Toronto to pay tribute to Jack Layton

Thousands of people are expected to pay tribute to Jack Layton at Toronto City Hall, where the NDP leader will lie in repose before his state funeral on Saturday.

Dignitaries and invited guests are expected to begin arriving at city hall at 8 a.m. on Friday. The public can pay their respects and sign a book of condolences from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Well over 10,000 people paid tribute to Layton as he lay in state in Ottawa Wednesday and Thursday, and similar crowds are expected in the city where Layton lived for decades as an activist, councillor and MP.

Toronto residents' affection for Layton has been clear since his death, with tributes and well-wishers leaving flowers and mementoes at Layton's constituency office, his home, and at Toronto City Hall — where a single chalk message scrawled on the concrete wall of a raised walkway became a large-scale memorial, with hundreds of messages written in chalk.

Dozens of people, many ringing bells or honking the horns on their bicycles, were on hand as the hearse arrived at Toronto City Hall late Thursday. They broke into spontaneous applause and cheered and the motorcade slowed to a halt, and again when a Toronto police honour guard carried Layton's coffin into city hall.

The public and will have a chance to pay their respects to Jack Layton at Toronto City Hall before his state funeral this coming Saturday.

Amid the applause some were heard shouting "we love you, Jack," and "welcome home."The city's CN Tower will be lit in orange from sundown Saturday until sunrise Sunday in honour of the late NDP leader.

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poll says, More health-care accountability sought

The majority of Canadians polled said a health-care agreement should take a national approach rather than focusing on the individual health needs of each province or territory. (Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)

Canada needs a health-care ombudsman to address complaints about poor medical treatment, a new poll suggests.

The poll was part of the Canadian Medical Association annual report card on health care, released Monday at the group's conference in St. John's.

"Patients are too often lost in the shuffle in health care," said CMA president Dr. Jeff Turnbull.

The report card looked at attitudes on topics such as adopting a Canadian patient health charter to ensure accountability, a complaint mechanism, funding models for health care and the next federal-provincial health agreement.

Respondents felt strongly that a patient health charter should include recourse for those who receive poor health service, with 87 per cent saying they support a mechanism for citizens to complain about poor health service.

About 86 per cent supported including an independent ombudsman for complaints about poor health service in the patient health charter.

The survey also suggested:

    * 82 per cent of Canadians agreed that a patient health charter that outlined patients' rights and responsibilities would make the system more efficient.
    * 80 per cent agreed that the number of complaints against a jurisdiction should be reported so people can compare jurisdictions to one another.
    * 97 per cent agreed federal, provincial and territorial governments need to start working together on a new health accord to replace the current agreement that expires in 2014.
    * 93 per cent agreed that governments should meet every year to discuss the state of health care in the country.

Those surveyed were more divided about whether the federal-provincial health-care agreement should take a national or jurisdictional approach, with 52 per cent preferring one national in scope with all provinces agreeing on how the system will be funded, delivered and made accountable.

Similarly, 49 per cent chose a model where provinces and territories receive a certain amount of funding for health care to spend as they see fit. The other 46 per cent felt a portion of each provinces and territories' funding should be held back until performance targets are met. Five per cent did not answer.

Ipsos Reid conducted the poll between July 5 and July 8, using an online survey of 1,026 Canadian adults and a telephone survey of 1,000 Canadian adults on July 6 and 7.

The results of the telephone survey are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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This is The First Time In 122 Years The Central Canada Exibition Has Been Shut Down - Except For Wartime

This year's SuperEX event has been cancelled, marking the first time there will be no exhibition at Ottawa's Lansdowne Park since the world wars.

Ottawa's SuperEX has been suspended for 2011 due to Lansdowne Park's planned redevelopment.

The Central Canada Exhibition Association's board of directors made the decision to suspend the fair — which was first held in 1888 — last week, citing Lansdowne's redevelopment as the main reason.


It will be the first time in 122 years the Central Canada Exhibition has been shut down, barring the war years; for Moran, it will mark the first time in 78 years she will miss the Ex, which was suspended this year as organizers look for a new venue in the wake of the redevelopment of Lansdowne.

In its heyday, the Ex was one of the top fairs in North America, drawing as many as 800,000 people a year — double the number of recent years. Its grandstand shows featured famous acts such as the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and country star Willie Nelson, as well as the renowned “travelling railroad” carnival, the World of Mirth.

“My mother would make us lunches, and my father built us a wagon” to get there and back, she remembers. In the 1930s and ’40s, the kids would earn a few pennies scavenging empty Coke bottles for the deposits. You could buy food at any of the church-run booths, which offered wholesome fare such as “apple pie and a cup of tea — not the greasy stuff you get nowadays.”

Moran remembers paying a quarter to see the freak show, and recalls the time then-mayor Charlotte Whitton shut down the burlesque shows at the Ex. “We didn’t go in, of course, but we’d see the girls going in” to perform.

Moran can also recall the surreal sight of carnies unloading circus animals from the railroad that used to run where the Queensway now stands, and taking them down O’Connor Street to the fairgrounds.

No surprise that her coming-of-age stories all revolve around the Ex: “We had a lot of fun picking up guys,” she recalls, hastening to add that it was just innocent flirting. “They never tried to get smart with us. … There was no dope or drink involved. We had good, clean fun at the Ex.”

And she savours the tale of her father, who used to enter vegetables he grew in contests at the Ex in the 1950s and 60s. One year he wasn’t ready, “so he went down to the (Byward) Market and bought some,” and entered those as his own. “He won first prize for every item,” laughing as she recalled the memory.

As the years went by, Moran went on to have her own children, but her love of the Ex never faded, and she went faithfully every year; she even once penned a poem about the Ex.

Even in her 80s, the magic has never faded: “I went three or four times last year,” she says, although she admits the fair is not what it used to be: “It wasn’t that good over the last 10 years.”

The Ex used to offer much more than just rides and entertainment: Before television ads and home shows were the norm, that was “where people used to go to see latest and greatest TVs, appliances and cars,” he adds.

Now they shop elsewhere, and gambling — another major money-maker at the Ex — goes on at casinos and even corner stores. Over time, people have forgotten where it all began, he says.

Memories of the Ex: 122 Years at Lansdowne airs at 8 p.m. at the Coliseum Building at Lansdowne Park on Thursday.


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