More small developments in both stories I talked about last week.

The mayoral race appears to be wide open, with seven current councillors now expressing interest in the job, in addition to deputy premier George Smitherman and former Progressive Conservative Party leader John Tory, and now news that NDP MP and former councillor Olivia Chow announcing that she's considering a bid (she says she'll make her announcement on Twitter), and, of all people, gay former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray.

Glen fucking Murray. Ok, the following statement is my personal opinion and not that of Pink Triangle Press, but Winnipeg is by far the worst place in all of Canada, and possibly the worst place in all of North America. And the former mayor of the murder capital of Canada wants to run Toronto? Now, I know many of my readers have never been to Winnipeg, but let me just summarise its many problems: runaway homelessness, panhandling, drugs, and prostitution; one of the highest crime rates in Canada; tap water that tastes like a mix of BO and pesticide; absolutely no street-level businesses in its downtown (not even coffee shops!); and this city of three-quarters of a million has only two gay bars. Ok, maybe that last point would earn him a friend in Kyle Rae, but this is the big leagues, Mr. Murray. Oh, and we don't take kindly to carpet baggers who resign mid-term to run for higher office.

All that said, this is an exciting time for the city, with lots of people sure to articulate many different and challenging visions for the future of the city, rather than a simplistic "status quo/anti-Miller" race. Let's have a real debate this year about what we want the city to be, culturally, economically, and socially.  But I promise that this blog won't become a mayoral race blog for the next 14 months.

Meanwhile, minor news on the Elephant Man performing in Downsview Park story. The park has issued a statement confirming that Elephant Man and the promoters have signed a contract promising not to promote hatred during their use of the park. That's not really the issue for most of the gays who are agitating against this. It's that the promotion alone of someone known for his hate speech is enough to incite hatred. Recent bashings in Ontario only highlight the sensitivity of the community to hate speech.

It's not enough for the performer to say he won't preach hate on that day; he has to renounce his past statements, beliefs, and songs. As fab editor Matt Thomas pointed out on Facebook, otherwise it's a bit like Iranian president Ahmadinejad coming by to perform tracks from Chicago and swearing he won't say anything about the Jews.

Take your complaints to Downsview Park CEO Tony Genco: 416-952-2223.

Well, the big news today is that mayor David Miller made the surprise announcement about twenty minutes ago that he won't be seeking a third term next fall. I'm cautiously optimistic about what this means for next year's election, but I'll go into more detail on that next week. In short, we can probably assume that John Tory and George Smitherman's non-aggression pact is off, so maybe the election next year will actually be about competing visions for the city and not about personality.

We're still trying to sort out the whole Elephant Man performance issue that I mentioned yesterday. While the Twitter/Facebook sphere is still noticeably quieter than it was for his Caribana show, Fab editor Matt Thomas has brought the issue up again on his Murder Music Coming to Toronto, Not on My Watch Facebook group.

"The result I personally want to see is pressure by association not banning and certainly not any immigration related consequences," he says. "He can come and play sure but anyone who promotes or houses his performance will be branded a homophobe and a hate monger as well. Circa didn't like that association and let's see what the Canadian gov't think of it."

Some in the blogosphere have noted that Downsview Park falls under infrastructure minister John Baird's portfolio. While Baird is not quite the gay rights icon that his colleague and health minister Tony Clement is, he is believed to be one of the friendlier faces in the Tory caucus for the queer community. Baird's constituency office can be reached at 613-990-7720.
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He's ba-ack. Remember Caribana weekend when homophobic dancehall artist Elephant Man was supposed to perform at Circa and the queer community rose up in righteous anger and got him pulled from the lineup? It turns out Elephant Man is coming back to Toronto to perform in the Champions of Action concert at Downsview Park on October 10.

Ok, sure, it's in bloody Downsview Park and you'll have to take the Spadina subway all the way to the end and then walk a few clicks to be offended, but this should be causing all kinds of outrage, no?

Well, only sort of. The Twitter/Facebook-o-sphere has been noticeably quieter than it was over last summer's performance -- but then, no one's organising a boycott just yet. And just how would you boycott a National Park anyway?

NDP MP Olivia Chow tweeted the following last night: "Just called Downsview Park to complain about hateful Elephant Man performance 416-952-2222". So, you can call and complain, and know that at least someone in the government cares.

While containing free speech is probably not a good long-term plan, the government should know how the community feels about this.

Meanwhile, there's a metric tonne of stuff to do in Toronto this weekend, all without venturing north of Bloor. Tonight is the one-year anniversary of Ian '8-Inch' Lynch's filthy comedy show at Fire on the East Side. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm. I think cover is $5, but it doesn't say so on the Facebook page.

Tonight is also the opening night bash of Buddies in Bad Times' 2009/10 season. The Scandelle's Neon Nightz explores the world of Montreal strip clubs in the 90s, just like my many high school Model UN Club field trips. After the show, there'll be a party where Buddies' new Artistic Director gets introduced to the audience.

Fuck, how will I do both? 

Another summer's over, and with the return to colder weather, it seems that a lot of things are reverting to "normal" once again in our fair city -- The CN Tower is once again the tallest "something or other" in the world, the TTC is once again showcasing its complete incompetence, and Heroes is once again sucking hard on a weekly basis.

But one startling change sure to enrage one segment of our community while pleasing another is that Remington's is now allowing women inside any time after 10pm and on weekends. It's not the first time women have been allowed into the club -- contrary to the Sun's report, they've always been allowed in for private fuctions.

Meanwhile, in the world of online stalking networking, MIT students have created a program that can accurately predict if a person is gay based on blind guesswork and stereotypes their Facebook friends list, while the Swedes have created a program that analyses how hetero your Twitter feed is. Mine's only 1 percent hetero. For comparison's sake, Ellen Degeneres' is 73 percent hetero.

Of course, sometimes all it takes to figure out what floats someone's boat is a TTC bus shelter ad, like this one that's been making the Twitter/Facebook rounds this morning:

Last night, I got a chance to catch The Bubble at TIFF. It's an excellent film about a gay Israeli and a gay Palestinian who fall in love in Tel Aviv, which also presents a strong message against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and it was presented as part of TIFF's inaugural "City to City" program, which this year spotlights filmmakers from Tel Aviv.

You may have heard of the City to City program, which is the target of a denunciation campaign led by filmmakers and intellectuals who are opposed to the Israeli occupation. They see in City to City a nefarious Israeli propaganda plot to use the festival to rebrand Israel as a modern, progressive country and a land of great artists. Read their declaration here, and TIFF's response here. This is kind of a queer issue because queer filmmaker John Greyson pulled his film out of the festival in protest of the program.

Before the screening, TIFF Staffer Kate Lawrie read a page-long statement from the director of The Bubble, Eytan Fox, denouncing the occupation and pointing out that many of the film's Israeli fans are part of the Israeli peace movement. After watching the film, I was even more vexed at the purpose of this denunciation campaign. Putting the spotlight on Israel made it possible for a film like this -- which completely supports the anti-occupation effort -- to get a pestige slot at a major festival. Even if Israel paid for the screening, it surely can't be considered propaganda.

By that logic, these people should be protesting China's recent donation of lion statues to adorn the new Chinatown East gate that opened this week, over that country's persecution of Tibetans, Falon Gong practitioners, gays, and um, everybody else.

So what else is going on in Toronto? Well, Buddies finally announced who the new artistic director is going to be -- so what if it was the worst-kept secret in the theatre community? Brendan Healy takes the reins at Buddies this fall, and you heard it in my story here at Xtra first. More on this in next week's issue. Until then...