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John Tory is the best choice for Toronto now

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Toronto didn’t get the full-out, in-depth debate on city issues it needed and deserved this election season, and that’s on Doug Ford.

His decision to cut city council in half in mid-campaign, and the legal wrangling that followed, turned this election into a four-week sprint — not nearly long enough to properly discuss the challenges Toronto faces.

Toronto Mayor John Tory opens his re-election campaign in Liberty Village.
Toronto Mayor John Tory opens his re-election campaign in Liberty Village.  (Steve Russell / Toronto Star)

But on Monday, Oct. 22, voters will have to make a choice for mayor and they should be asking themselves a couple of key questions.

Who will be best at making sure the new, smaller council works well together?

And who’s most likely to be able to work effectively with other governments — most importantly, Ford and his ministers — for the long-term benefit of Toronto?

Jennifer Keesmaat, the city’s chief planner for five years, has put forward the strongest challenge to John Tory, her old boss.

Keesmaat has a lot of things going for her. She has energy to burn and a lot of fresh ideas. Some of them — like building bike lanes on Yonge Street North and tearing down the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway — gladden the hearts of those who find Tory far too conservative.

And Keesmaat has zeroed in on Tory’s most vulnerable spot — his lack of flash and fire, his tendency to try to please everyone. He isn’t a true leader, she says; he lacks “vision” and didn’t stand up strongly enough for the city when Ford launched his outrageous attack on civic democracy.

We’re sympathetic to all this. Our city is growing by leaps and bounds; tens of thousands of people flock here every year and it’s the destination of choice for tech firms looking for a true centre of innovation. We’re in the big-time and we should be thinking big.

Yet Keesmaat hasn’t closed the deal. It’s hard to square her tenure as Tory’s chief planner, faithfully developing and endorsing his plans, with her ringing denunciations of him and all his works now. And it’s impossible to judge how effective she would be as a politician for the simple reason that she’s never held any sort of elected office. Coming up with good ideas is one thing; the measure of a political leader is how well you work with others to turn them into reality.

Her rhetoric is more exciting than Tory’s (that’s easy to do), but on key issues they’re basically on the same page. He backs the Scarborough subway extension (a very bad idea), and so does she, with a bit of a twist. He’s kept residential property taxes low; she says she would do the same. In other areas, she’d do pretty much what Tory promises, but (she claims) faster and better. It’s more about style than substance.

As for Tory, there’s little mystery. Toronto has had four years to see what he can do, and we haven’t hesitated to criticize him when he falls short or is just plain wrong. We wish, for example, that he’d been quicker off the mark last winter when the shelter crisis erupted. That was Tory at his timid worst.

But on other issues Tory has shown real leadership. The influx of asylum seekers this past summer could have blown up into something ugly and divisive; indeed, elements in the right-wing media were trying to fan those flames. But Tory never fed the fears. Instead, he headed off the potential crisis. Likewise, he’s been on the right side of the debate over safe injection sites, another hot-button issue.

On highway tolls, he stuck his neck way out to demand that the city be allowed to raise new money for transit. He was shot down by the Wynne government, but he fought hard and came away with $170 million in new gas tax revenue. That was a big win.

And on transit, he is actually getting things done. Sure, his signature SmartTrack plan morphed into a lot less than was promised in 2014. But he’s right that billions of new funding is in place and transit is getting built for the first time in years. Planning for the much-needed downtown relief line is funded and underway. Of course we’d like to see it finished quicker, as Keesmaat promises. But the credit must go to Tory for pushing this project along after literally decades of delay.

Did Tory drop the ball when Ford slashed city council? It would have been more emotionally satisfying to have a mayor who yelled back at the premier. But the outcome would surely be the same. The key for the city is having a mayor who can work effectively with other governments, including (indeed, especially) when they don’t see eye to eye.

If he does win a second term, Tory needs to up his game. Housing and affordability are the biggest issues for most voters, and he should do more in this area. He should not hesitate, for example, to borrow freely from Keesmaat’s best ideas — including her ambitious housing plan. More broadly, he should reach out more to progressive city councillors. He does have a vision of a united city, even if he isn’t very good at articulating it.

Right now we need a mayor who can speak to the whole city, the suburbs as well as downtown, and get the new city council working well together. John Tory has shown he is best placed to do that.

John Tory has been Toronto’s mayor for four years and now he wants you to re-elect him. What will he do to win your vote? Ask him yourself.

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Anglais

Nostalgia and much more with Starburst XXXtreme

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Get a taste of adventure with Starburst XXXtreme based on the legendary NetEnt Game. The nostalgic themes are sure to capture fans of the classic version as they get treated to higher intensity, better visuals, and features. The most significant element of the game is its volatility. Patience will not be an essential virtue considering the insane gameplay, and there is a lot of win potential involved. It retains the original makeup of the previous game while adding a healthy dose of adrenaline. 

Starburst Visuals and Symbols

The game is definitely more conspicuous than before. The setting happens over a 5-reel, 3-row game grid with nine fixed win lines, which function if a succession from the left to the right reel is present. Only those players that that attain the highest win per bet line are paid. From a visual standpoint, the Starburst XXXtreme slots illustrates lightning effects behind the reels, which is not surprising as it is inherited from the original version. Available themes include Classic, Jewels, and Space. The game is also available in both desktop and mobile versions, which is advantageous for players considering the global pandemic. According to Techguide, American gamers are increasingly having more engaging gaming experiences to socialize to fill the gap of in-person interaction. Starburst XXXtreme allows them to fill the social void at a time when there is so much time to be had indoors. 

Starburst XXXTreme Features

Players get to alternate on three features which are Starburst Wilds, XXXtreme Spins, and Random Wilds. The first appears on reels 2,3, or 4. When these land, they expand to cover all positions while also calculating the wins. They are also locked for a respin. If a new one hits, it also becomes locked while awarding another respin. Starburst XXXtreme offers a choice between two scenarios for a higher stake. In one scenario with a ten times stake, the Starburst Wild is set on random on reels 2,3, or 4, and a multiplier starts the respin. The second scenario, which has a 95 times stake, starts with two guaranteed starburst wilds on reels 2,3, or 4. it also plays out using respin game sequence and features. The game also increases the potential with the Random Wilds feature to add Starburst Wilds to a vacant reel at the end of a spin. Every Starburst Wild gives a random multiplier with potential wins of x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, x100, or even x150.

The new feature is sure to be a big hit with the gaming market as online gambling has shown significant growth during the lockdown. AdAge indicates the current casino customer base is an estimated one in five Americans, so Starburst XXXtreme’s additional features will achieve considerable popularity. 

What We Think About The Game

The gambling market has continued to diversify post-pandemic, so it is one of the most opportune times to release an online casino-based game. Thankfully Starburst XXXtreme features eye-catching visuals, including the jewels and space themes. These attract audience participation and make the gameplay inviting. The game also has a nostalgic edge. The previous NetEnt iteration featured similar visuals and gameplay, so the audience has some familiarity with it. The producers have revamped this version by tweaking the features to improve the volatility and engagement. 

That is characterized by the potential win cap of 200,000 times the bet. Starburst XXXtreme does not just give betting alternatives for players that want to go big. The increase of multipliers also provides a great experience. If the respins in the previous version were great, knowing that multipliers can go hundreds of times overtakes the game to a new level. 

Players should get excited about this offering. All of the features can be triggered within a single spin. Whether one plays the standard game or takes the XXXtreme spin route, it is possible to activate all of the features. Of course, the potential 200,000 times potential is a huge carrot. However, the bet size is probably going to be restricted and vary depending on the casino. It is also worth pointing out that a malfunction during the gameplay will void all of the payouts and progress. Overall, the game itself has been designed to provide a capped win of 200,000 times the original bet. 

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Anglais

‘We’re back’: Montreal festival promoters happy to return but looking to next year

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In downtown Montreal, it’s festival season.

In the city’s entertainment district, a musical act was conducting a sound check on stage Friday evening — the second day of the French-language version of the renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival. Tickets for many of the festival’s free outdoor shows — limited by COVID-19 regulations — were sold out.

Two blocks away, more than 100 people were watching an acoustic performance by the Isaac Neto Trio — part of the last weekend of the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, a celebration of music from the African continent and the African diaspora.

With COVID-19 restrictions continuing to limit capacity, festival organizers say they’re glad to be back but looking forward to next year when they hope border restrictions and capacity limits won’t affect their plans.

Charles Décarie, Just For Laughs’ CEO and president, said this is a “transition year.”

“Even though we have major constraints from the public health group in Montreal, we’ve managed to design a festival that can navigate through those constraints,” Décarie said.

The French-language Juste pour rire festival began on July 15 and is followed by the English-language festival until July 31.

When planning began in February and March, Décarie said, organizers came up with a variety of scenarios for different crowd sizes, ranging from no spectators to 50 per cent of usual capacity.

“You’ve got to build scenarios,” he said. “You do have to plan a little bit more than usual because you have to have alternatives.”

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MELS new major movie studio to be built in Montreal

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MONTREAL — MELS Studios will build a new film studio in Montreal, filling some of the gap in supply to meet the demand of Hollywood productions.

MELS president Martin Carrier said on Friday that MELS 4 studio construction will begin « as soon as possible », either in the fall or winter of next year. The studio could host productions as early as spring 2023.

The total investment for the project is $76 million, with the Quebec government contributing a $25 million loan. The project will create 110 jobs, according to the company.

The TVA Group subsidiary’s project will enable it to stand out « even more » internationally, according to Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau. In the past, MELS Studios has hosted several major productions, including chapters of the X-Men franchise. The next Transformers movie is shooting this summer in Montreal.

Péladeau insisted that local cultural productions would also benefit from the new facility, adding that the studio ensures foreign revenues and to showcase talent and maintain an industry of Quebec producers.

STUDIO SHORTAGE

The film industry is cramped in Montreal.

According to a report published last May by the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec (BCTQ), there is a shortage of nearly 400,000 square feet of studio space.

With the addition of MELS 4, which will be 160,000 square feet, the company is filling part of the gap.

Carrier admitted that he has had to turn down contracts because of the lack of space, representing missed opportunities of « tens of millions of dollars, not only for MELS, but also for the Quebec economy. »

« Montreal’s expertise is in high demand, » said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who was present at the announcement.

She said she received great testimonials from « Netflix, Disney, HBO and company » during an economic mission to Los Angeles in 2019.

« What stands out is that they love Montreal because of its expertise, knowledge and beauty. We need more space, like MELS 4, » she said.

There is still not enough capacity in Quebec, acknowledged Minister of Finance, the Economy and Innovation Eric Girard.

« It is certain that the government is concerned about fairness and balance, so if other requests come in, we will study them with the same seriousness as we have studied this one, » he said.

Grandé Studios is the second-largest player in the industry. Last May, the company said it had expansion plans that should begin in 2022. Investissement Québec and Bell are minority shareholders in the company.

For its part, MELS will have 400,000 square feet of production space once MELS 4 is completed. The company employs 450 people in Quebec and offers a range of services including studio and equipment rentals, image and sound postproduction, visual effects and a virtual production platform.

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