I appreciate that Netflix isn't shying away from topicality in its comedy specials:

With a healthy 20 minutes separating her from Poilievre, Mayor Chow now takes the stage, having changed out of her Caribana outfit from earlier:

Meanwhile, at Nathan Phillips Square, the organizers of Taste of India could not be more thrilled that Pierre Poilievre has shown up.

In a world in which it seems that everything is always getting worse, I am cheered, and mystified, by the sudden surge in quality at Hong Fatt BBQ.

BlogTO titles are always special, but this one? They make it sound like it’s either super exclusive or super racist.

I mean, there'd be 10, if the Cinesphere were open.

They let Perks have the last word of the meeting:"Speaker, by a vote of 22 in favour and none opposed, the motion passes." It's like when Kristen Wiig got serenaded by Mick Jagger at the end of her last SNL.

Gord can have a little procedure, as a treat. "I just stopped the chimes!"

Mayor Chow presents Perks with a bottle of Scotch, in four parts:

Being a journalist is fun, because I don't feel obliged to join the standing ovation for Frances Nunziata, the same way a critic needn't stand to clap at the end of the annual children's show at Stratford.

Right-leaning councillors are now attempting to poke holes in the Chow/Malik effort to use Section 37 funds to cover the cost of ferry rides for kids and seniors throughout August. They're feeling around for an objection that might stick, and having little luck in doing so.

On his way out of the chamber, Vic Gupta, the CEO of CreateTO who used to be a senior staffer for Tory, shakes Perks's hand. "Socialism — the one true path," I think I hear Perks tell him, just half-jokingly.

It's the point in the Council meeting when even the security guards are getting giggly.

Council is approving the use of Old City Hall as a filming location, which it already was in its previous courthouse incarnation, when Mark Ruffalo got to argue with clerks about access to exhibits in the same hallways that countless real journalists have.

Thoroughly impressed that there is now a decent late-night coffee option near City Hall. (By "late night," I mean after 6:00, and by "decent," I mean not Starbucks or Tim Hortons.)

The municipal election has its first third-party advertiser, a sole proprietorship that was registered on Tuesday (and which may or may not be connected to A Better City (ABC) Toronto):

I remember that portions of the Downsview area are owned by a Crown corporation called Canada Lands, after I jolt up and twitch at Pasternak's mention of it.

Cllr Burnside is delivering a lovely tribute to Perks, during part of which Perks looks not unlike Nev and I did yesterday:

Gord Perks ends his speech with a three-word piece of advice that, in his view, distills everything there is to know: "Capitalism is trash."

Perks offers thanks to all councillors' staff, adding that they should have the right to bargain collectively.

Perks says of Chow, "For 40 years, you've shown me what it is to live your life every day to make a better place for people who have been excluded."

In his farewell speech, Gord Perks says that when he's run, his campaign has, internally, held on to the tenet: "It's better to lose right than to win wrong."

This is Gord Perks's final meeting of Toronto City Council. Gear up for the farewells with a clip of Mayor Chow's tribute at last week's Executive Committee meeting:

Going by calendar month is surprising, given that Labour Day weekend is September 5-7.

Matt Elliott@graphicmatt.com · 6d ago

And here's the news: Mayor Chow and Deputy Mayor Malik will ask Council to approve a plan to make the Toronto Island ferry free for kids and seniors in August, in celebration of the victory over the island airport expansion effort.

Young children from a summer camp visit the chamber. Cllr Kandavel says they'd been given a choice of trips today between the CN Tower, a park, and City Hall, and overwhelmingly chose the latter.

Cllr Bravo takes a more John Oliver view of the World Cup, adoring the game and the event while being acutely aware that FIFA itself is farcically corrupt.

I snap back to attention when Councillor Perruzza bellows, "At war with the United States! The power of football!"

Toronto's hosting of a half-dozen World Cup games reminds me of its Pan Am Games experience, in that superior organization turned a pricy nuisance into something resembling a public good. Though this time we got neither a giant sign nor new commissions from Crystal Pite and Robert Lepage.

Councillor Saxe now seems surprised that street parties in her ward has giant screens, that Cafe Diplomatico was showing games on the patio. I'm really not sure where she's been every previous summer of a year divisible by two but not by four.

"We actually achieved a success! The people of Toronto loved this!" shouts Cllr Colle, taking to task those who predicted the World Cup would cause calamity for Toronto. All around Toronto, people were excited about the World Cup, he says. "They were watching the TVs in their bars and restaurants!"