Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty emphasized that today’s budget will be “frugal” in anticipation of an economic slowdown in the coming year. To demonstrate the concept in symbolic terms, Flaherty had an old pair of shoes resoled instead of buying the pair of new shoes traditionally associated with budgets. Flaherty also announced that he’s saving [...]

The Spice Girls are done––Geri Halliwell stuck the final nail in their room-for-five coffin last week when she told reporters that a tour like the one they’re on now “probably won’t happen ever again.” Which means that the concert on February 26 in Toronto will be the band’s last ever, maybe! While Baby and Sporty [...]

The winter sport of slush puddle vaulting is a game we’ve all played before. As an alternative to leaping over the slush filled gutters at Queen and Victoria last week, some inventive soul placed two shipping skids to bridge the puddle. Thank you mystery innovator, as many soakers were certainly avoided. Illustration by Kevin McBride.

The Falconer report on violence in Toronto schools talks of a “culture of fear,” saying that many students bring weapons to school, and many crimes go unreported. Some of the basic recommendations to fix things include more social workers and after-school basketball, fewer suspensions, more diverse teaching staff, and gun-sniffing springer spaniels to roam the [...]

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we’ve either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and [...]

What to do if you are alone tomorrow, either because you don’t celebrate Christmas, or because there’s no one around to celebrate with: Spend your day curled up with the almost-human warmth of your laptop, watching the WPIX Yule Log and listening to “Blue Christmas” (the Bright Eyes version), both on endless loops that resemble [...]

Gate House goes coed. After a series of puerile, childish, vaguely misogynistic stunts, the infamous all-male U of T residence has been come down upon by that stuffy old dean. Of note is Gate House’s claim to be an inspiration for the movie Animal House, just like every other “look at us we’re so wild” [...]

A few months ago, Torontoist wrote about the practice of façadism in the downtown core. Façadism—which refers to the practice of retaining the front face, or "skin," of an old building and affixing it to a newer, usually larger structure—has become increasingly popular in recent years as the city continues to grow up and out at its breakneck pace. Façadism began to be seen in Ontario after the 1975 Heritage Act, which gave municipalities...

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It’s Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what [...]

If you really like typography, signage, and the TTC––like, really really like it––maybe you’ll want to join Joe Clark this Sunday, October 28, at 2:00 p.m. at Scarborough Centre Victoria Park Station for the TTC Type & Tile Tour (or TTTT), a guided excursion through some of the Transit Commission’s successes and failures with signage. [...]

After decades of being situated as an icon of Queen Street West, it has been revealed that Citytv will be moving to a new high-profile location: Dundas Square. Since Rogers Communications announced plans to acquire Citytv, there has been much speculation about what would happen to the legendary Queen Street studios. The solution became the [...]