These are the 10 most popular posts by site traffic over 2010.

1. Beau Lieu Bistro is now open. – This is one of the unsung stars of Ossington. A low-key French bistro, with really nice food, a good ambiance, and a staff that cares. So we are happy that, at least on our blog, they are getting the attention they deserve

2. Dinner at Salt Wine Bar. – Before this place had a license they were operating on catering certificates. We went over and tried the food and were very impressed. Soon after  we ate there they were closed for almost two months. Reader were curious on what to expect when they finally got a chance to taste the food.

3. Ward 19 Candidate’s Debate. – When we announced that we were going to have a candidate’s debate, it was a new thing for us. The debate itself was a lot of fun and there were a lot of folks that ended up watching the UStream video from this post from the night itself. Michael Sims rocked the night and shook some people up.

4. Goed Eton Gets off to a Rolling Start. – One of the quirky, but delicious places that opened on the street is Goed Eten – where the proprietor, Johan, has been putting together a menu of poutine, local fed sausage burgers and other gourmet food. This post we put up right when he open and was still working out the kinks.

5 Salt Wine Bar Looks Open. – Salt Wine Bar gets another place on our top 10 list from our post on Aug 7th when we learned it had opened – albeit without a license.

6 Karen Sun shows good knowledge of Ward 19. – We did a number of candidate profiles over the course of the election cycle, but the big hit on our site was the profile of Karen Sun. Although she didn’t beat out Mike Layton, she was the site favourite in terms of page hits.

7. Call Joe Pantalone, Open Salt Wine Bar. – Again, Salt Wine Bar hits our top 10 list – the frustration with Joe Pantalone’s decision to put a moratorium on the restaurants on the street encouraged others to check out our post.

8. Jess’s Dead Sexy bad ass, mother Fxxxing, pulled-pork Sandwich. – What can we say? The best pulled pork sandwich on Ossington, or maybe in Toronto, is in an unexpected place, The Painted Lady.

9. The Evolution of Dundas off Ossington. - This year because of the moratorium, as well as other factors, the Dundas strip to the east and west of Ossington became popular with places like Churchill, Camp 4, Red Light,  The Port, Enoteca Sociale and more. This post looked at some of the newer places that emerged.

10. Havana Cultura Starts Today. – Our 10th place post is about a festival that took place in August celebrating Cuban Culture. We have a number of places on the strip as well as just off that joined in the festivities with Cuban food and music.

There was, however, some great debate and discussion during the race, in our debate at the Garrison, as well as the other debates in the ward. Karen Sun, who didn’t come with the family support, and Sean McCormick, who challenged from the right, as well as Jim Likourezos, Karlene Nation, Ted Footman, Ross Bruto, George Sawision all challenged for the seat on council. And some great arguments were heard, and hopefully Mike will take some of those to city council to keep a progressive movement alive in the city and to keep the Ossington area alive and growing.

We congratulate Mike on the victory, and wish him the best of success in the new position. As we’ve posted before, it’s important that he keep the local issues close at hand, and communicate with his constituents in a way that his predecessor failed in his waning years. In numerous discussions tonight with his supporters at his event, as well as in the other events, locals we talked to liked him but felt that it was important he become his own candidate at city council and move from campaign mode to community mode. We agree.

When we met Mike in person he was genuine, and very caring about the community. He wanted to listen and open channels with both people and businesses, so problems, especially those along Ossington, could be solved. He brings with him some experience in the foodservice industry, as well as an understanding of cultivating an entertainment and lively culture – something his father brought to the downtown core many years ago. These are the traits we hope he brings with him to council.

It was a good night in the ward despite many disagreeing with what happened in the mayoral race. We wandered along College visiting Ted Footman’s event at Bar Italia; Revival, where Joe Pantalone passed the family torch to Mike; and then to meet Karen Sun at Brass Taps, where her supporters congratulated her on a hard fought battle against a competitor with far greater resources. (then for some food at Lakeview!) We hoped to make it to Sean and Karlene’s events, but ran out of steam, but look forward to catching up.

Here are some pictures of the night:

So? When can we go to Salt Wine Bar, legally? Mike?

A few good people were following the debate on twitter and provided up-to-the-minute commentary on what was going on:

There was also an article today in Parent Central on Michael Sims’ discussion of Maria Pantalone, sister of Joe Pantalone, and a current local school principal who recently was charged with assault and in the past found guilty of throwing feces at a student, and her  distribution of Chris Bolton’s campaign literature through her school. Michael Sims made quite a stir. (Quite shocking stuff, and amazing that it only makes Parent Central in the Star)

There was also coverage and an endorsement by a local blog “All Fired Up in the Big Smoke”

We’ll keep an eye out for more coverage, but in the meantime check out the pictures from the night. If you want to check them out on Facebook, we’ve posted them there also.

There’s some great pieces in there  – definitely tune into the 9 minutes mark for Michael Sims talk about the school board which offered some pretty shocking and interesting information. On that same topic, it’s also worth checking out another question on the same topic of the school board at  1:14:45 where the same topic rattled Mike Layton.

Each of candidates presented well and there were fire and passion in all of them. There are some great other snippets. What was your favourite part?

We’ll post more on the highlights of the debate tomorrow.

We’ve got some more people coming than mentioned on the first post. We also have Ted Footman, profiled yesterday, Karlene Nation, and Ross Bruto (no website) in the house, in addition to Jim Likourezos, Mike Layton, Karen Sun and Sean McCormick.

I attended the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods debate to learn how these things are done, and decided that we would allow the candidates longer to talk on various issues, hopefully getting more detailed answers.

We are going to start the evening off with a few words from the two Toronto District School Board candidates, Michael Sims and Chris Bolton, so everyone can learn a bit about the position, and each of the candidate’s platform.

Then we’re going to move to the main event where each candidate will have a two minute intro. We’ll be doing these in a random order. We’ll start with a question about the Ossington moratorium, and then move on to questions from the audience. We’ll be limiting the answers to 45 seconds.

Then we’ll have two minutes each for closing remarks, and hopefully enjoy a drink with the candidates after, where you can talk to them about the issues one on one.

We’re excited about this group of young and enthusiastic candidates who are going to change the ward for the better. Come out and hear what they have to say!

For this year’s city election in Ward 19 there is no incumbent. We have a great group of young and enthusiastic candidates looking to make a mark on Toronto. We’ve been profiling them in the past couple months, but now’s the time to bring them all together.

On October 5th we will host a debate at The Garrison, 1197 Dundas St West, west of Ossington, where we’ll discuss and debate the issues in Ward 19, and specifically in the Ossington area.

Come join us with Karen Sun, Mike Layton, Sean McCormick and Jim Likourzes and more candidates as we discuss the issues facing the neighbourhood.

Issues that come to mind are:

- The recent patio restrictions south of Bloor St,
- Salt Wine Bar being held closed due to moratorium restrictions,
- Balancing neighbourhood growth with local resident’s concerns,
- How to enforce current local bylaws. (or should they be enforced) and
- Ensuring local resident and business feedback into local issues.
- Building better transit for the neighbourhood

However, we don’t know what issues are of primary concern to you. So we’d like to invite our readers to comment below and tell us what you care about, and what you would like us to ask the candidates for City Council. You are all welcome to attend the debate (or let us know you’re coming on Facebook). Admission is free and it is open to the public.

We’ll be trying to live-blog the event and we may even get it up on UStream so if you miss it, or can’t be there, you’ll be kept up to date.

I met Sean a week or so ago to talk about issues in Ward 19, and why he decided to run for office in this area. If you are a sports fan you’ve probably heard his name as he was a broadcaster for Rogers Sportsnet for 15 years and host of a program called Connected.

While in that career Sean got connected to a bunch of charities including Right to Play, as well as the St. Joseph’s Health Centre, which is the benefactor of the fundraising from Queen Street Music Festival, so giving back to the community is part of Sean’s life in Toronto.

After recently leaving leaving Rogers Sportsnet, Sean told me he was looking for something new to do which would make an impact on his neighbourhood, where he’s lived since moving from Vancouver about 8 years ago. Sean lives on Queen St and has seen the great change that has happened to the area and wanted to keep that change moving in the right direction as well as impact larger issues such as improving the TTC and cleaning up parks in the city.

His background also contains a number of entrepreneurial ventures when he was younger, which seemed to be much of the basis for his platform – which is focused less on environmental and transit issues, and more on ensuring accountability in spending and reducing taxes for homeowners. His discussion on issues revolved a lot on making sure money is spent correctly in the city so that local homeowners can have their taxes reduced. His approach to most issues is very practical and business oriented, and the lack of his connection to the more political approach to issues may prove a great advantage in getting things done, but also will be a challenge.

Like the other candidates in the race, Sean is obviously well connected. The Queen West Music festival, which he organized, had a number of high profile sponsors including Rogers, TD and Molson, and it takes some influence to get them involved in a local music show. It shows a determination to make things happen and change the community, which the music festival does.

The Ward 19 race involves a lot of young candidates, and some names we know. Sean is a welcome addition and is going to provide more visibility to the issues of the neighbourhood. Let us know what you think of how the Ward’s election is shaping up.

It looks like he’s just getting his campaign going and he doesn’t have much online, but here’s what we know now:

Joshua works as a business analyst for a wealth management software company and grew up on College Street where his parents owned and operated a restaurant. So he’s a local guy.
For high-school he went to Jarvis Collegiate and then took economics at the University of Toronto.
After spending some time in Pennsylvania as a consultant for Vanguard – a U.S investment and pension company – he returned to Canada and now lives close to Ossington on Strachan Ave.

He outlined in an email his first platform planks, clearly focussed on his specialty, economics:

• Closing the fiscal gap between spending and revenue.
• Raising property taxes annually by approximately 3 % (which essentially has happened over the last 4 years) is not a sustainable model.
• Moderate spending.  There are expenses that this city has taken on that aren’t immediate or necessary.

Joshua says:

“I believe in bringing people together and helping them understand both sides.”

“In terms of the ossington strip, I’m sure we can come to a better resolution than the status quo (which I’ve read, and experienced first hand) that both sides are not happy with.”

Amen to that!

Joshua promises to continue to expand his platform in the next little while, and we’ll keep you up to date.

A recent Toronto Star article has also mentioned a few other candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring including Jack Layton’s son, Mike Layton, bike shop owner Derek Chadbourne, Karen Sun, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, local activist and repeat candidate Himy Syed, and recently profiled Jim Likourezos. We’ll try and have some profiles of the other candidates up soon.

Who’s up for a candidate’s debate in the Ossington Village?