Random Access

You know how Mississauga City Hall has been trying for eons to get coverage for our fair city from those aloof media types in Toronto?
Seems the only time the downtown media would venture out our way was when there was murder and/or mayhem about.
Every once in a while over the years, Mayor Hazel McCallion would make the trip down to the newsrooms of To. to make a pitch for more coverage. A reporter would be duly dispatched for a couple of months.
Problem was, he usually couldn't sell a story to any of his editors unless it involved Hazel ranting at Mel or Hazel ripping the face off the latest provincial or federal minister who stepped out of line.
Things looked particularly bleak for Mississauga peddling its line in the mainstream media last year when The Toronto Star closed its west-end bureau, which long-time local reporters Frank Calleja, Bob Mitchell and Mike Funston used to ably man.
Suddenly, however, Mississauga is back on the media map in the big city.
Front-page stories appear in The Star on the political rewiring of Enersource, complete with urban affairs reporter Royson James attending to columnize the primitive territories.
The National Post seems to be regularly staffing council meetings. Yesterday there were two stories on its Toronto (let's not get too literal) pages from Mississauga City council.
What could possibly be behind all of this sudden interest in Mississauga?
How about Big Teeth, Big Hair, Big Wind from Ward 6?
Yes, it is definitely The Parrish Effect.
The Post and Ms. Parrish have had a hate pact going on for some time, after the paper ran a major hatchet piece a few years ago. She sued, they apologized and they have agreed not to make up anytime soon.
So The Post is probably hanging around to try to catch her in the act (again) of flapping her gums without putting her brain in gear.
You'll recall that it was a Post reporter (disguised as a judge for the City's Urban Design Awards and how did he qualify for that position anyway?) who reported La Parrish's off-hand bad-taste joke about the apparent immortality of our Wrinkled Leader, The Mayor Who Would Not Retire.
And, of course, that is the storyline — the Parrish- McCallion tug-of-war — that everyone is gearing up to cover.
With few exceptions, no one in the Toronto media knows, or cares, who sits on our council except for She Who Is In Power and She Who Is Impatiently Waiting For Power.
If The Toronto Sun ever shows up to cover Mississauga council (Where is John Schmied now that we need him?) we'll know for sure that we have a mayoralty race on our hands.
By the way, guess who is organizing the light and sound show for our July 1 celebrations at City Hall?
That's right: Carolyn Parrish — Our First Lady of the Fireworks.