling musicians and the award-winning films.

But in the beginning, five summers ago, it was primarily a food festival, and international street food remains one of its greatest attractions. This year, we are adding several new vendors to an already-strong lineup.

Gilaneh, a fine Persian restaurant, will introduce you to some excellent examples of food from Iran. Soul Smokin’ will have pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches, topped with apple coleslaw. Bet you can’t eat just one! Crepes-a-Go-Go will offer a variety of fruit, vegetable and meat-filled crepes. Banjara Indian Cuisine, offering some of the best Indian food in the city, will return this year, as will Sunshine Shakes, which has been with us since the beginning, serving pure fruit smoothies.

Malaysian kitchen, a new vendor with a less-familiar product, will serve murtabak, a close cousin to the South Asian roti.

Friday lunchtimes — 12 noon to 2 p.m. — offer a mini Cultura, with sponsor St. Louis Bar and Grill serving its signature dishes on Yonge Street. Some surprise lunch hour programming is still in the works.

Cultura opens Friday, July 4, and continues July 11, 18 and 25. Food is served, starting around 6 p.m. and continuing into the evening. For detailed information, visit our website at www.culturafestival.ca.

Uptown burglaries a concern

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I recently pulled together a well-attended Ward 25 community safety and crime prevention night in response to a number of North Toronto break-ins.

The heads of Toronto Police Service’s 32 and 53 Divisions –—which cover Midtown, Lawrence Park, the Bridle Path, York Mills and beyond — as well as the Special Investigations Unit came out to Ward 25 to answer questions and discuss helpful home protection and safety tips.

Our expert panel explained that residential break-ins trend upwards during the warmer months thanks in large part to summer vacations.

As the season gets underway, I wanted to share two important and little-known home security tips that caught the audience’s attention at my community safety and crime prevention night.

Firstly, burglars sometimes pose as home maintenance works. That’s why you should do your homework before hiring anyone to help out around your home, and don’t hire anyone who comes to your door without supplies, business cards and references.

Secondly, neighbourhood crimes are often connected in surprising ways that you wouldn’t expect. That’s why you should report all crimes and break-ins, even when nothing is stolen. It will help the police track criminal activity and respond to crimes before they happen.

If you want to see the full run down of top safety and home security tips from the experts at 32 and 52 Division, head to my website: https://jayerobinson.ca/community-safety-forum-recap/.

Midtown’s first community garden

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In 2012, I held a participatory budgeting meeting asking Brentwood Towers, Deer Park and Chaplin Estates residents how they would like to allocate Ontario Planning Act, Section 37 funds to improve Oriole Park. This allowed local residents to directly select the amenities they wanted for their local park. Descriptions and a short summary of options were provided with city staff on hand to answer questions. One of the top choices the community voted for was to create Ward 22’s first community garden.

Oriole Park abuts several of the highest density communities in Toronto. Most of the residents in these high-rise towers have little opportunity to garden at home. But this initiative is about so much more than the few tomatoes participants get at the end of the summer.

Community gardens are a vehicle for new friendships. They offer a chance for seniors to do a fun social activity. Planting vegetables is also a great chance for our urban kids to learn about planting first-hand.

Last month, after almost a year of hard work, Carolyn Bennett, Eric Hoskins, community members and I opened the garden. I’ve enjoyed visiting it and seeing it grow ever since. I want to acknowledge local merchants who contributed to our opening, including the Mad Bean Coffee House, Bite Me Gourmet Hot Dogs, Rachel’s Coffee House, Fanfare Flowers and Sheridan Nurseries.

This garden would not have been possible without our tireless volunteer committee who worked with me and city staff from the beginning to create the garden and to now ensure the new planting beds are properly maintained.

Table Talk: Joanne Kates reviews Soos

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I eat around. Familiarity with other parts of the world allows me to say with certitude that in Toronto we have the most choices in Asian food of any city in the world. Okay, so the Thai food is better in Thailand and the sushi is better in Japan.

But outside of an Asian cuisine’s home country, we’re not to be outdone. You can see it in the food stores as well as the restaurants. Where else in the world do mainstream supermarkets sell lemongrass and tamarind and lime leaves?

But Malaysian cooking has been under-represented. The Soo family had the estimable MataHari on Baldwin Street for 13 years, but sold it. They’ve now reopened on Ossington at the epicentre of hipsterland, a sweet cosy boîte called Soos, with two rooms. The front room has one wall done in oversize black-and-white stripes with the word Soos in huge print, and the back room is cool in a whole other way: It’s a semi-private table for 12 (think party!) with red chairs and walls papered in elaborate retro print.

The food is from the Chinese-influenced part of Malaysia, the tendencies gently fusion, the prices easy on the wallet. As in pulled chicken tacos in miniature soft flour tortillas, the meat scented with lemongrass. Their satay is some of the yummiest in town, super-tender chicken and beef served with chili-kissed peanut sauce.

More Thai feeling is the slaw made from green mango with sweet red pepper, carrot shreds, toasted peanuts and sesame seeds, with fried shallots on top and ample heat from chilies. All over Malaysia they serve laksa. It’s a soup/stew that recalls the khao soi of northern Thailand minus the deep coconut creaminess of khao soi. Laksa is a curry with just a hint of coconut, in this case with chicken, shrimp and tofu (all nicely cooked), both fat and thin rice noodles and the scent of galangal, turmeric and lemongrass. And some heat.

One doesn’t think of dessert as being a strong suit of Eastern cuisines, but Soos does an astonishing Asian version of crème caramel: They flavour cream cheese with coconut, sweeten with gula mekala (Malaysian for palm sugar) and bake it in little ramekins for a result at once creamy and loaded with flavour. This is not your deli cheese cake.

And Malaysian is not your easiest Asian. The cuisine lacks the sweetness of Chinese food, the thick coconut creaminess of Thai curries, and the sexy raw fish mouth feel of Japanese. Which may partly explain why Malaysian cooking has such scant traction in Toronto. And why the other Ossington bistros seem so much more busy than Soos. But I for one am a little tired of some of the more obvious Asian cuisines as they’re interpreted here, and am happy to be turned on to the subtle pleasures of Soos.

SOOS, 94 Ossington Ave., $35 Dinner for two

Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine.

Students from Branksome Hall and Bishop Strachan School awarded for saving a life

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In the beat of a heart, things can change so fast.

Two Branksome Hall students and their friend from Bishop Strachan School learned that lesson the hard way after helping to save a soul thanks to their quick and knowledgeable application of first aid and CPR.

Branksome Grade 11 students Morgyn McKerlie and Claire Stirling, both 16, and Bishop Strachan Grade 12 student Samantha Teasdale, 18, were recently awarded by the Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and nominator Nick Manos for heroic actions.

The trio were taking their lunch break from swimming instructor classes at a café near St. Clair Avenue and Dufferin Street in mid-December when an elderly man came in. They explained that the man, who had sat on a walker, collapsed backwards to the floor, gasping for air and turning purple.

Well versed in CPR, through the swimming courses they’d all been taking for several years, the three went into action, controlling the chaotic scene of people milling around and attending to the stricken man. Teasdale said she and McKerlie set about compressions while Stirling controlled the scene and ran back to the centre to retrieve its defibrillation machine. The café owner dialled 911, and while EMS was en route, the threesome was able to get the man breathing again.

“You wonder, if the [life-saving] situation ever comes up, will I freeze, will I be able to do what I need to, and we did,” Teasdale said.

“I think all the training we had drilled into our heads helped; we knew what to do and just did it,” added Stirling.

Level three paramedic Manos, who was one of the EMS responders to the call, said their actions should be an inspiration to everyone to get training in CPR.

“It cannot be overemphasized enough that speed (in giving CPR) is so vital,” he said. “The only reason this man had a chance at survival is because of what these girls did.”

Local dad creates charity children’s book during cancer treatments

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Thornhill’s Fred Levine loved writing and illustrating stories about his family — which includes four children, three of whom are triplets — long before his diagnosis with brain cancer three years ago. Since then, he’s turned his hobby into a passion, and one serving a greater cause.

“Illustrating and writing have been like therapy for me,” said Levine.

Levine has been undergoing treatment at the Gerry & Nancy Pencer Brain Tumor Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital. Filled with positive things to say about the Pencer centre, Levine decided that he’d give back to them in the best way he knew how — and that’s what led to the release of his book Triple Trouble: One Good Deed Deserves Another. The book is written in verse and is from the point of view of his eldest daughter, Jordyn.

So far, 100 per cent of the book’s sales have helped to raise more than $3000 for the Pencer centre. Levine says it’s the least he could do: “The Pencer centre is just first class. They have a wonderful reputation.”

Levine says he’s happy to help, and the books (he has future editions planned) are a good distraction from his daily life. Not being able to work since the diagnosis would have been challenging without a hobby.

“I had to keep myself from going crazy,” he said. Now he’s completely immersed in his work. “Sometimes the kids are kind of like, ‘Where’s Daddy?’ And their mom would go, ‘Oh, he’s downstairs colouring.’ It’s just like I’m another kid.”

He said his family has been very supportive and held up strongly throughout the chaos. “They’re proud of me,” he said. “I love these guys. I’ve got four really terrific kids. I really scored.”

The book doesn’t focus on Levine’s illness at all, but with its message of paying it forward, the story is still a strong reflection of his journey. “When you help someone out / You get this great feeling / Your head grows so big / It reaches the ceiling / And it doesn’t end there, / ‘Cause they feel it too, / And they’ll pass it along, / To somebody new. / Here is my point, / And it’s not so outrageous, / When you do something nice, / The effect is contagious.”

The book is available for purchase on the Pencer Centre’s website, www.pencerbraintrust.com.

Eglinton shops could receive tax relief

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Business owners and local business improvement area (BIA) representatives are hopeful a tax relief proposal presented to Toronto City Council, in part by Ward 15 councillor Josh Colle, gets approval.

The proposal, called All Pain, No Gain, hopes to quell the financial strain on businesses facing harsh times due to major construction.

“People along Eglinton are already living through a lot of construction. Everyone is ecstatic about what is coming [once LRT construction is complete], but people are starting to really feel the impact of less traffic, and the real meat of construction hasn’t started yet,” Colle said. “We’ve got to look at creative ways to deal with this issue.”

He said that if the proposal is approved, the city would look to defer taxes on those businesses impacted by major construction as a way to mitigate the dwindling traffic in those zones.

“I give so much credit to the business owners and the BIAs along Eglinton for what they’re dealing with,” Colle added. “People there need these improvements but we have to find a way to lessen the [financial] load on them during construction."

Alan Pintaric, chair of the Upper Village BIA, said tax relief during the construction would be most welcome by his organization, saying there already has been a 30 per cent drop in shopping traffic for his member businesses.

Lorna Day, manager for Eglinton Connects, a City of Toronto planning study of the area, said, if successful, the relief would be a welcome help. She said provincial transit agency Metrolinx, in charge of the LRT construction, has done a good job assisting business owners with signage. She added, however, that shopping traffic is still slowing as more people avoid the region all together.

“This would be a huge benefit to the merchants right now,” Day said.

The proposal, put forward by Ward 30 councillor Paula Fletcher and seconded by Colle in early May, still needs to work its way through the council approval process, but Colle said he is hopeful it will be approved later this summer.

Richmond Hill going green

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In Richmond Hill, we’re proud to be known for our efforts to protect the environment. From our use of energy efficient lighting and solar power to our work to connect green spaces and reduce waste, we continue to find ways to manage our natural resources wisely.

Our new environment strategy, Greening the Hill: Our Community, Our Future, is an important step in building the sustainable town our residents desire. Developed in partnership with the community, Greening the Hill will build on the many successful, award-winning environmental initiatives already underway and create new opportunities to enrich our local environment.

Our vision is for Richmond Hill to be a community that protects, enhances and restores its natural environment. Over the next 20 years, we’ll work toward achieving this through responsible development, sound management and community programming. This means many things, such as developing an urban forest management strategy, introducing waste reduction measures to help reach region-wide goals, as well as building on public education programs.

All of this and more is outlined in an implementation plan, which will help us reach our goals and track our progress through an environmental scorecard.

We can all do our part to protect the environment, whether it’s recycling more, saving energy or conserving water. Making small changes can make a big difference. Together we can build a more sustainable Richmond Hill.

Learn more at RichmondHill.ca/ environment.

Two Yonge-Eglinton towers headed to OMB

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Local councillor Karen Stintz and residents around the Helendale Avenue and Yonge Street area are still hopeful two proposed tower projects there will be combined into one.

One project, at 31–37 Helendale Ave., by the Pemberton Group, proposes a 24-storey residential building with 231 units and four levels of underground parking. The other, just to the east of the first at 2360–2378 Yonge St., by Knightstone Capital Management Inc., proposes a 28-storey, mixed-use building with 147 parking spaces in five levels of underground parking.

Due to Toronto City Council’s delay in making any decision on the proposals, both went to Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) preliminary hearings earlier this year, and another preliminary hearing is set for later this July. Coun. Stintz is getting less hopeful as those hearing dates approach, but she stands by her desire to see the two proposals combined into one to lessen the impact on the neighbourhood.

“This kind of development is just wrong.”

“This kind of development is just wrong. We have an opportunity to build something remarkable there for the city, but as these are proposed, it’s completely unsatisfactory,” she said. “The city has expressed what a consolidated solution may look like, but at this point it’s still going to the OMB.”

She said the height of both towers is a concern, and she would rather see a single, consolidated tower constructed with about a 10-storey maximum at the Helendale-Yonge intersection, stepping up in height along Helendale to 20 or more storeys. Stintz said she has concerns the current plans would cast too much shadow on the neighbouring patios and added that neither proposal has enough setback from the street. SERRA (South Eglinton Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association) member Terry Mills said his organization is concerned about protecting public realm. He said that by consolidating the proposals it would eliminate the need for things like multiple parking garage or lobby entrances, which consume public lands.

“We have quite a cluster [of tower proposals] around this intersection, and you have to wonder if the infrastructure can handle it,” Mills said.

Representatives from the developers did not return calls by press time.