Why was President Obama at the wedding of a Toronto MPP’s son?

There’s just something about the slow-jamming, fly-swatting president of the United States—all Barack Obama had to do was show up to a Chicago wedding with a Toronto connection, and the Toronto Star slid headlong into a game of six degrees of separation. Both the prez and Bas Balkissoon, the Liberal MPP for Scarborough-Rouge River, were recently in Chicago for Balkissoon’s son Tony’s marriage to Laura Jarrett—she’s the daughter of Valerie Jarrett, who heads the White House office of public engagement (got all that?). The Star also dug up a few more Ontario connections to the most powerful man in the world: presidential adviser David Axelrod was a former strategist to Dalton McGuinty; and Jean-Michel Picher, who worked on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, also helped the premier in the last provincial election. To summarize, the political elites in two neighbouring countries are connected. We’re not exactly gobsmacked. [Toronto Star]