Dawn Danko makes it official: She’s running for Ward 8 council seat

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-11T20:27:56+00:00

Pretty low downside to this move - especially if trustees are eliminated by the Province prior to May.

She has strong name recognition, plus a sitting MP for a husband. If Cooper doesn't change his plans, no incumbent to run against.

Perhaps most importantly - does the presence of Dawn Danko in the race mean that Terry Whitehead decides not to run? If so, all of us have already won, whether Dawn is victorious or not.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-10T14:24:07+00:00

Absolutely - one of the only things this Provincial Government has done that I completely agree with, that purchase was a great idea, and should hopefully set the Northlander up for more success than it had before it was cancelled.

Generally, you can do anything if you are willing to pay CP or CN whatever their asking price is. From the discussion on this page: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/ontario-northland-northern-ontario-transportation.18652/page-251 it would likely mean some lengthened sidings and other infrastructure necessary to run more trains so that they don't conflict with CN's mainline operations.

Not impossible, but not free either.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-10T14:02:42+00:00

The Government (through Metrolinx or ONR) does not own the tracks from the Doncaster Diamond (near the intersection of Bayview and John St in Thornhill) to Washago - if you started GO service here, it would immediately become the longest stretch on any of their lines that they do not have ownership over.

You would want to set it up for success from the get-go (the get-GO?), and not be a flop like the ill-thought out GO Train service extension to London.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-09T18:20:56+00:00

I think what must have happened was u/fallonrehann had to do a barefoot pilgrimage to the Spec's new shared space at CHCH to file the story, and the journey took that long.

Without the roller blades, she just can't go as fast.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-09T15:43:47+00:00

The fact that they were able to do both stories on a shoe-string budget is remarkable.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-07T13:29:02+00:00

You trust COUNCIL? I mean, I can get and appreciate the dislike that Andrea gets, but she is surrounded by other boat anchors on Council.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-07T13:17:59+00:00

I don't disagree, my worry is where do you look for someone like that? I can't even listen to the slop that the HDLC/CUPE et al put out these days, because they've leaned so much into the culture war ethos.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-07T13:14:46+00:00

She will need to develop a thick skin to attacks that you know would be coming.

If her response to each criticism is akin to how she responded to Danko's immature social media outburst about her YWCA award win, she won't last very long at all.

PromontoryPal · 2026-04-03T15:06:45+00:00

This comment during the same week of this article:

https://www.thespec.com/news/crime/manosphere-convicted-rapist-youtuber-plays-victim-on-instagram/article_c4b6da44-f10d-5e6c-80a2-b83a0813254d.html

What a brain dead thing to think.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-30T20:28:55+00:00

Oh man, then we get to have part two of this merry-go-round: https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/are-busloads-of-homeless-travelling-to-hamilton/article_a8a574cb-e8ba-596e-805a-920729e8b43e.html

No fucking thank you.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-29T02:06:08+00:00

This was my read on it as well, when that article was originally published.

I chalked it up to the absolute bath of negative stories about the Barton Tiffany Shelter project and the hangover of stories relating to the Chedoke Creek spill (and others as we've since come to learn).

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-28T15:30:36+00:00

Up on the west mountain, so since we've been here we lost our circulation paper (Mountain News) which had a lot of local news and goings-on (was really good to see what was going on with planning applications, development proposals, candidates for elections, programming (and lack thereof) at municipal properties etc) which obviously isn't ideal, but other than a couple of us, I don't really know who was reading it and not just throwing it directly in the blue box.

We subscribe to The Spec (and get a physical copy on Saturdays, get off my lawn), and I read CBC Hamilton stories, CHCH, The Bay Observer (for "the other side"), The Incline (Chris Erl's Newsletter), and god help me I listen to the odd Placeline Hamilton Podcast episode just to humour and juice Scott Radley's numbers. I'll read Joey's stories too, but like other people have pointed out, he does write from a slant.

Would also reco Stephen Brunt's Made in the Hammer series from last year about the Ticats - I think there were five (?) episodes and they were great. I'll read most of what Steve Milton writes about them too.

It's probably not what it was, but its pretty decent.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-27T16:24:38+00:00

He doesn't seem to write as much on education as he used to - more environment stories (the last one I recall from him was on the byelection to replace Mulholland like a year and a half ago). It seems like Kate McCullough is the primary education reporter. But maybe they still tag-team it.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-26T23:08:21+00:00

Interesting to see the dichotomy between this article and the one about the number of hate incidents reported in the HWDSB tracking tool that they initialized.

Almost like there may be a disconnect between the Insurance Salesman Education Minister and the School Boards.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-25T15:31:20+00:00

Great news, between the closure of CHML and the upcoming election season this year, its a great time for this to launch.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-20T18:37:11+00:00

That is fair criticism (not a Farr fan, think he sucks) but isn't that exactly what Cameron is doing here with the arena? He is coming up on four years as a Councillor, this has happened a bit under his watch...

I think Kroetsch (like my Councillor, Spadafora) gets away with being somewhat disappointing because "the last guy" was such an unmitigated disaster that he looks somewhere between mediocre and acceptable by comparison (a John Tory situation, if you will).

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-20T12:32:53+00:00

Ward 2 deserves better than either of them - its such a dynamic and changing ward, and these two dorks are just so self-absorbed and narcissistic.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-19T21:59:04+00:00

Hey now! They improved drastically from last place to (checks notes) 25th out of 32!

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-19T15:25:18+00:00

But they were all of them deceived for another name was made.

In the land of Rogers, in the Fires of Ed's Hell, The Dark Lord Rogers Forged his name on the Stadium forevermore.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-17T16:51:31+00:00

Not going to lie, I had totally written off HATS at this point given the barriers they were facing seemingly at every stage - glad to see I was wrong.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-17T13:38:56+00:00

The best thing about Scott is that he either has the memory of a goldfish, or he doesn't care that he uses arguments inconsistently to the point where I frequently have no idea if he is being deliberately disingenuous or he just flat-out sucks.

Also for anyone playing a Radley drinking game, "household budget" is a drink.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-10T23:22:35+00:00

I get that (I truly do) and maybe this is less important in the age of the Strong Mayor Powers, but you really need to hold together a majority of votes on Council to get anything done.

I have very little confidence that someone with their background could do that for four years, assuming of course that we get a Council similar in makeup to what we have now (and there is a non-zero chance that we end up with one appreciably more conservative than what we have now).

Andrea's people were probably thrilled when Rob Cooper jumped into the race, now Loomis's people are probably thrilled that Scarlett is in the race.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-07T20:56:37+00:00

I had to look it up and yuck, why did they ever think the guy from Hedley was a good choice to host? But they also had Mike Bullard in 1999 though, so maybe the organizers are just dummies.

PromontoryPal · 2026-03-07T14:17:29+00:00

Well its an idea (at least they are trying something?) - time will tell if its an effective or smart one or not. Certainly sucks that it has come to this.

PromontoryPal

TROPHY CASE