IT'S OFFICIAL — Toronto mayor JOHN TORY's office circulated a resignation letter to journalists. He'll formally vacate the position on Friday at 5 p.m. So much for the "tickety-boo" city, to quote Ontario Premier DOUG FORD. WEDGE DAY — The NDP's health-care-focused opposition motion to be debated today calls on the government to "express disappointment that the prime minister has promoted Ontario’s for-profit health plans as 'innovation.' " The motion wants the feds to mandate that federal health-care transfer top-ups "not used for the expansion of for-profit health care, but instead used to rebuild and innovate within the public system by hiring more staff and reducing wait times." Finally, the New Democrats want the government to "enforce the Canada Health Act and immediately move to close loopholes that allow for the growth of two-tier health care in Canada." SCARBOROUGH REPRESENT — Liberal MP SALMA ZAHID is hopping mad with the three-person commission that redesigned Ontario's federal ridings. Every province's commission has submitted new maps that will create a total of five new ridings in Canada and rejig the boundaries of hundreds of others based on population growth. It doesn't always go off without a hitch. — Back story: Seldom has a city that technically no longer exists maintained such a fierce sense of pride among its residents. The multicultural suburb has the best food in Toronto, a national park on its eastern flank, and literal cliffs overlooking Lake Ontario. The civic center was designed by RAYMOND MORIYAMA. The subway ends there, even if the rest of Toronto doesn't know it. These things matter to the people who are from there, your Playbook host included. — Don't mess with our ridings: Ontario's riding redistributors heard that message loud and clear. The commission decided to cut a district from Toronto, which hasn't grown as quickly as other parts of the province. Scarborough took the hit in the initial proposal, losing one of its six ridings. Parts of the 'burb were even shunted into neighboring — ugh — North York. Scarberians didn't go quietly into the night. The Star's KATIE DAUBS wrote a long January feature about the outcry. “Residents of North York do not understand, do not care about, and cannot be expected to vote in Scarborough’s best interest,” she quoted from resident JULIA D'SILVA's letter to the commission. — A red line: Scarborough runs from Steeles Avenue south to the lake, and west from the Rouge River to Victoria Park Avenue. West of Vic Park is, well, somewhere else. The commissioners' revised proposal kept parts of six ridings in Scarborough, which now had VP all to itself. — Not good enough: That gesture futzed with nearby riding boundaries, too, launching new complaints from residents. Zahid released a fiery letter. A major Muslim community would be split between two ridings, she claimed, adding her constituents have no further opportunity to make their voices heard. (Technically, it now falls to Zahid to speak for them, which she is doing.) Zahid's conclusion: "This is anti-democratic and insulting to my constituents." She wants changes to the process that allow for more public consultation. — Wait, there's more: Liberal MP MICHAEL COTEAU is also fuming. His Don Valley East riding will now be absorbed partially into the western Scarborough ridings. “Our community doesn’t even know they have been eliminated,” he said in a press release. — The process: Zahid and Coteau can voice their people's gripes when the procedure and House affairs committee debates the province's proposed boundaries. The committee can submit objections to the commission, which will then consider them before submitting a final final report to the House of Commons. Prepare for some strong language. Who said riding redistribution was boring? KEEPING COUNT — It's always been a bit of a mystery how many readers subscribe to Substack newsletters. The platform never made it obvious just how many people's inboxes pinged every time a popular writer published a post. Until now. — A rough idea: A new feature on Substack front pages displays an approximate number of s. Playbook scanned the landscape. Some of the audiences are massive. Take Letters from an American, which has more than 1 million s. GLENN GREENWALD has amassed at least 291,000. In Canada, The Line has topped 18,000. Tory MP MICHELLE REMPEL GARNER passed 16,000. MARGARET ATWOOD trails at 15,000-plus. Former CBC journalist TARA HENLEY racked up more than 14,000. Rempel Garner's caucus mate TOM KMIEC has more than 8,000. PAUL WELLS boasts over 13,000. CHRISTOPHER CURTIS's The Rover hit the 6,000 mark. ÉRIC GRENIER's The Writ has piled up more than 4,000. DAVID MOSCROP breached 2,000, as has SABRINA NANJI's Queen's Park Observer. — What we don't know: The proportion of paid versus unpaid s. Substack estimates 5 to 10 percent of readers fork over cash to their fave writers, though some writers convert more than others. A typical subscription fee can run $5 per month or $50 annually. You do the math. | 
