Results tagged “canada”

Oshawa, you big, adorable, patriotic lug, your heart really is in the right place. But seriously, calm down or you're going to pull something.

SPORTS: Are you sick of taking your baby or toddler to a sports event and hearing the aggravated spectators around you groan every time your kid cries? The Rogers Centre sympathizes, which is why today is their monthly Babies at the Ballpark Blue Jays game. Parents with young children can buy discounted tickets and sit together in a special 200 level section. Diapers and wipes will be available at no extra cost, and there will be free juice and snacks for the kids. The Blue Jays are playing the Cleveland Indians, and rookie Scott Richmond is scheduled to pitch for the Jays. Rogers Centre (1 Blue Jays Way), 1:07 p.m., $9-$63.

Wikipedia recently updated their list of the most prolific editors, and Torontoist was pleased to discover that at 181,749 edits, the most prolific human is a Toronto resident. Bearcat’s user profile describes him as "an underemployed gay freelance writer of Franco-Ontarian stock in Toronto, Ontario, who votes for the New Democratic Party, drinks Alexander Keith's, hangs out at the Church and Wellesley Timothy's."

If you're interested in pursuing a career in crime here in Canada, it looks like your best bet is to pack up and move to Regina. According to an article published in Maclean's, Regina (aka "The Other Other Queen City") has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous city in Canada, followed closely by Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The rankings, based on per-capita crime rates published by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, paint a dark picture of the West as a crime-ridden, scary place where unsuspecting rubes from Toronto are lured into dark alleys and robbed of their vintage t-shirts. All of the cities in the top 10 (save Halifax at #10) are located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

NDP charges Liberals "deceptive" over nuclear energy plans. Apparently the nuclear energy commitments the provincial government has made require almost four times the nuclear energy generation capability that their promised plant could deliver, unless the plant itself was four times larger than the Darlington plant. This is all part of the current clever government plan to get ahead of everybody else and be massively involved in the next energy crisis when the world runs out of readily refineable uranium.

Photo by Arline Malakian. Courtesy of Lucian Matis.

Photo by David Spigolon.

Plagued by complaints, the City of Toronto has finally gotten around to ticketing some homeowners who don't clear the snow in front of their property. A city spokesperson said they prefer not to send out inspectors in the winter because it's so difficult to get around.

One of the biggest complaints that Toronto hip hop artists have is that they are ignored by local media, and, for the most part, they're right. Drop the Needle hopes to help remedy this by checking in with some of the city's finest artists each month to see what's up.

Speculation has been swirling in Toronto's literary community over the authorship of The Calling, a new recent crime fiction novel, penned by a prominent and highly-regarded writer under the alter-ego of Inger Ash Wolfe. First, Maclean's guessed the author was Jane Urquhart, who denied the rumour. Then, citing as evidence a handful of anonymous leaflets distributed to publishers, The Star pointed the finger at Michael Redhill, one of Torontoist's favourite authors. He coyly side-stepped the question without firmly denying it. Finally, Quill & Quire suggested Linda Spalding as a candidate, but she too rebuffed the notion. Pseudonyms are common enough in crime fiction—from Franklin W. Dixon to John Ross MacDonald—but the real identity usually emerges eventually. In this case, the publisher denies that they'll ever reveal the secret. Is the secret a mystery-wrapped publicity stunt to generate pre-release buzz, or a genuine attempt to identify the book as a first-in-genre launch instead of a first-time-author? Either way, now that the book's in stores, is it worth the hype?

Torontoist Environment Editor Chris Tindal is currently engaged in a federal by-election campaign. This weekly column is an attempt to offer a behind the scenes glimpse into what it's like to be that mysterious Other: a politician.

Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks.

Torontoist visited Leaside Curling and discovered an array of curling enthusiasts that reflect the diversity and character of our city. (And some of its endearing eclecticism too.) With a handful of intimate portraits, Torontoist takes a peak at some of the people who help make Canada the curling capital of the world.

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here.

You've got less than three weeks to prepare yourself for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 29. That's when people around the world are being encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about global warming. Toronto was the first Canadian city to sign up for the international event late last year, and has since been joined by most other GTA municipalities, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and many more—close to 50 cities across the country at last count.

City councillor, unintentional humourist, and Torontoist favourite Councillor Rob Ford has grabbed himself some headlines again. He refuses to apologize for his comments on Wednesday, "the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over...they're hard, hard workers," because his sweeping generalization was intended as "a compliment." However, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Lazy Asians has said that the remarks were "deeply offensive."

City sells "the McDonald's site" on Bloor for a fairly low price. However, Adam Vaughan insists there are upsides to the deal, such as being able to limit the height of the condo development that will take its place, because who would want tall buildings in the downtown core?

It snowed again last night, so if you're going anywhere, it'll probably take you a long time. However, we're getting another storm on the weekend so you might as well wait before you start shovelling. Actually, it'll be spring in a couple of weeks anyway so if you have enough cans of SpaghettiO's, it's probably best to just stay home til then.

Photo of Julie Wilson, courtesy of Julie Wilson.

You'd think it would be common practice these days for everyone to regularly wash their hands, especially if they work in the health-care profession. Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care advises that frequent handwashing is "the single most effective way to prevent the spread of communicable diseases." (Cooties are the obvious exception here, since they can only be prevented by administering a cootie shot.) Unfortunately, the statistics indicate that health-care workers aren't very diligent about soaping up.

New glass recycling program will save local municipalities millions of dollars. It turns out that you can turn used glass into other things than smaller bits of broken glass!

Photo of Forest City Lovers by Joe Fuda

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has fired off a whiny letter to the PM complaining about Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's public criticism of Ontario and its tax laws. Flaherty, who apparently counts all time lost when he's not psychologically bitch-slapping his governmental inferiors, responded by calling McGuinty a "big stupid crybaby."

Jeff Healey, legendary Torontonian musician and owner of Jeff Healey's Roundhouse on Blue Jays Way (and Healey's at Queen and Bathurst prior to that), has died of cancer at only 41. The news, posted to his website earlier tonight, comes just under two months before the domestic release of Healey's new album, Mess of Blues, recorded with what Healey called "the best damned bar band in Canada." His website has plenty more information about his life and music. Funeral and memorial arrangements are forthcoming.

Here's a riddle: What walks throughout Canada, weighs more than a Brit, but less than an American, and can help stop global warming? No, it's not Sasquatch. It's not Kyoto.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Photo by sevennine from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Hello! Although you probably didn’t notice, this Torontoist writer was away for a week, and as a result we failed to do something very important. Specifically, to congratulate Norm Wilner on becoming NOW’s senior film critic. We're not doing this just because we know Wilner keeps an eye on Torontoist to see if he gets a mention, but because we like his work so much that we can’t think of anyone better to step into John Harkness’s (non-literal) shoes.

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman has caused a furor with his comment that he'd be willing to test-drive an adult diaper to see if being left in soiled diapers for hours on end is really all that bad. Critics say he isn't taking the issue of sub-standard care in nursing homes seriously, which seems a bit harsh, since there can't be too many politicians who'd be willing to spend a day crouched in their own excrement on behalf of their constituents. Brings a tear to the eye, it does.