Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie. According to a December 2004 article in the Globe, Mike Harris is (or at least was at the time) the chairman of video advertising company Onestop; he got on board "in return for an equity stake" in the business. Presuming that he still has that stake (and why wouldn't he? he may be evil, but he's not stupid), Harris became a richer man two weeks ago, when the Toronto Transit......

Hope is a cruel thing for a sports fan: no matter how bleak the situation, as long as there's a straw in sight we'll happily clutch at it. Case in point: Leafs Nation, of which we're proud, occasionally defiant members. We've been flip-flopping over the Leafs all season long. A few weeks ago we'd written them off, then watched as the team put together an impressive run (which included comprehensive victories over the Ottawa......

Photo of Forest City Lovers by Joe Fuda Torontoist is gearing up for the annual Canadian Music Week this week. CMWist's complete coverage of show listings and a constant outpour of recommendations and reviews throughout the week will keep you all focused with that overwhelming 500+ band schedule. But CMW aside, Soundscapes will be hosting a handful of free (yes, free) in-store performances throughout the week running parallel to CMW, and supporting the new......

At the Interior Design Show this past weekend, British innovator-icon Tom Dixon lamented the impossibility of creative rebellion in today's art and design world. In the eighties, he said, postmodern design values were near-universal, and thus easy to subvert. In the oughties, however, the aesthetic is increasingly fractured, and there is no one standard to either strive for or strain against. If anything goes and nothing is new, how are today's students to design......

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and......

Forget the snow, it's time to start planning your summer of cycling. The Toronto–Niagara Bike Train will be returning this year with an expanded schedule, more travel options, and some getaway package deals. Building on last summer's successful pilot program which saw dozens of cyclists and their bikes riding the train between Toronto and Niagara Falls on each of four weekends, the 2008 edition of the Bike Train spans eight weekends from late June......

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. As you read this I'm somewhere in the Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, likely between the House of Commons visitors' gallery where I will have just finished watching question period and the Railroad Room where......

Minor changes alert! We've got a few new cool things to quickly show ya. Posting Schedule You can now see a weekly schedule of our posts that displays which day of the week and at what time your favourite features run. Dig Wild Toronto? The schedule's a super-easy way both to get quick access to all the feature's past posts and to see when the next one's on deck (that'd be this Thursday at......

Since fake pharmaceutical ads for a drug called "Obay" starting appearing across Ontario (and elsewhere) last week, everyone from street artist Frank Shepard Fairey (aka OBEY) to Scientologists to comedian Maggie Cassella has been fingered as the culprit behind them. Last Friday, three days after the ads seem to have launched, we traced them, with no small amount of confidence, to a substantially less dramatic source––Colleges Ontario, an advocacy organization representing twenty-four colleges across......

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. Last night was our first public all-candidates debate in this campaign. Hosted by the Bay Corridor Community Association in the Sutton Place Hotel, it was extremely well attended by an engaged audience. For those of us who recognize......

Imagine what the Caddy would think of this month's snowfall. The car wouldn't bother waiting for a driver to take in the greyhounds before the next storm strikes. Cars were sold at the northwest corner of Bay and Grenville for over 80 years, starting in 1925 with a dealership owned by General Motors of Canada president Sam McLaughlin. Addison took over in 1955 and remained until the lot closed last March. The heritage-designated building......

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the fall of Festival Cinemas, which sparked fears that rep cinema would disappear from the city. In 2006, the future of repertory......

Today we celebrate Ontario's first ever Family Day. Banks and government offices are closed, but many malls and stores are open for last-minute Family Day shopping. As reported by the Sun, the Fraser Institute released its 2008 rankings of Ontario elementary schools, with most schools in the GTA faring reasonably well. If you have stupid kids, you can use the report to find a lousy school to send them to so people won't blame......

We managed to see Cloverfield a few weeks ago, and with the release of Diary of the Dead (above) this week, we have to say it's rather timely to discuss our opinion of it. As tired as this quote is, there's really no better way to describe Cloverfield than to take from Macbeth's famous soliloquy: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." It's particularly relevant because Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead are similar......

The problem of abandoned and unwanted pets is not unique to Toronto. A recent Toronto Star article, however, has highlighted the plight of abandoned animals who may no longer be collected by City of Toronto shelters due to budget concerns, ultimately leading to an overflow of dogs and cats in neighbouring municipalities. According to the article, one of the biggest fears is an explosion in the feral feline population, since—as everyone knows—cats are raging......

"The Better Way Gets Better," yesterday's TTC press release proclaimed, teasing the media for today's big announcement of service changes. And, really, it'd be hard to disagree. As anticipated, today at the TTC's Arrow Road Garage, David Miller and Adam Giambrone announced a fleet of changes to the TTC's fleet of bus and streetcar routes, designed to decrease crowding and increase service across the system: 75 bus and the Queen, King, and Carlton streetcar......

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times for the Toronto Maple Leafs; in fact, the past couple weeks have been nothing short of surreal. First, the best of times: wins against the high-flying Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, followed by a thoroughly unexpected Hockey Day in Canada victory over the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, have given the team a boost. Injured players are getting healthy. The return of the......

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. There is, of course, no multi-partisan training manual for new candidates on how one is to behave during an election campaign with regards to one's opponents. Therefore, the first time I ran (in the 2006 federal general election)......

It’s a strange, perhaps undesirable, thing to admit to, but Torontoist spends a lot of time thinking about R. Kelly. Generally it comes down to one core question that we just can’t answer (nor do we think we ever will): Is R. Kelly a genius or a lunatic? Here is a man who has produced some of the most pitch-perfect songs in the sickeningly syrupy ballad category (including possibly the pinnacle, Michael Jackson’s "You are......

Many of us were looking forward to welcoming the Buffalo Bills to Toronto. The eight games they'll play here over the next five years could've been the perfect complement to our existing football diet of live Argonauts games and televised NFL matches. Now that the details have been announced, more than a few of us have been priced out of attending. The majority of tickets average into the $350 per game range, and are only......

If you passed the Church of Scientology’s Toronto chapter at Yonge & St. Mary on Sunday, you may have momentarily entertained a dark fantasy that Tom Cruise would emerge from the masked masses amid gales of manic laughter, igniting the dissenting throng with bolts of righteous lightning. Sadly, no such fun. Rumour has it that Mr. Cruise was under lockdown during Anonymous’ global day of action against L. Ron Hubbard’s brainchild. As the Toronto......

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.......

Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com. Hello, I am new to the city and am looking for advice on where to find great vintage clothing shopping. Can you please recommend both general areas of town where I might have some luck and, most importantly, specific stores I should check out? As someone on a budget, I'm looking for good deals. Also, I heard something about......

Rabbit in the Moon, the legendary Los Angeles-based funky techno crew best known for their insane, pyrotechnic, costumed stage performances and dark, live beats, is headlining the last ever all-ages party at The Sound Academy, a.k.a. The Docks, this Saturday at Destiny's Together As One. This will be the first time Rabbit in the Moon has performed within city limits since 1999, which should prove to be a frenetic, immersive performance with wearable lasers,......

The verdict is in, and the umbrellas are going up! Following an invited competition to design a new public space for the Jarvis Slip, Waterfront Toronto has revealed the winner, unanimously chosen by the design jury: Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes Inc. As outlined in our competition coverage, the Cormier plan—dubbed "Sugar Beach"—will bring an HtO Park-style "urban beach" to the foot of Jarvis Street, dotted with charming steel umbrellas and Muskoka chairs. The sandy......

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the worst trailer we’ve ever seen on TV. It’s absolutely meaningless. It explains nothing about the (surely) threadbare plot of......

Good morning university and college students, and good news: you don't have to go to school today. The University of Toronto updated its website shortly after 9 a.m. this morning to say that "Due to severe weather conditions on Friday, Feb. 1, U of T Missisauga is closed, U of T Scarborough is closed as of 10:00AM, and U of T (St. George) is closed as of 11:00AM. University buildings are closed and classes......

Miss the fourth installation of YO! Remember the 90's?? As if! Unless you're totally clueless when it comes to comebacks, you know the nineties are the dopest thing since, like, the eighties. And if you don't, you oughta know. No, we're not talking overplayed nu-rave, just good old-fashioned dance mixes: hip-hop, pop and rock, plus all the one-hit wonders it's cool to like now that there's a decade of ironic distance between you and your......

As the popular phrase goes, when one video store door slams shut, another one opens. A new video store has sprung up on Dundas (just west of Dufferin) catering to "women and the LGBT community." The store––called West Side Stories––has a broad selection of old and new queer/transgender movies and documentaries, as well as a section for "women in film" alongside the usual array of new releases and cult classics. It's encouraging to note that......

Next Monday, February 4, Keep Toronto Reading will launch its One Book program at the Toronto Reference Library. There will be performances by Soprano Mary Lou Fallis, who will sing popular songs from the 1850s, and Ross Manson who will perform two dramatic readings from Consolation. The event will be hosted by Tina Srebotnjak, who will interview Michael Redhill, author of Consolation. You can check out all One Book events here. As part of Keep......