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If there’s one thing that Canadian politics is good for (and maybe there is just one) it’s the introduction of new and fun terms to our collective lexicon. Remember our pre-Olympic love affair with the stodgy term prorogation? Ah, those were good times, listening to newscaster fumble over that unnecessarily complicated word, grasping at straws to try and explain how in the heck it was even legal, nevermind moral to just up and cancel Parliament.

But if you’re a political junkie like me you love these kind of moments in the Sun. Your heart skips a beat when the popular press picks up on a new polispeak word and runs with it. Well, friends, it’s happened again.

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13 Jul 2010

Supporting Good Data

Author: Keith Little | Filed under: Politics

If you ever watched wrestling in the mid-to-late 90′s then you might have heard of Dwayne Johnson, The Rock. He was a bit of a dink, kind of full of himself, but a really good wrestler. He has this catch phrase, an insult really, he’d use the term “jambroni”. If you’re a moron, according to The Rock, you’re a “jambroni”—and who better to tell you you’re a moron than a professional wrestler.

That said, whenever the name “Adam Giambrone” came up in the news, the first thing I thought of was The Rock. And the name came up often: as the head of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) that tends to happen. But this week Giambrone’s been in the news for another reason, for being a “jambroni,” as The Rock would say.

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12 Feb 2010

Politicians Are Public Figures

Author: Keith Little | Filed under: Politics

If you’ve been following the stories surrounding the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) then maybe you’ve heard about today’s little press scrum. If not, let me fill you in on the events of the past few weeks to bring you up to speed.

Criticism of Toronto’s transit authority began when a picture, and then another picture, of a sleeping TTC employee surfaced online. The picture showed a TTC ticket-taker asleep in his booth, feet kicked back, having a grand old nap. Following that, videos, pictures, and anecdotal reports began appearing online depicting TTC employees engaging in all manner of bad behaviour. Some were sleeping, some were rude, and some were taking ten to twenty minute coffee breaks with a bus load of passengers.

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9 Feb 2010

TTC Union Head to Torontonians: Listen Folks

Author: Keith Little | Filed under: Politics

An incredible clip from the CBC archives featuring a young Lloyd Robertson interviewing a “street surfer” or “skurfer” in 1965.

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4 Feb 2010

CBC Archives: Street “Skurfing” 1965

Author: Keith Little | Filed under: From the Web, Television