The Toronto Argonauts can turn this Sunday’s Eastern Final into the perfect kickoff for the upcoming Grey Cup festival. If the Argos beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to reach the championship game, it'll give a huge boost to the week-long party, also known as “Canada’s national drunk.” Brad Watters, general manager of this year's Grey Cup, says that the team winning the 95th Grey Cup at home "would really turn the town on its......

At Torontoist, we're so used to writing about certain niche genres of art—graffiti art, video art, comic art, participatory art, billboard liberation art, performance art, outdoor art, nocturnal art, transit art—that we tend to forget about the encompassing category of "fine art for the commercial market." Canadian and international contemporary art enthusiasts will descend upon the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (255 Front Street West) this weekend from October 25–29 for the Toronto International Art......

If you’re one of the unfortunate souls who missed out on Helvetica way back in April—it was one of the big buzz films at Hot Docs this year—then mark October 16 on your calendar…maybe with a clean sans serif, in bold. Even italicized, depending on your level of excitement. Er, anyway, on October 16, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (that’s RGD Ontario to their friends) will be hosting a screening of......

Nerds rejoice! It’s here! Well, it will be! Soon! Fan Expo Canada sets down at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Friday, August 24, opening at 4 p.m. and running until 6 p.m. on Sunday (regrettably not straight). Hosted by the sometimes questionable Hobby Star Marketing, the three-day event is home to a series of mini-expos relating to comics, science fiction, horror, anime, and gaming, and features enough guest appearances to keep the World of......

The TTC can’t win for losing. Ridership is up but revenues are down as more riders choose weekly or monthly passes, and the TTC is looking for more money from the city to accommodate the surge. Damn those Metropass holders, riding around like they own the place. After nine days of deliberations, the jury in the Conrad Black case has announced that they’ve been unable to reach a verdict. Judge Amy St. Eve told......

Hold on to your horrors, scary story-lovers: Stephen King is scheduled to make his first official Canadian appearance to receive a life-time achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association. The event, to be held at the John Bassett Theatre at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Friday, June 8, will include an on-stage interview. The organizers say that tickets go on sale today (but as of 9 a.m. this morning, the website isn’t online). You......

Another weekend of trade shows is upon us. The belle of the ball this year is the Green Living Show, but there are two other significant expos for which you should make room in your schedule: the Good Food Festival and the Yoga Show. This is the 15th year of the Good Food Festival at the International Centre on Airport Road. For $12 you can enjoy cooking demos, free samples and great prices on all......

Spring is a time of renewal and rejuvenation. A time of change and new things. It makes sense that spring marks the start of the complementary health trade show circuit, with virtually every weekend promising another venue in which people can explore and learn. Some shows are a bit too “wacky” for some, but a few manage to tread close enough to the mainstream to attract a broad audience. These shows have exhibitors and lecturers......

Toronto is a convention city. Usually we are unaware of the presence of conventioneers unless one happens to be run down by a swarm of out-of-towners carrying identical bags and wearing freebie t-shirts. But this this week brings hoards of delegates to town for Canada Blooms, Canadian Music Week, and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention. Canada Blooms and CMW are pretty much what you would imagine: A bunch of florists and record......

For the long-suffering fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the year 1967 has become synonymous with past glories and forty years of failure. On Saturday night, the surviving members of the last Leaf team to win the Stanley Cup were reunited at the Air Canada Centre for the first time since that storied championship. An Alex Trebek-narrated video tribute began the proceedings, in what turned out to be a relatively simple, modest, and perhaps......

If you've noticed a dearth of cheap tinfoil at Dollarama recently, it could be due to a warning this week from the U.S. Defense Department stating that certain Canadian coins contain tiny radio transmitters that may have been intended to mark or track American defense contractors. The report states: On at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006, cleared defense contractors' employees traveling through Canada have discovered radio frequency transmitters embedded......

Yesterday was day two of Canada’s Bridal Show at the Metro Convention Centre (still on until 6pm today). It’s apparently “The Big One” for brides-to-be in our city, with over 400 vendors coming to peddle all kinds of stuff you didn’t even know you needed to have in order to publicly express your love for another person. Just walking in the door you're handed a bag containing, among other things, a package of "slightly......

Toronto art lovers will have to make some tough choices this weekend with both the Toronto International Art Fair and the Toronto Alternative Art Fair going on. The TIAF is on until Monday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The TIAF brings some of this city's best galleries and invites dozens more from around the world to show off their wares. The Powerplant is also hosting a series of talks tomorrow and Sunday. On the......

Dundas Square was a sea of light last night as thousands of people gathered with glowsticks in hand for the AIDS vigil that was held as part of the XVI International AIDS Conference. The one hour ceremony included speeches, music, lighting of candles and a moment of silence to honour friends, family and strangers alike who lost the battle to AIDS. Members of the crowd were also encouraged to call out the names of......

Fashion Cares will be celebrating their 20th anniversary this year with a party that is sure to become a spectacle of 'drama, daring and dreams.' On Saturday, June 3rd, over 5,000 guests will converge upon the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for 'M.A.C. VIVA GLAM 20' in support of the AIDS Committee of Toronto. This year will be a bit of retrospective of the last 20 years, but the evening is sure to live up to......

-The One of a Kind Show started yesterday, with artisans from all over the country hawking their wares. It's a bit of a trek out to Exhibition Place (the show, which seems to get bigger every year, is housed in the National Trade Centre), but it's worth it for the jam sampling alone, and it sure beats the Eaton Centre for charm and choice. Runs to December 4th. -If the One of a Kind is......

Watching chefs on TV can be a bit misleading. Lighting, camera tricks and a gaggle of food stylists in the wings make preparing food look effortless and easy. To get a feel for the real thing you'd have to wander into a kitchen, but seeing how chefs get mighty protective of their workspaces and a lot of them are very good with knives Torontoist will settle for watching them work at this weekend's Food and......

The Toronto International Art Fair is just plain weird. People pay $16 to look at art in a dimly lit basement in the bowels of the Metro Convention Centre. Everybody looks a bit sallow, and time seems to stand still as you troll through the endless booths of $10,000 masterpieces. At 5 pm each day, Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes gives a short talk and introduces an artist and his work, and, having missed......

Two major art fairs in town this week mean that it'll be hard to wander around Toronto without hitting an artist, critic, art dealer, patron or hanger on of some sort. First there's the Toronto International Art Fair (Nov. 3-7, $16), which is arguably the best use of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre that we've seen (sorry comic book fans and sci-fi geeks). It sure beats all those car shows and dentists' conventions. Torontoist highly......

The third annual Toronto Art Expo kicks off today, with work by 250 artists, and a concentration on art from Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Mexico. TOist is all for supporting art, and the TAE admission fee is a humble ten bucks, but their press jargon is enough to send you running from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, running all the way to Movenpicks. A sampler:The Toronto Art Expo with 250 exhibiting artists, is the largest......

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is currently hosting the Toronto Star Annual Golf & Travel Show, which will be running until Sunday at 6:00pm. Come down and demo that new set of clubs you’ve been looking at, or plan that perfect golf vacation. Although there are lots of deals to be had, Torontoist advises you get there early. Reason being that we know of at least one Compassionate Conservative who will be frantically buying up......

Fab Magazine, the free gay monthly with the David Miller-in-tight-leather cover last year, has started a massive postcard campaign with a same-sex marriage message to our federal MP's. One card thanks Paul "promise made promise kept" Martin with a hunky thumbs up, and the other has the ever-disparaging middle digit for Steve "notwithstanding" Harper. The postcards are a reaction to the numerous and much publicized campaigns from the religious right (isn't the right wing a......

This Torontoist couldn’t make a flower grow on the sunniest and wettest day of the year, in a jungle. Does that even make sense? While we don’t know anything about gardening, a lot of other people do, like the people running this year’s Canada Blooms, the Toronto Flower & Garden Show. The Canada Blooms event includes about 200 retailers who know all about growing plants and making gardens. The show is expected to attract nearly......

Torontoist just returned from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and was feeling very establishmenty, having been confronted by a flag-waving gaggle of Free Tibet soul-seekers walking out the Front Street entrance. Wearing a tie (and not ie. a string of prayer beads and a lovey attitude), your TO-ist was apparently mistaken for one of the hundreds of businessmen trapped inside the MTCC listening to the Prime Minister. The puffy, pouty prince of Parliament was, you......