Photo: "The Escalator Experiment" by chewie2008~, member of the theGentries Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday September 8th, 2008:

It was rumoured early last week, but now it's official. October 14th has been set as the date for our 3rd federal election in four years. Can you feel the enthusiasm in the air? Canadians are dying to vote, eh? CityNews looks at the top 10 issues.

A strike by support staff at the University of Toronto has been averted, pending voting on a deal later this week. This is a good thing, because Frosh week had the potential to continue to spiral into total mayhem had the strike not been avoided.

Someone is stealing horses in Aurora. If you see any suspicious Internet horse auctions, be weary, partner, and be sure to notify the sheriff's office before buying and riding off into the sunset.

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Why is it that a TTC subway station escalator sits in a state of disrepair for 6 months? Because there are challenges not so obvious to us. Now hold your horses (and find another way up), because it's going to take a while longer to fix.

Monarch butterflies may soon be extinct? Apparently herbicide use is killing the only food they eat, and being the super picky eaters they are, they'd rather die than eat other plants.

How hip is too hip? Ossington. And watch for the Leslieville-is-too-hip articles to start trickling in during the coming months.