What lengths would you go to save your local ER?

Plus, following his coronation, will King Charles end up on our currency? [The Star] First Up [By Ashley Okwuosa] By Ashley Okwuosa Good morning. Plan ahead, and brace yourself for a [few road closures]( as the annual Toronto Marathon begins today. Here’s the latest. MUST READS Lance McMillan/Toronto Star race for city hall [How a short race and a crowded field turned Toronto’s election into a dash for donor cash]( Given the record number of Torontonians running for mayor and with less than three months to make their case, leading candidates are fishing in the same donor pool to raise over $1 million for their campaigns. David Rider reports that a win is unlikely for any candidate who falls short. [Here’s how mayoral hopefuls are faring and why donors might wait to put their money behind a candidate until the final hour](. Supplied health [To save her local emergency department, this ailing Ontario woman filed a human-rights complaint]( Sandra Bradley, a stroke survivor who suffers from chronic pain, is seeking to halt the June 1st closure of her local Minden emergency department (ED) in Haliburton. She is also seeking $1 million — an amount she believes to be the value of her life if she dies due to an “unreasonable delay” being transported to the next closest ED. Over 150 ED closures have occurred between February 2022 and February 2023, affecting 24 Ontario hospitals primarily serving rural areas. [Kenyon Wallace reports on the impact of public health-care cuts by the provincial government, and why Sandra and her family say they will fight the closure “until the bitter end]( R.J. Johnston/Toronto Star Race for city hall [Toronto gets a time-honoured tradition of transit promises with skimpy details]( From plans to beef up transit in Scarborough to improving road safety in downtown Toronto, mayoral candidates are bombarding Torontonians with flashy pledges to improve how they travel. With just under two months left to go, policy announcements big and small are piling up, though the underpinning details are often vague, reports Alyshah Hasham. [Here’s this week’s collection of recent transportation promises and what to make of them](. Toronto Star graphic canada [How would the $20 bill look with these Canadians on it?]( The federal government announced that King Charles would replace the queen on Canada’s $20 bill and the country’s coins. However, a recent poll finds that over half of Canadians do not want Canada to continue as a constitutional monarchy for generations. Almost 90 per cent of those surveyed are willing to embrace constitutional change to sever the country’s royal roots, and more than 40 per cent say they don’t care about the coronation. [With this thought, Irem Koca has some potential alternative candidates to print on the $20 bill](. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press opinion [Here’s why Justin Trudeau still has a grip on the Liberal party]( Despite Justin Trudeau’s absence at half of the Liberals' convention this weekend, photos of him rolled across big screens, and panelists repeatedly uttered his name in panel discussions. While Conservatives are slamming the prime minister as “out of touch,” it’s clear Trudeau still owns the party he brought back from near extinction a decade ago. [Here’s why Susan Delacourt believes that Conservatives hoping Trudeau will stick around to fight Poilievre in the next election will get their wish](. UP CLOSE Giovanni Capriotti photos/For the Toronto Star In March 2020, when bars closed and we all became intimately familiar with “social distancing,” pub trivia outgrew the pub and moved online. Three years later, Toronto’s Duke of York’s pub quiz has returned to the packed basement near St. George subway station. [Here’s what it was like for Richard Trapunski to finally play again in person](. WATCH THIS Netflix Although “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” is about a royal white man marrying a Black woman and how that changes the kingdom, Shonda Rhimes was not thinking about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when she wrote it. Instead, her thoughts were with Queen Victoria and her rise to power, writes Debra Yeo. [Here’s how the new Netflix series touches on a complicated royal love story](. Thanks for reading. You can reach the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_180525), and Manuela will see you back here Monday. If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. Or, if you'd prefer, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking the first link below. [Unsubscribe From This Newsletter]( [Sign Up for More Newsletters and Email Alerts]( [View in Browser]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M5E 1E6. 416-367-2000 [PRIVACY POLICY](