Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - City Councillor Candidate for Ward 19 James Dann: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1915

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

On this 1915th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with City Councillor Candidate for Ward 19 - Beaches East York James Dann about why he's running to replace Brad Bradford.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Awesome. This is James Dan, Beaches, East York City Councilor candidate, and I am excited to be here on the Toronto Mike podcast on this beautiful Thursday morning. How are you? I'm just watching your body language to know when you're done that wonderful intro, because I'm going to hit the opening theme. Welcome to episode one. 1,915, 1915 of Toronto-Miked, an award-winning podcast,

proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great LakesBeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma Pasta.com for more.

Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Catch a game at Christy Pitts this summer No ticket required Fusion Corpsoe Nick Ieinis He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline And Mike and Nick Two podcasts that you ought to be listening to Recycle My Electronics.Ca

Committing to our planet's future Means properly recycling our electronics of the past And Ridley Funeral Home Pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut. I'm going to get this right, James. It's city counselor candidate for Ward 19. That is Beach's East York.

James, Dan. I love it. I love the hype up. Oh, man. You know what? Get me in there, coach. Put me in. Okay, James Dan.

My firstborn's name is James. So I already like you. All right. Well, we're off to a great start then. Yeah, I just cycled here from Beaches, East York. I live at Woodbine and Danforth, so I took the waterfront trail across. Beautiful day. You know, this is, I was, because I did a short ride this morning myself, not as far as you, of course,

but I will tell you, this is kind of an ideal cycling day. This is the weather. It's not too hot out there. It's beautiful. It's quiet and serene. You're on the waterfront. Is there any better place to be than biking on that waterfront on a beautiful day like this? Well, we're lucky we have it today because tomorrow is the home opener.

Oh, well, yeah, Canada. It's going to be FIFA Fest. So getting through that whole zone will be a zoo tomorrow. But today is gorgeous. You think there'll be a lot of people making their way to, I guess, Fort York? Is that where it's happening or the Bentway? Yeah, I think that's exactly it. That whole zone will just be flooded from east and west.

And the best way to get there is across the water and on a bike. Okay. You know, I'll have to find out for myself. But I can tell you today, which is the day that the first match takes place, which is Mexico and South Africa. Right after this recording, I'm actually making my way to some kind of a FIFA

branded event thing that I'm going to check out. So I'm going to be biking there. That's near Fort York. Yeah, you're exactly right. That's exactly right. That's the plan here. Okay, so James,

let's set the table here. We need to give some love to a beloved FOTM. Okay, I know him as Professor Prickle Thorne. Do you know this individual? Well, I know, I definitely know Professor Prickle Thorne, and I saw the early days of the professor. The professor worked for me on the Toronto Island. He ran the Toronto Islands.

So he started out as a different person. And he can reveal that name. Yeah, yeah. So Warren ran the island, and Warren was doing all of these bike tours. Every year he'd come to me and say, yeah, I need to take this time off in the middle of the summer. and I'd be like, are you kidding? Like we've got the busiest landmark, the busiest tourist destination.

Yeah, I got to go to Texas. And I got this tree tour. Yeah, I got to go to California. I got this tree tour. Yeah, I got to go to St. Louis. I got this tree tour. And every time he was doing these tree tours, he was starting out.

He was going and he was gradually morphing into the professor because he was becoming a hit. And he put his 10,000 hours in all over these crazy little tiny schools of going out and promoting trees and tree health. And it started to get quirkier and quirkier and quirkier. He added the Lego bow tie and then the hair arrives. So you had a front row seat. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I've seen the whole, I saw the whole like creation of, you know, Professor Prickle Thorn. Professor Pricklethor. Rolls off the tongue. Professor Pricklebone. I have to slow it down. As he says, there's a little prick in everyone.

Yeah. No, Warren's great. He was a great person for me to work with. When I ran the waterfront parks, Warren taught me a lot. Running the Toronto Islands was a real pleasure. The island itself is just such a jewel. Like it is a showcase park for our city. It's so special to get out there and to see,

to see some of the things that have remained unchanged since we were kids to go over and to have that sort of reminiscing. And it feels very other when you're in a. major urban center and then you get out there. And it's, it's so close, but so far away. So I don't, I want to get these facts right. So how long did you, you were, like when you say you ran the Toronto Island. Yeah. What's the title there? So I was a manager of waterfront parks. So I had all of the waterfront parks and not just the island. I had the eastern beaches, uh, and everything in between south of the lake. Did you have sunny side? I did. Yeah.

Okay. Because Great Lakes brewery makes a delicious, uh, summer. It's an I, called Sunnyside Session IPA. There's actually one here. I am sending you home a fresh craft beer from Great Lakes brewery, and you'll love that Sunnyside. Fantastic. Yeah. Sunnyside is such a great West End destination because it's been around for so long,

like people, the iconic photos of people swimming the lake. Over a hundred years. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes there's sections of that building that look like they're over 100 years. And, you know,

the pool when it was sort of dilapidated and falling into the lake. Right. But it is such a great landmark for the west. stand of the waterfront. The beach itself is getting better and better. I love that they're starting to do some music festivals in there. They're doing some fun things. The Grenadier group when they took over the catering did a really good job. There's been some dragon boating out of there. There's been all kinds of water activities that have taken place throughout that zone. And Sunnyside has a real hub for that. Okay. So I had no idea you were running all these waterfront

parks in this city. That's cool. How long did you do that? for James. So I started working for the city when I was a 17 year old. And I worked in recreation. And then I went and did that as sort of like summer work. And then I went away to school at Delhousie, got my two degrees there. And when I came back with my teaching degree, when I came back from traveling, there was Mike Harris was in power and teaching wasn't really a very popular thing at the time. And I just, I went to work for the city full time. So I started as a 24 year old. ended up getting into running Moss Park community and the region park community centers. Sure.

And then from there, I applied for a promotion as a young person and got it, which was great. I was in my early 20s. And I took over as a parks and recreation manager in the west end of the city. So Dufferin Grove, High Park, all of these west end areas. And it was right around amalgamation. And as a sort of afterthought, they're like, oh, James, why don't you run the ferry docks in the island as well? Wow.

So that was, I was about 29. And then I just stuck with it. I absolutely loved it. I switched from parks and recreation to exclusively to parks. And then in around, it was about 35, 36, I saw that the waterfront was growing ahead of a lot of other places. The music garden had just been established, but there was a lot of disconnect between the west end and the east end. And I was watching it unfold. And I said, we really need a waterfront region and a waterfront manager.

And fortunately, the director at the time, he was like, yeah, that's a great idea. And we started to take over and I took over as the waterfront parks manager. So that included the island, the ferry dogs, eastern beaches, western beaches, Tommy Thompson Park as a partner. You got Marie Curtis Park in there? No, that was just west. That was just west. I know we're in the west now. Yeah, so that, so it stopped at the Humber Bay.

We print the legend here. This is the West. Yeah, yeah. So it stopped at the Humber Bay Bridge. Right. So no atobico. No Atobico. It was a former city of Toronto.

There was a little, there was a little bit of a crossover there because Tobico kind of shifted in at certain points within the city. When the high park, when they amalgamated the wards. But, but yeah, I had that for 25 plus years. So you look to me, I feel. I feel like I'm sitting beside a young man, but it is wild to me to think you of that 25 years of experience with the Toronto parks. That's incredible. You had to start young to put in those years. Yeah. I'll be 54 next month. And, you know, I started, as I said, I started really young and I got into management really young. And it was a fantastic thing for me. When I went through, when I went through university, I wanted to be a high school principal. And I was able to get into management at a very young age. And I was a very young age. And I was a, I was really committed to public service and wanting to make the city better. And the thing I loved about parks was a combination of like making the city better,

but also making, you're surrounded by it. It's such an easy win mentally to be like, this is it. I'm making the city better. Bringing in Muscochairs for people to sit in. I'm bringing in beautiful horticulture. I'm bringing in fantastic events.

I'm bringing people to their magic spot. So I really love that and enjoyed that. a lot. Okay, I'm going to segue over to public service, but first I have an order. This is an order from Professor Prickle Thorne who did arrange. He was supposed to co-host this episode. Yeah, yeah. But then I realize now that because I only have an hour for this episode, if I had Professor Prickle Thorne co-hosting. He's very distracted. That's going to, also that's going to run three hours. Okay, who we came. I'd miss the whole, the whole event there. Okay. So I'm going to plug Toronto Island Discovery Tours. Okay. Yes. Go to, and I've done these tours. Have you done, of course. Well, you're Mr.

you know, you don't need the tour, but you know, you can conduct the tour. Yeah. He'll try to bring me on as a co-pilot for him, but no, I did, yes, carry on. Carry on with your endorsement. Toronto Island DiscoveryTours.com.C.A. I'll repeat that, but this is a podcast. You could literally rewind it like 20 seconds and listen again, but I'll say it anyway. Island Discovery Tours.com. I have had the pleasure of having this tour. You learn a lot, but I have one big question before we leave the island and we get into this thing here. So this question I have is from my last tour of the island with Warren Hosselton, aka Professor Prickle Thorne.

There are parts of the island now that wreak because of the cormorants. Are you aware of this, James Dan? Yeah, thanks for throwing me the smelliest bone. on the island. So, yeah, so what happened there in, this is one of those amazing things that I'm amazed it took as long as it did for it to happen. Right. So with Tommy Thompson Park, they had a lot of success. It's the biggest cormorant colony in North America and the only place where they don't call them. So they figured out that. That's an interesting fact. I didn't know that they were being called everywhere else. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because before we even get into your story,

we should just tell people why they stink. It's their guano that they basically they fly. First of all, they are... They're birds. Yeah, cormorants are birds. Okay, yeah, we're going, we're really dumbing out. I'm going to, because you know what, I actually don't think the average person knows what a cormorant is. Yeah, I think anyone has been along the water.

Sure, anyone who's been along the waterfront has seen these black birds. They fly and they, they, they eat. a ton of fish and then they shit all over the trees and they destroy the trees and destroy the tree habitat. So the big colony was out at Tommy Thompson Park. They spent years and years and years managing it and eventually one of these birds was like, well, why don't we just fly? So close. Yeah, why don't we fly under a kilometer west? Right. And look at this. There's all these trees. And so they went over to the basically off of Hanlands and they established over that way. It is a disaster waiting to happen.

It was one of the things we worked with Conservation Authority, TRCA, to try to take all of the measures that they have taken over at Tommy Thompson Park, banging, making noise, waving tarps, taking down dead trees. It's a losing battle out there. I think that the real challenge is that, like organic farmers who have to end up shooting groundhogs, you know, this is a pretty formidable opponent. You're not going to have enough eagle to take out all of these cormorants. You're not going to have enough natural predators.

So unless they want to do something drastic, you're going to see more tree destruction on the Toronto Islands. Okay, so we're not allowed to call these things. Correct. Okay. Warren, I was chatting with him about this, and he said, oh yeah, man, you take a water cannon, and you just blast these guys every day until they move,

on. Well, I mean, excuse me. Have you heard worse ideas? Yeah, I mean, I've heard all, I've heard all the things. I mean, it's going to take something, people are going to have to be a little,

like you're, you're challenging because you're going to have the birder community, which is a really formidable, they really, they really, really want bird life to carry on. Even the stinky cormorants. Even the stinky cormorans.

Destroying the trees. And then you're going to have the yachting community who's paid thousands of dollars, then you're going to have the tourist community, then you're going to have the beach community, then you're going to have the locals. I mean, eventually one of these things, you know,

you start migrating far enough into the island and you're into a residential community, and it's, you know, it is disgusting. It stinks. Like, there's no other way to... I feel I have a high tolerance for bad odor. I don't know what that says about me, but I believe I have a high tolerance.

And I can tell you, that's sickly, that smell that you call it, you know, you called it shit, but it's also guano, I think, is what you're supposed to call this. But it's awful. And there's parts of the island where you don't want to be

because of that smell, but it's also destroying the canopy, the tree canopy. It's just... And there is no documented location anywhere in North America where the tree population has come back

after the cormorants have been through. Whoa. Okay, so you didn't know you were here for 60 minutes on the cormorants. Yeah, I tell you, this is exciting. All right, so let's get to the meat here.

Go ahead. Okay, so I said this in the intro. I'll say it again. You can clarify what it all means. So, You, have you ever run for public office before 2026? No, I haven't. This is the inaugural run.

Okay, so 54 years old, you've got quite a, that Toronto Parks legacy behind you. You said, I think you said 25 years in, and by the way, and I have some fun facts at the end here that came courtesy of Warren Hossleton, but here. So Ward 19, Beaches East York, this is the riding that, the current counselor is Bradford, Yep, that's who the incumbent is at the moment. He is running for mayor.

I heard that rumor. Yeah, yeah. He's only told. Yeah, so he, this is his second mayoral run. Right. But yeah, I'm very interested in this ward. I grew up in the ward. My grandfather grew up in the ward.

So I've been in the beaches east York for 54 years. My parents were school teachers. They met in the ward. I have very, very, very. deep roots in that whole section of being able to knock on door. I've knocked on 6,000 doors already. And it's amazing the number of doors I've encountered where I've encountered someone. They've been like, oh, hi, I haven't seen you since elementary school, junior high high school, or your dad taught me, or your mom coached me or, you know, oh, I think you coach my son's soccer team. I have these

roots already. And that's, that is a really nice thing to have already within the ward. So I live pretty much right in the middle of the ward. The boundaries are Coxwell to sunrise, sunrise to Victoria Park, Victoria Park to the lake. And I live at Woodbine and Danforth. So I'm right in the middle, sort of the right in the Danforth. I'm in between Woodbine and Main Station. And it's amazing the connectivity that I have within the whole of the ward as opposed to just one small section. So why? This is the big question I ask. Everybody who decides to run for public office, why, James, why are you running? Yeah, and that's, and I get asked this at the door.

You're such a good life. Think twice about this. Well, it's the whole bent to go back into public service though, right? You have to have a real passion for making somewhere better. And when you get to make the somewhere better that you live and you're passionate about, it's a natural fit. I've been doing public service now. I started out very early in life.

And I know that you're not going to win over. absolutely everybody. You're going to be, you're going to need to be aware that you are not going to have to have your opinions. You're going to have to go in and say, this is the best I can do. These are the things that I want to focus on and go from there. I know that from talking to all the different people at different doors, you are not going to get everybody on side. You have to focus on some big, ideas and do the best that you can. What you can guarantee is that you're going to be listening to everybody, you're going to be able to say, okay, that's your opinion, this is my opinion, try to talk it through and do that as best you can and be responsive to people.

Okay, I want to know because I have a very good relationship with Brad Bradford. He listens to the show. He's being on the show. He comes to my events. There is an event I'm inviting you to James. It is on, and everybody listening, not just James, but June 25, which is coming up, it's a Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewing. that is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard,

down the street from the Costco, in South Etobico. Everyone's invited, and not only is your first beer on the house, but Palma Pasta is sending over delicious fresh... I almost said delicious fresh craft beer, but they actually make that there at Great Lakes. Delicious fresh pasta for everybody, so if you like lasagna or penny or whatnot, they're going to feed you.

So come hungry, TMLX22. That's the 22nd Toronto Miclistener, experience, June 25 from 6 to 9 p.m. Be there. Okay, so that's my Brad Bradford Spiel, and I hope everybody comes to TMLX. How are you different? How are you going to be different? Like, you're not running against Brad Bradford, but he's being there for a couple of terms now. How are you different from Brad Bradford? Yeah, I think the beautiful thing about city politics is that we're all different. There's not a party-based. It's individuals as you go through. I worked very closely with Brad.

I worked very closely with Mary Margaret before that. I'm still working with both of them. One of the things that makes me very different is that I have lived in the ward for the entirety of my life. So Brad has moved into the ward. Mary Margaret moved into the ward. I've worked with a huge host of, like there's the number of counselors that I've worked with

and mayors that I've worked with has been really diverse. So I know that in order to be successful in this role as a city council, I'm going to have to be working with all kinds of different personalities, all kinds of different people from political stripes. But where I'm different is that I go back so far and deep into the ward in Beaches, East York. Like I just, I have that history.

So I have some knowledge on where things set up, where they, what they used to look like, how they should go forward. There's some major issues coming to Ward 19. There's some real density issues that are coming in. There's been some approvals at Maine and Danforth with 7,000 new units proposed for that area, a real lack of planning for additional community centers, additional pools, additional libraries. It's a transportation hub with the go stop right there. It's still somewhat antiquated. It's got one entrance on the north side. There's not a proper parking lot. There's not a

proper pickup and drop-off zone. The other piece that's there, my park's background of having such an extensive park's background, I know how to get things done at City Hall. I really know how committees work. I know how general managers work. I know how the budget moves around. You can't do it all. Sometimes you're going to have to make some really challenging decisions. And I've seen that. And I'm ahead of other people. I have that work experience. Another way you're different from Brad Bradford, by the way, is you have much better hair than Bradford. Yeah, yeah. I think even Brad would admit that. Oh, of course. He's not blind. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate you saying that. That's, that's very complimentary of you. What do you think of the job that Olivia Chow is doing as mayor? It's

looking, although you have some time yet before new surprise candidates could emerge, but as we speak on June 11th, 2026, it's looking like Brad Bradford versus Olivia Chow for mayor. And should you win a war 19 and become a city councillor, you'll need to work closely with our mayor. How do you think Olivia Chow has done in her, well, you know, her, she had a short term. Yeah, she's got three years. Yeah, three years. So it's a good, it's a good question. And as I was saying, I've worked with...

Only good questions on Toronto, Mike. Yeah, thank you. This is a Metro morning, okay? It's so good that we don't have Warren here because then there'd be some really bad questions. Yeah, I've worked with so many different mares. Like I worked with John Torrey. I worked with Doug Ford.

I worked with David Miller. Well, ready for this? Doug Ford was never a mayor. That's right. I hear that slip. So many times people talk about Mayor Doug Ford. Well, what was interesting, though, is when you worked with Rob, you worked with Doug. So the two of them were hand in hand.

And, you know, and one of the things of sort of knowing that you have to work with people of all political spectrum. So Olivia Chow is not everyone, you know, she definitely has come in and she said, this is what I'm going to do. And I respect that people, when they say this is what they're going to do, Olivia Chow is not changed into suddenly a very different person. Right. So she's had three years to sort of thing. She's as advertised. Exactly. And Olivia is a really, you know, she's a terrific person.

So people can disagree with it. And she's a hard worker. She's a hard worker. She's been in a lot of events and she's, she's had a limited window to try to come in and do the things that she wants in the three years. I know that I could work with Olivia. I know that I could work with Parthi Cannavall is on the other side, John Burn's side, Paula Fletcher. I know I could work with all these people. And so one of the attractions of city politics is that you are drawn to it as individuals. This is not party politics. You have to work together to get things accomplished. And my goals are to get things done. I'm not in this. I want to get things done. I have a history of doing that within the city. I accomplished a lot of things. I ruffled some feathers as I went because I was a get things done person, and I plan on being exactly the same as a politician.

Get things done. Sure. You want to put that on a sign? Yeah. I'll run that by my team. They'll, uh, yeah. You have a team. My goodness gracious.

Okay. So this is, this is, uh, exciting. And so I mentioned your, you're, you've better hair than Brad, but a commonality between you and, uh, Brad Bradford, who you'd be replacing on city council. is that you're both cyclists. So I know one of the, and Brad knows this, and when he comes back on, we'll have another chat about this. We won't do it at Palma's Kitchen, everybody.

Don't worry, Mr. Zweig. But Brad, I'm going to read a quote. This is Brad circa 2022. So we're going back about four years, and this is a quote, and FOTM Matt Elliott dug this up the other day. Direct quote from Brad Bradford, who was a counselor in 2022.

The notion that everyone's going to get their single occupant vehicle and get across town in 20 minutes, it's an antiquated notion. 21st century cities build bike lanes. That's counselor Brad Bradford in 2022. And I think that 2022 Brad Bradford would hate 26 Brad Bradford because Brad because Brad seems to be supporting the removal of some key bike lanes that I'm going to use tomorrow, one of them. The key bike lanes because of Doug Ford.

You slipped and said Doug Ford was. mayor. I don't think you slipped. I think Doug Ford thinks he's mayor today. I think he thinks he's mayor. So I'll let you slide in here. There's a question in here somewhere. I want to talk to you about your thoughts. I think bike lanes is a very important municipal issue and you'll be a member of the council should you win. Give me, and I have a vibe on this, but as I pointed

out, Brad Bradford bikes, but he doesn't seem to be progressive when it comes to bike lanes currently. What are your thoughts on bike lanes and cycling infrastructure in the city of Toronto. So transportation is an issue for everybody. And I'm going to, I'll speak to bike lanes and then I'll speak to other transportation issues because I'm living in a ward that is super rich with bike lanes. Like we have the waterfront, we have Dundas, we have Bluer, Danforth, we have woodbine, we have greenwood.

There's just, there's a plethora of bike lanes already. So there's, there's not, these are not lanes that Doug Ford is talking about. getting rid of. I have a question. Isn't he talk, when he speaks about ripping out the bluer bike lane, does that not include

the bluer Danforth entirety? No, I don't think so. I think my, my understanding was that it was more of the West End. This is a, I had the same confusion

because I thought it was like, I don't know, West of Shaw or something. I can't remember, or West of Jane even, but I actually, somebody in the know, and I wish I could cite this person,

but somebody who, I think, wrote, rights for the Toronto Star, but I don't want to name the person in case I had the wrong person. Somebody pointed out that actually it's the entirety of the bluer slash, Danforth bike lane.

Well, okay, so are we going to talk about bike lanes? Are we going to talk about Doug Ford? Because Doug Ford, there's been a lot of riddling negative things. We have time for both as it turns out. Okay, so let's start with bike lanes and then we'll circle back to Doug Ford. So bike lanes and transportation. So I am a commuter cyclist. I'm not a weekend warrior, get on a carbon fiber, throw on a spandex suit.

And, you know, I have lots of other activities I do that way. So I have found it an essential way of commuting, getting from Woodbine and Danforth to the downtown. And it's fantastic. It's gotten better and better as a cyclist. The Danforth bike lane, I think is great. Dundas bike line is great. The waterfront bike lane is great. All of these things are great as a cyclist. They're definitely something that I make use of and a lot of people in Ward 19 make use of. Transportation, however, is is completely broken in our ward. When they remove the Gardner off ramp and on-ramp Gardner Lake Shore, it has just created. an absolute hell on wheels.

It's disaster to get out of the east end of the city. You're stuck for 45 minutes trying to get onto a Jarvis on ramp that is like, it's a joke, it's a joke. There's no other way to describe it. And people are trapped at Island in Ward 19. Also, when people are coming out of the downtown trying to get back, they're stuck at this Jarvis off ramp, which is dangerous. And then they're saying, okay, I'll go up to Don Mills Road.

This is placed a huge brink, burden on people in the East York area because there's more traffic going up that way. So those are like that's such a more major issue for my word than bike lanes. Bike lanes are an issue for across the city. But the decision that was made downtown through Waterfront Toronto and the city of Toronto in 2015, 16, the removal of those ramps in 2021 pronounced effect on transportation in my word. The second thing that's there is the streetcars.

Yeah. So the street cars in the subways right now. They're getting underutilized for what the asset that we have, billions and billions of dollars of investment in these streetcars and the subways, that are also occupied and not always clean, but there's homeless that are riding them in the winter. There is mental health issues that are going on, particularly in the subways.

You're getting people feeling unsafe. And that lack of safety and reliability, people are feeling like, I don't want to take the subway. I don't want to take the street car. that is a bigger issue than bike lanes because then you're having people say, I don't want to take that. I'll take an Uber.

I'll sit in an Uber and I'll wait. And that is just adding another car to the road that is stuck in traffic. So you're keen to get people out of their cars? I'm keen to get people moving. Like I, for me, it's great. I just have to transport me. My wife, she does not have that option. When she goes to work, she has to take a car full of,

she's got cooking she's a chef and does food styling so she's got she has all kinds of food styling equipment so she's got a whole kit that she has to take she's got all these groceries she has to be in a car there's there's no option there's no like take the tTC so i'm not keen on getting people out of their cars i can't take my kids to soccer practice hockey practice you know i i can't get them on the bike and say okay you know here we're going to chase cheswood arena people have to use their cars let's be realistic people are using their cars that is going to that will always be the case. It's great to have people use other means of transportation when it makes sense. I live near a go stop, going to Union Station. It's one stop. It's phenomenal. It's the best.

People have figured this out. They're saying, let's take the go. I love that. I think it's fantastic. The subway also great way of getting around. Street cars, when they work, great way of getting around. Public transportation is a key for us for everybody. The more people that find public transportation useful, cycling useful, fantastic. There's still going to be people who use their cars. Do you think Doug Ford is encroaching? I think Doug Ford has a, I think he's got a real bent on a lot of things for the city of Toronto. This, this airport idea is lunacy. It reminds me of when he was suggesting the monorail. This was back when he was a city councilor. I remember monorail. Yeah, it was straight out of the

Simpsons. I mean, right now we've got an off ramp to nowhere and we've got, that's from the Simpsons too. That is. Yeah, I love to. Well, that was, I think, the escalator to nowhere. Right. It was the... And then they, well, that's what it looks like. That's a great episode too. It is a great episode. But, but, you know, you're looking at this island airport. We've just spent one and a half billion dollars on refurbishing the Don River, creating a totally different floodplain, bringing in world-class parks.

And now we're talking about, oh, I have an idea. Let's spend $5 billion to, to extend a runway and bring in jets to the waterfront. We totally alter the housing. It would all, like, where you're living out here, it would be more pronounced in effect, because every single jet would have to come in from the west. You've got a smokestock tower and the unwind that's not coming down that would be in the flight plan. It would be disastrous. So there's number one. Second thing that you have to look at,

it's just the downloading the province is putting on all of the... I was at a conference, all the mayors of Cambridge, Burlington, Hamilton, Guelve, Brampton, they were all speaking about how Doug Ford's costs are going to directly affect the urban living in this province. Like this used to be a Toronto thing. This was a Toronto like, oh, you know, this is happening. This is getting imposed. This is a city thing now.

So if all of these costs are being downloaded onto cities, you know, one of the things that is an unpopular thing to say, but just to maintain or present level, taxes are going to be going up. Provincial taxes are not going to be going up, but city taxes are going to be going up. So it's a real burden that's coming on to the cities. And that's a direct effect of the province. Okay. Now I looked at the list of candidates. And again, more could be added. I don't know when the deadline is, but I think it's maybe in August or something like that. But August 21st. August 21st. There you go. So there is a name I need to ask you about because often when

we're in municipal politics, the more awareness of a name sometimes that helps a candidate immensely in municipal, particularly, I guess in all politics, but in municipal politics, I did notice that Natalie Johnson is running to replace Brad Bradford. So Natalie Johnson, if people don't know that name, she is a CTV reporter slash anchor. You could call her a celebrity candidate, right?

Would you call her a celebrity candidate? I think so, Natalie Johnson. Any concerns that people might just say, I'm voting for the lady I see on TV? No, I'm not concerned. And the reason I say that is I can only control my own work. I can control what I can control. And I'm just planning on out working everybody. So I'm focused on my own campaign. I'm focused on my history that I have of both living in the ward, the work that I know I can put in, the work that I have put in, the fact that I've already done all this at City Hall, you can be a personality of any kind that you want. But if you don't know how to get things done and you don't have ideas, you're not going to call it. I know what I can control and what I'm controlling is my own work ethic. I know that I have a strong work ethic and I know that I'll let work people. You're going to be knocking on the doors. You'll be putting in the work. I already am. You can't worry about what. I already am. I mean, I put my papers in the

very first day. We, and I say we, because I have an excellent team. I'm surrounding myself with the smartest people I can and they're helping me with everything from marketing, T-shirts, websites, communications. Like we sit down and we talk about all these things. But the main thing that I'm doing is I'm getting out and knocking on doors. So we're six weeks into the campaign. I've knocked on 6,000 doors. Six thousand doors.

I've gone to people's homes. Let me see the calluses on your knuckles. Right, exactly. It's the ring doorbells. Those are the big ones now. Yeah. And getting out and talking to people and that and that's important. That's the most important thing that you can do.

There's all kinds of things. Yeah, you need a social media hit. You need to show up. events, but you need to talk to people at the door, and that's what I'm doing. I'm going out and I'm talking to people and I'm outworking people, and I know that part of that is going to people and talking with them and asking, what is it that, here's what I'm, you know, here's what I'm focused on, I'm focusing on parks and public spaces. Great, I have this work history with it. I'm focused on transportation. We've talked about that. Great. People are struggling to get around the work.

I'm talking about making, making the ward more livable every day. So those are the things that I'm I'm talking with people all the time, every day. And when that's resonating with people, that's a real success. So we're going to do a test on Toronto Mike. We have a monthly sub-series of Toronto Mike called Toast, Rob Proust. He drives from New York State. And Bob Willett comes from your riding there in Ward 19. And I'm going to have Bob Willett listen to this episode.

And then he's going to report back to me on the next episode of Toast, whether what you've been saying in this conversation has resonated with him an actual voter in your writing. Great. Yeah. That's our big test. A big Toronto mic test. Bob Willett.

He's on Indy 88, by the way. The Bob test. I like the Bob test. Yeah. That's terrific. I mean, that's the kind of thing that the beautiful thing about the ward is that there is some real diversity within the ward.

The commonality of people, the frustrations of what we're tapping into, of trying to get that resolved is like I it's really easy to poke holes in what's wrong it's really challenging to get things fixed and that's where I'm going to be different from a lot of other candidates I know how city hall works where it starts and where it stops and that's what I'm trying to do I'm trying to work with people so they say hey I'm really frustrated about streetcars and cafe TO so am I I get it you know pick one or the other if you're going to have street cars maybe you don't have cafe TO if you're going to have electric buses that replace the street cars then you can

make those things work. Cafe T.O. was brought in. It might be time for a real re-evaluation of that. It got brought in after COVID. I see some of these empty patios. I know that businesses really need them to flourish. But if you can't get home because you can't pass a street car and you can't pass a cafe T.O and you can't move and you're just reaching a breaking point, you're not wanting to go out and have a beer on a patio. You're like, I've got to get, I just got to move. It's driving people crazy. So those common frustrations, you need to be able to look towards solutions, and that's what I'm all about. If should you be a member of council, you may be a, when, when, right, when, you know, you can say when. I have to say you should, but you will be a colleague of Diane Sacks, also an FOTM.

That means friend of Toronto Mike. You're also now an FOTM. Congratulations. Oh, terrific. Thank you. Diane Sacks, and her award is a great park called Christy Pitts. Were you ever in charge? It's not a lakefront.

Is it only the waterfront parks that you're? I was in charge of Christie Picks. I did work with Jack Dominico, and I appreciate that you mentioned the Maple Leafs baseball. I had amazing dealings with Jack Dominico, and I don't think there's too many people who have ever been like him in Toronto baseball history. He used to call and yell and scream at us.

Right. It was just sort of the annual Jack Dominico rant. Well, they named the field after him. Fair enough. The guy was great. I mean, he was so powerful. passionate about all that had to take place there with Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. He was great.

So he's passed away, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, and the family has sold the team. So the team no longer belongs to the Domenico family. But I do have a tip for you and a gift. So this book, this book, this watch, this book is the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. They play at Christy Pitts. And you can take that home with you, James, and learn more about this wonderful history. Amazing, amazing. I loved, I have a similar park in my ward down in Kew Gardens.

It's not as spectacular as the hard ball that gets played, but I know that feeling that people enjoy on that perfect summer night where the lights are out and you're able to watch, you're able to watch baseball. And I know that it's predominantly softball that gets played in Kew Gardens. There's also a really rich baseball history throughout East York. Oh, the Butler, brothers. Oh, okay. I'll tell you a quick

Rob Butler story. Well, one is the manager. Rob Butler manages the team today. I watch them play on Sunday. Everybody should come out to Christy Pitts and catch a game. No ticket required. Grab a beer, grab a hot dog, and sit on that hill. It's amazing. But Rich Butler is now on the coaching staff as well. Okay, so I'll tell you my quick Rob Butler story. When I was in high school, we were playing, we were Malvern baseball, we were up against

East York. And we had a really good season. We had some really good pitching. And I was fortunate enough to play back. And we were up by. See, I say back catcher. Mike Wilner gives me hell. Every time I say backcatcher, he says it's just catcher. But I grew up calling that position backcatcher. I agree with you.

So you and I'm similar vintage. This is, I think it's just like a local Toronto thing or something that we were calling it back catcher. Okay. Well, you know where I was. Anyway, I'm there. That's a shot at Wilner more than you. I look at her coach and he says calls fastball and Rob Butler comes up to bat. He's using a wooden bat in.

high school. The rest of us are using aluminum bats. He proceeds to hit the ball so far that both teams, no one, no one moved. It was like before the bat flip was a thing. The ball hitting that bat, crushing over the Stan Wadlow fence. Right. And not only did he do it once,

he came up and did it again. And East York beat us. And I was like, that guy was on a different level so much better than the rest of us. And then he won a World Series. Well, yesterday, James, I was at the Joe Carter Classic, and I was chatting with Joe Carter himself. Okay.

And, yeah, the 93, when Joe Carter hits the walk-off against the Phillies, that earns a Rob Butler, a ring. He's got the World Series. Yeah. Yeah. The only Canadian-born player to win a World Series with a Canadian-based franchise. It's amazing. And then East York success story.

And certainly, you know, East York baseball is an amazing program that takes place. Stan Wadlow, I don't know how familiar are with that. It's got five diamonds. It's great. It's one of those legacy pieces. And to be able to say that you have produced somebody, anyone who's won a World Series, let alone done it with the Js, it's just a Cinderella story. And get this.

Rich was by far the better power. hitter. He also played in the major leagues, didn't win the World Series, but Rich Butler has more power than Rob Butler. So there you go. That just gives you a little idea of how good the Butler brothers were. Definitely. Definitely different level for sure. So you know how great Toronto Policeball is at Christy Pits. I do want to quickly shout out Nick Iini's. It's funny because he produced a live podcast event for his wonderful podcast, Building Toronto Skyline. I urge everybody to subscribe to Building Toronto Skyline. And his special guest for this live in-person recording was the aforementioned Brad Bradford. And as we speak, the integrity commissioner is looking into the whole thing. So that's a fun fact of, I produced that event too, but that's a fun fact for you here. But last but not least, Ridley Funeral Home, they have sent over a measuring tape for you, James. That is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. You can measure yourself for your casket, although as a fit young, a 54-year-old, might be a while.

Might be a while. Okay. You're going to outlive Brad Jones over there, okay? I realize, I said last but not least, this is a bad habit I have where I keep saying it. David Ryder from The Star was here a couple days ago, and he said, I did this to him when I called him to talk about the John Torrey sex scandal. I kept saying one more question, and apparently I did it for 10 questions.

Okay, so this is the last shoutout. Recycle MyElectronics.com. If you, James, have old electronics, old devices, or maybe old cables, don't throw it in the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill. go to recycle my electronics.ca, put in your East York postal code, and find it where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. You got it?

Terrific, yes. Can we start talking about your albums that are up there yet? Well, yeah, I mentioned these fun facts. This is where we lighten up, everybody. No more of that political discussion there. I'm going to talk about a fact that Professor Pricklethorn told me. He says, you have a vinyl collection that exceeds 2,000 albums. Is that even, is that true?

Yes, it was true at one point. It's down. It's down. Yeah. What are we down to, James? Let's call it a thousand. Okay, so you have a thousand pieces of vinyl in your collection, and it used to be over twice that size. Yes, yes.

So the exciting thing about vinyl people is we never stop, right? So we all have different things that we collect, and I collected records forever. And I had a much more space to sort of store them at a certain point. So when I say downgraded, what I did is I went to one of my local record shops, press on the Danforth. And I went in one with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of records. And I said, don't want money. I just want to trade. So I was able to trade all these old 60s and crazy reggae and all kinds.

Great records, but ones that I wasn't going to be listening to. And I mashed them into more current collection. I also, I've DJed vinyl DJ. Oh, hold on. That's one of my fun facts. Okay. Are you also known as DJ Honeypockets? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a group of people for sure that love me for that. I DJed the Cayley Cottage and Radical Road Brewery. I had regular gigs there. I've also DJed weddings and 50th and second weddings and all kinds of fun things like that. But yeah, so vinyl DJ, not computers, just all records all the time. I love this. Yeah, no, it's a really... We should have led with this, James.

Yeah, we should have kicked right in with that. We could do a kick out the jams at some point. Yes, yes. Well, what I was noting over there was your stars. So I went to elementary school with Torkel Campbell. Wow. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to see them this summer because I got a ticket.

Oh, yeah, they're great. BSS, stars and metric. Yeah. So broken social scene, we actually had them on the Toronto Island a couple of times. So it was really good to see. And whenever they did a Toronto show, it was always like broken social scene on, you know, exponential, because all the members were there. So we did some tremendous shows with them,

seen them from side stage and their whole madness that goes on. Huge live music fan. I try to get out and see live music all the time. I think it's really important to have active and vibrant city to take advantage of that. So yeah, I've always enjoyed seeing live music. I want to play something recorded by Torquil Campbell's brother

mimicking their father. And you'll recognize this as a start. fan. You ready? Yep. When there's nothing left to burn, you listen to Toronto, Mike. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, you set your soul on fire. So my mom is a big, my mom was an English teacher and a huge Shakespeare fan,

so she always loved Torkel's dad for exactly. Is it Douglas? I, well, okay. Yeah, he was a big deal in Canadian theater. Huge, huge. Yeah, and actually Torquil started out he did film, did some film, did some acting. But yeah, it's... And it's funny that you just, I think it's wild that you're talking about Torquil

because Amy Milan, who went to a Tobical School of the Arts, where she was very good friends of, though, some lady named Emily Haynes, you might have heard of. But she now lives down the street from my daughter in Montreal, Amy, I'm speaking of.

So Amy now is like a neighbor almost, like on the same street, just down the street from where my daughter lives in Montreal. So just you're talking Torquil, there's Amy, that stars and this is such a small world. It is. And the beautiful thing about both stars and the broken social scene and metric to a certain extent is just that great Toronto connection, great Toronto music scene. And it's something that we

have here in our city and I think it needs to be showcased all the time. I really love that we have such great music venues. In my ward, I'm fortunate enough to have history, which has become this phenomenal showcase music. facility in the city, but for those of us, they get to walk home from there or bike home. Well, shout out to Robbie J. He, uh, he works at for the chorus, uh, cluster of, uh, podcast now, but he was a long time CFNY guy. And he always talks about being able to walk over and see whoever's there. I don't know, New Order or whatever's playing there. Yeah. Oh, it's been, it's been amazing. It's been amazing. And we've also, you know, we've had

great success with some of the outdoor, uh, Woodbine Park festivals over the years. We've had the Kier played in Woodbine Park as part of, you know, just those kinds of moments when Rufus DeSole played in Woodbine Park, it was transformational for people of a different generation who had never seen that kind of thing and seen how the city can be so creative, so exciting, and their city. And I think that's one of the major things that I would like to be, you know, just encouraging of trying to get that music, art, uh, culture. within our ward and within our city and really, you know, living with it and saying, hey, yeah, it's going to be a little bit disruptive. Yeah, FIFA's going to be a little bit disruptive.

Yeah, the jazz festival is going to be a little bit disruptive. But it's exciting. But it's exciting. We're in a big city. Let's enjoy it. Let's make the most of it. I'm hearing people like, oh, I want to get out of town or whatever. I'm like, I want to get in town. Like, I want to like feel this. It's palpable. Yeah. And if you don't, if it's not you, then you don't have to be there. You know, that's, That's the thing that is such an amazing thing. When you look globally at places that people are like, oh, I love New York.

It's like, yeah, New York City Marathon shuts down that city. Right. The marathon, when it takes place here, people just, they just complain. We've got to find a way to make that work and make it work well for people. We're very good complainers here. I brought you a gift, by the way. Okay, give me a gift because then I want to ask,

you said something before I press record about Maestro Fresh West because there's the 12-inch for Let Your Backbone Slide here. Yes. I bought that in 80s. Oh, I saw that right away. And that is like a guaranteed floor. People hit the dance floor. Even the young people or do you got to be like Jen X?

No, no, absolutely. At my 50th, I actually DJed with that. My parents were out dancing to that. And we were laughing because we were like, they definitely didn't know who myster refreshed. This is a throwdown, a showdown. I love it. I love it.

And they like family affair, Lauren Hill is another one. Like a guarantee, there's a couple of like guaranteed tracks that you can throw on. were like, oh yeah, okay, now I'm dancing. Now I'm moving. Anyway, I brought you, I brought your present. Okay. I brought you a vote James Dan shirt. Okay. Yeah. You didn't like my idea. Let's get a Dan or get a Dan. Yeah, no, there's, it doesn't quite work. You're right. It doesn't work. Yeah. This is great. I will wear it for our photo. Okay, great. We're wearing it, you know, I, you know, as a journalist, I need to be careful and let people know this is not an endorsement. I'm just wearing. Absolutely. Yeah. It's just a really, it's a really good. I

actually am not a journal. That's why I'm not. not a journalist, David Ryder, who thinks I'm a journalist, because I don't want to remain objective. It's a really good blue and yellow shirt, and blue and yellow is not an accidental color scheme. For, you know, the Balmy Beach Club is a core. I was the president of the Balmy Beach Club. I have been a member since I was 14. I've paddled there.

I played beach volleyball there. I still play hockey with them, blue and yellow. And then East York, the Bulldogs are also blue and yellow. So it's a real shout out to the colors of my ward. And also, you know, you're in South Oboba. I'm not from Etobico, but I'm from the west end of Toronto. And I always, I remarked about this of Bob Willett many a time. But it came up with Don Pyle.

That's right. Don Pyle wrote a book about his amazing life and music. He's from shadowy men on a shadowy planet, okay, having an average weekend, you know, the theme song for the kids in the hall, et cetera, et cetera. But Don talks about how he was, he never really, he felt like when he crossed Young Street and went east of young, he was out of his comfort zone, didn't, you know, it's like, It's weird. I still kind of feel that way, and I make a lot of trips to East York, and I do that same bike ride you're going to do right now to get home.

But I think it's funny how Toronto has, like, the west of young crowd and the east of young crowd. It's such a big city, and it's just such a different, different vibe. But I love this conversation because we're really diving deep into East York, and all my visits to see Blair Packham on Mortimer have been fantastic bike rides and great experiences. Awesome. And, you know, one of the major things that I think I would like to accomplish, is actually plowing Taylor Creek in the winter. It's been just, it's been,

there's no maintenance in the winter. No maintenance. So there's the, there's those shoulder seasons. Yeah, there's those shoulder seasons where to put someone in a truck and have them go through and plow it, this is not major expenses to the city of Toronto.

We have the staff. We have the equipment. Let's activate a park like Taylor Creek year round. It's the local park for people, and it's like for low-lying fruit, those are the kind of simple ideas that I think we have to do. We did it.

we've already proven that this can be done. It's done across the waterfront. We started that in the eastern beaches. That was with my staff going out. It was already done on the Toronto Island. It's one person in a truck. That's the same thing that should happen in Taylor Creek. Get them out there, get it plowed, and get it active.

Because any chance we have to get outside and be active, we need to do that. No, love it. And you're speaking to a winter cyclist, and I always, you know, I'm on the waterfront trail here. So I'm like, am I going east or west today? I'm not talking about commuting, but like pleasure rides or whatever. And it's like, oh, I got to go east because they actually do plow and salt the Martin Goodman Trail and I can actually get around. If I go west, it's like forget about it after a snowstorm.

There's no maintenance at all. So you're touching on something very important to me. So I'm just really quickly here on our way out here. Two last questions. One is, that's my favorite move. I'm going to say 20 questions now. But what is your most prized piece of vinyl in your current collection? Or one of them at least.

Yeah. Let's, my most prize possessions that way in the, in the vinyl collection are some of my real original ones. Like I have some original, there's so many. I don't know. I mean, I've got some early Eric Clapton and I have some early blues albums that I rarely play. I have. Howling Wolf? What are we talking here?

I do have a bunch of howling wolf. But it's, it's repressed. I also have some really great house music that we, was that was sort of early releases, early 2000s, some St. Germain, some, some recent, I really like the broken social scene, their original, the original albums that I, just because I was, I was also producing those, helping it with those shows. So to have the combination of like that moment in time and knowing that I was at the show. It really is amazing. That documentary that the guy made,

the guy took all that footage and then BSS didn't want them to make it and then they finally said, fine, go make it. It's amazing. It's an, amazing documentary and it captures that that moment in time so perfectly. There's all kinds of great things. And the thing that I love about my records as a whole is that I love bringing crates to a show and then saying to someone, just pick a record. And I, and they're like, oh, I love this. And I'm like, okay, it's my record. So we're going to have a great time listening to it. But I love connecting with the music people in the room. And that's the best way to do it is if you, if they're able to touch it and able to pull the album out and

it connects them back to when they were 13, 14, 15, 16 years old. It's been amazing. Well, I really enjoyed this chat, man. I'm glad we got to know each other. And I wish you great success. I know you're going to win. You're confident. You need to be.

I'm rooting for you. I wish you the best. All right. Well, thank you so much. It's been a great hour. Yeah, great hour. And what is the ride that you'll be taken back to? I've done that ride, but is this an e-bike or is this a pedal-powered?

So I'm on a Trek super commuter. Eight speed. I have almost 8,000 kilometers on it. It's electric assist. It's a great bike. The ride that I'll be taking, by the way, is back all along the waterfront trail. I'll take that back all the way to the eastern beaches. And then I'll head up the Woodbine bike lane. I love that. See, I don't have the assist, the E assist, but I do, that ride that you're describing, if I have time, I love it so much. Like that is the best ride Just right across the city on the waterfront Right across the bottom It's a great way to see the city

Amazing Bike Tio Shout out to Maestro Fresh West Who left us He does not live in Toronto anymore Well we can still enjoy that What can you do about that as the city councilor For Ward 19

Bring back Well he's a scarborough guy Let your backbone slide day Bring back Meestro Nicero fresh for sure Come on back All right put in your calendar

I know you got a big team behind you But put in your calendar June 25 from 6 to 9 p.m. I know I'm way out of your ward, but there might be people from your ward like Bob Willett, et cetera, that will make the trek to South Atobico. I want as many people as possible

to enjoy the Palma Pasta. And I don't even think I said this during the last hour, James. I actually have a frozen lasagna in my freezer that was sent over by Palma Pasta just for you. Oh, look out. I forgot to even bring up that mind blow right there.

Thank you. Thank you for the T-shirt. My pleasure. My pleasure. My pleasure. And that brings us to the end of our 1,915th show. Go to tronomelmike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Hey, become a Patreon. If you are a patron at patreon.com slash Toronto Mike,

there are no programmatic ads in this episode. It is a programmatic ad free. So become a patron and enjoy that little perk. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. Palma Pasta. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Nick Iini's RecycleMyelectronics.ca and Ridley Funeral Home.

Okay, see you all, so I'm off to this FIFA thing. I'll report back on that. But tomorrow, my special guest is Tim Cherry. Tim Cherry is the son of Dawn Cherry. So there's going to be a bunch of grapes talk. I got questions. This will be very interesting. not miss Tim Cherry on Toronto Mike.

He's in the basement tomorrow. See you all. Then.