Well, I guess he's heard of her now.

Doug Ford comments spark 'Atwood for Mayor' movement. -Toronto Star, July 31

 
A early return from the proprietors of the Cowbell Restaurant in Parkdale. (Twitter)

I'm still trying to figure out how one reaches adulthood in Toronto without having heard of "Peggy" Atwood. I mean, it's tough enough to do in Hamburg or Rio or London (Atwood is a repeated Booker Prize finalist), but the world-renowned author, poet and political activist is a lifelong Torontonian, for gosh sakes. She's been in the papers practically every week since I was born. (I'm 54.) So this is a case for a psychologist or anthropologist or expert in education methods - all three, I suspect.

It would do this town some good to get ourselves on the map with a viable grassroots campaign to hound the Twin Freaks out of office and replace them with Ms. Atwood. "Poet dislodges mayor in Canadian city." We didn't get much publicity mileage out of hosting the G20 (and what there was - nightsticks being cracked over demonstrators' heads - wasn't the ideal kind). Think Vaclav Havel, playwright-statesman. Have you thought of the Czech Republic the same way since? That's one neat place.