Philip Alves

This may well be simultaneously the best song and cartoon of all time. No, that’s too wishy-washy. It is both the best song and cartoon in the history of everything.

The new federal Thornhill Liberal nominee says the ruling Conservatives talk a good game but the time for talk is over. Karen Mock, an educational psychologist and consultant with a history of dealing with issues of human rights, hate crime and diversity, replaces former MP Susan Kadis heading into the next federal election.

Donald (Chic) Milne answered his last alarm from Fire Station 2 on Feb. 2, 1974. He drove Pumper 2 from the fire hall at Keele St. and Rutherford Rd. to a house fire on Crestwood Rd. in Thornhill. He died in hospital the next day. Chic was the first — and to this day, the only — Vaughan firefighter to die in the performance of his duties. Thirty-five years later, the station he was based out of has been dedicated to his memory.

I was at an all-day workshop yesterday at the Toronto Star put on by Robb Montgomery of Visual Editors out of Chicago. The entire day was about thinking of ways to present info visually to readers of online newspapers or blogs — and probably just as important to smaller outfits with limited resources, how to that for next to nothing.

This post started out as research for a workshop on the basics of blogging — how to set a free one up, really — that I ran last week for journalism students at Centennial College in Toronto. I focused mainly on WordPress because it’s what I’ve worked with most, but I still wanted to give them options.

The producers of the fifth estate, the CBC’s investigative TV series, called me up one day asking if they could use some photos I shot in early July, 2008, of a protest by Progressive Moulded Products employees after the company shut its doors. I jumped at the chance.

Vaughan councillors agree a report by the city’s task force on democratic participation and renewal is both progressive and practical. But the overall response by Vaughan’s council members to the report’s 16 recommendations was lukewarm.

The beginning of fall is a bloomin’ good time for Vaughan to shine on the national stage. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 4, the city will play host to the 2009 Communities in Bloom National Symposium on Parks and Grounds and its anticipated 800 visitors.

The nine who make up Vaughan’s city council have a new rulebook to play by. Council voted Monday to adopt the Code of Ethical Conduct for Members of Council, a 32-page document that replaces an earlier code first adopted in 1996.

Mayor David Miller, Toronto-Danforth councillor Paula Fletcher and dignitaries from China opened the Zhong Hua Men Archway at Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street East, Sept. 12.

An investigation into the source of a city hall leak has concluded that the mayor, her executive assistant and a political ally “may hold the key” to the mystery. A June 19 report by former RCMP chief superintendent Ben Soave’s investigative firm, Ben Soave Associates (BSA), was commissioned by the City of Vaughan to uncover how and why copies of cheques and other documents were delivered to media outlets in anonymous brown envelopes late last year.

Former mayor Michael DiBiase faces 27 charges stemming from an audit into his 2006 municipal election campaign books. The audit by Ken Froese and Glen Davison uncovered several apparent contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act in DiBiase’s campaign records, including overspending his $120,419 campaign limit by $2,712 and accepting ineligible contributions.