I still think she's salvageable, said someone normally NDP but who's given up on provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath. She meant Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. It's hard to recall the hopes Wynne once inspired and how fresh she seemed. Let's refresh our memories.

When she ran for Liberal leadership in 2013, she'd be asked, portentously, if she really thought someone like her could succeed in Ontario politics. What you mean, she'd say brightly, is: Can a lesbian from Toronto become premier? The way she put it made you think: Perhaps. It was bracing and confident.

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In the early 1900s, Toronto entrepreneur Henry Pellatt used his enormous wealth to build the most magnificent private residence ever seen in Canada -- a stunning palace that took 300 workers three years to construct and featured an oven large enough to cook an ox.

The construction of Casa Loma put to rest any doubts about whether there was money to be made harnessing the power of Niagara Falls, which was how Pellatt had made his fortune.