The federal government's defence plan will cost $20 billion more than the federal government said it would cost, at least according to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff. Stephen Harper responded to the criticism by explaining that the country would be purchasing its planes and tanks through Canadian Tire, and that the Canadian Tire money generated by the purchases would be applied directly to the national debt, thus equalizing out costs. Tory MP Jason......

Toronto health officials tied an outbreak of measles to the financial district yesterday, and more specifically to the TD Waterhouse and the Scotia Tower, thus confirming what we have known for many years: bankers and stockbrokers are dirty, filthy people. A government report condemned the Toronto Catholic District School Board for spending more money on itself than any other board in Ontario, at an average of a hundred thousand dollars per member. John Tory......

Barack Obama inched closer to the Democratic Presidential nomination last night, winning North Carolina pretty decisively and holding Hillary Clinton's victory in Indiana to a near-tie. Pundits and prognosticators alike agreed that at long last, Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the nomination were almost totally nonexistent, now that America has finally come to terms with the fact that Barack Obama is black, y'all, he's black, y'all, he's blackety-blackety-black, y'all. According to the Auditor General, the......

TTC riders can get a refund after last weekend's strike (see Torontoist's story here). If you bring your pass to a collector's booth, you will get $7.50 back. Torontoist personally plans to invest its Metropass refund in the stock market, purchasing 1/95th of a share of Google. The United States Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point. On second thought, maybe Torontoist should invest its $7.50 in a wheelbarrow factory. (Obscure......

Copper theft in Toronto has reached record levels. Thieves just can't get enough of that golden-brown stuff. You can do anything with it—sell it for four dollars per pound, or...well, actually that's pretty much all a copper thief can do with copper, come to think. Jim Flaherty will have a nice sit-down with Dwight Duncan. The federal and provincial finance ministers are tentatively scheduled to enjoy a nice snack of tea and crumpets before......

China vows to continue the international Olympic torch relay despite lots of protests. The International Olympic Committee suggested that they might do away with the international route in upcoming games, because from now on, all Olympic games will be held in authoritarian dictatorships and they "don't want to look bad" when they award the next few Games to Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, and the Equatorial Republic of Hate-Land. (The President-For-Eternity of Hate-Land responded by saying, "ooooooh,......

Today is Tartan Day. This is the day customarily used for the first time ever to celebrate Scots who have moved to North America. Torontoist recommends that you celebrate by eating a deep-fried Mars bar and staggering out of a soccer game, swearing loudly. Winnipeg MP argues for scrapping the penny. Sure, Pat Martin trots out all the usual arguments—it costs more to make than it's worth, it has no real value worth mentioning......

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......

If you're like us (and, God willing, you’re not), then you're utterly exasperated by the ongoing steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. You're puzzled that the United States Congress has nothing better to do than to interrogate multimillionaire athletes who might've used performance-enhancing drugs. Moreover, you're wondering why, this past Wednesday morning, no fewer than three Canadian sports networks were showing live coverage of the Roger Clemens hearing. Is it really that important? Regardless,......

After the Toronto Blue Jays acquired a gimpy Scott Rolen in exchange for a gimpy Troy Glaus, the general consensus was that the two players cancelled each other out. One point, however, hasn't been discussed—possibly because it's utterly irrelevant to the game of baseball. Still, we feel it's worth mentioning that we'll no longer have to wince as Troy Glaus limps up to bat with "Crazy Train" blasting through the speakers. Instead, we'll apparently......

'Tis the season for gift certificates. Whether you're scratching your head trying to figure out what to give to an impossible recipient or selecting your loved one's favourite store or service, the selection of certificates, cards and vouchers seems unlimited. More than a few local sports woke up on Christmas morning three decades ago to find one of today's passes for the Blue Jays' second campaign as a stocking stuffer. The Jays finished their......

It's election day today! So go vote. If you don't vote, nobody will ever truly love you and you will die alone and unmourned. This is a statistical fact. In further Ontario election news, the party leaders all make their final claims as to why you should vote for their party here, and none of them make the argument that they deserve your vote for being the whitest guy in Ontario, because all of them......

City to designate laneway "Ben Kerr Lane." It is predicted that the laneway will become the center of Toronto's booming hot sauce scene. Howard Hampton promises to roll back MPP pay hikes and to raise the minimum wage to $10/hour. Good thing Hampton hasn't actually published an economic plan yet. I mean, there's only less than a month until the next election, wouldn't want to tip your hand too early... Economics researcher links higher gas......

Sometimes, you just need to know when to give up. If you’re a Toronto Blue Jays fan, you should’ve picked last night’s game—a gut-wrenching 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers in which Toronto blew a three-run, ninth-inning lead for the second time in three games—as a good time to write off the team’s 2007 season. To be fair, most people did that months ago; unfortunately, some of us wouldn't let ourselves off so easy, and......

It's Labour Day, so a special shout-out to all the sweatshop workers who won't be reading this because they're working today and can't afford a computer on 21 cents an hour anyway. Thanks for all the cheap clothes, guys. The Star reports that the suspect in whose car police found three bombs on Friday was described by his landlord as "unstable." Ya think? Time to rethink those cross-border shopping plans—increased security checks at border......

Did you know it was really hot yesterday? Because it was. It was really, really hot yesterday. Thank god for the Toronto Star or Torontoist might not have noticed, what with the relaxing in the air-conditioned basement and all. Registered Nurses of Ontario express their opposition to the Canadian Medical Association's two-tier healthcare proposal. Good point made: that wait times (a.k.a "the nightmare of all proponents of private medicine") have been shrinking in the last......

A hundred and one games into the 2007 Major League Baseball season—a year in which they were widely expected to challenge the Eastern Seaboard's hegemony in the American League East—the Toronto Blue Jays are exactly one game over .500. In other words, this won't be the breakout year after all; in fact, it'll be tough for them to replicate last year's 87-75 record, which was only good enough for second place in the division.......

In the nosebleeds at a Jays game on Friday night. Curtis Thigpen is at bat. Bored Guy: If you re-arrange the letters in "Thigpen," you get "Hip Gent." Bored Girl: ...Or Thin Peg! Bored Guy: Or...Penthig. (The mother sitting in front of Bored Guy and Girl leans back in her seat.) Mother, whispering to her sons: You know, if the people behind us had a life, they would not be making fun of that guy's......

Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown takes over. For those not familiar with British politics, an analogy: remember when Jean Chretien stepped down and Paul Martin took over as Prime Minister, and everybody agreed that although it was clearly time to go, wow, was Paul Martin boring or what? It's like that, except pretend that Paul Martin was even more boring. Looks like the Hamilton Predators will not be in Ontario's......

Recycling plant fire closes the 407. Officials commented how deeply ironic the fire was. "It's a recycling centre and it's contributing to smog!" (Not ironic: rain on your wedding day, good advice you just didn't take.) Canadian soldier killed near Kandahar, two wounded in roadside bomb blast. Trooper Darryl Caswell brings Canada's military death total in Afghanistan to 57. The Sopranos comes to an end with an episode that, depending on your viewpoint, was......

Young gangsters from the suburbs! Skanked-out girls in miniskirts! Drunk and angry frat guys! Beware! Toronto has assigned 18 officers to a "rapid deployment team" that will protect the entertainment district from violent crime as part of the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS). TAVIS received $5 million this morning to increase officer presence in the area and prevent gun violence. Conservatives to GO bosses: if we were in power, we'd fire your asses for......

Have you checked out the officially unveiled ROM Crystal yet? Some cool dudes like David Foster, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, K'naan, Natalie McMaster, David Suzuki and Governor General Michaëlle Jean [AND CLAY AIKEN!!!—Ed.] were on scene for the dedication. A 18-month-old boy is dead after falling off of a 28th-floor balcony of an apartment building near Victoria Park and Danforth Avenue yesterday. Stephane Dion to One Cent Now: No. The Buffalo News on Toronto:......

The soldier killed Wednesday in Afghanistan has been confirmed as Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede. The 30-year-old grew up in Burlington, Ont. but lived in Grand Forks, B.C. until he left for Afghanistan a month ago. He was killed along with six others when a rocket flew into their Chinook helicopter. The Ipperwash Inquiry was released yesterday. Commissioner Sidney Linden says that he believes that both federal and provincial governments were responsible as well as......

Sam the Record Man is closing its Yonge Street store on June 30. Remember when Sam's was the only place you could get a cassette of The Lowest of the Low's Shakespeare My Butt? Remember cassettes? Two high profile cases got their day in court yesterday. Wing-Piao Dumani Ross and Alexander Ryazanov, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the 2006 death of cabbie Tahir Khan. The pair were sentenced to house arrest for a year,......

Jerry Falwell dead at 73. This is true: last week he appeared on CNN and told Christine Amanpour that he was praying for an additional twenty years of life to "complete his task" and that he felt optimistic about getting it. The moral here is that prayers are always answered, but that sometimes the answer is "no." Bill Clinton to unveil energy plan for Toronto and other major cities. Major global banking institutions have committed......

Canada's second-last WWI veteran dies at 106. Percy Dwight Wilson (pictured) lied about his age to enlist in the army at the age of fifteen. Is that not amazing? Torontoist thinks that's amazing! Provincial Grits to announce a green energy plan that will be more aggressive than the federal Tory plan. The announcement is scheduled for June 11th and has already been leaked to the Star, so a reasonable scenario is that the government is......

Photo by Kurtis Billard on Flickr. Hey, Toronto sports fans, it's time to wake up. The Leafs did not make the playoffs, now take off the black armbands and get over it already. The Blue Jays are dealing with a number of injuries, but even if they weren't, the season's just begun and there are still approximately 800 games left to be played this year. Sadly, Toronto's brand new soccer franchise has been outscored 9–0......

Toronto student Soohyun Park took top prize at the CanSpell Cup nashional spelling bee. Her corect spelling of 'hypobulia' trumped 'cerumen' and 'moiety'. A Virginia Tech student gunned down 33 of his classmates yesterday, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Shortly after 3:00 a.m., a three alarm fire gutted a house at Spadina and Baldwin, between College and Dundas. One southbound lane on Spadina is closed to traffic, but the streetcar is running......

As a public service to fans planning to catch the Blue Jays' home opener on Monday night, we offer a prescription for enjoying the game from the team's debut season. Given the current weather, will the 30th anniversary opener be as snowy as the first? You can debate whether Canada was still a child when Gordon Tamblyn purchased a drug store at Queen St. E. and Lee Ave in 1904. By the early 1930s,......

The 1960s and 1970s saw family dining restaurant chains explode across North America. Chains such as Steak n' Burger took staples of diners and greasy spoons and used cleanliness, low prices and conformity to draw in hungry families. You have all the components of the old-school low-end steak dinner: a bowl of iceberg lettuce with no fresh-ground pepper or sun-dried tomato vinaigrette in sight, a baked potato with a huge pat of butter; a......