Hosted by TSN 1050′s James Cybulski, perfomers include Stephen Prickett, Miss Emily, Mike Evin, Lazybones and Adam’s Rib.

The concert starts Saturday, August 20 at 1PM. Admission is free, but you may want to donate, or buy some beers, as it’s a fundraiser for Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation. Since 2009, they’ve raised over $22,000 for local hospitals. For twitter updates, follow @qwmf

Saturday is supposed to be a nice day so enjoy the outdoors while you can! Summer is still here!

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.

There were a whole series of Toronto walks, which continue tomorrow (Sunday). Ours was called Dundas and Ossington, the past and the future, and started at St. Christopher House, right on said corner. We walked west to Dovercourt, down to Queen and across to Trinity Bellwoods. The tour was led by someone from St. Christopher’s House with commentary from a couple of local Portuguese residents who talked to the group about the local churches and community centres.

We did learn a few great stories from some of the people who came along on the walk with us, including Ron Fletcher, who has written a few books on Toronto, including The Humber: Tales of a Canadian Heritage River, and is working on book on Queen West.

One of the pieces of trivia he offered up was that the wall that surrounds the CAMH was actually erected by patients of the facility, which has been a mental health facility since the 1800s (back then they had other terms for such institutions), in 1850. Tomorrow, there is another learning walk around the wall, given by Geoffery Rheaume. (Check out this little film his students put together)

Another little piece of trivia he offered up was that there was a toll booth at the bottom of Ossington, right near Queen. It was, at one point, the entrance to Toronto if you were coming along Dundas. You’d have to head down Ossington. Some of the locals who were coming into the city often used to duck around the toll booth and go down a little lane to the side. The lane ended up being named Rebecca St., after the Rebecca Riots in which Welshmen dressed up in their wives and daughters clothing and stormed tollbooths in the 17th century.

All in all it was an interesting tour!

Apart from the fundraising there are some great works displayed. Check the preview out online at their site here, but better yet see it in person at 56 Ossington. It’s always better that way!