Photo by Michael Chrisman from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. How the tides have changed in Canadian federal politics. Much like the right-wing votes the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives split in the mid- to late-1990s, the Canadian left now faces fractured support split across multiple parties. With an election just two weeks away and polls showing that the Conservatives are on the brink of a majority government, the concept of uniting the left......

Photo by mama loo from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Cities can, should, and may need to start producing much of their own food. Four panellists—a farmer, an historian, an architect, and an activist—collectively presented a vision of cities as centres of agriculture at the From the Ground Up lecture, held Wednesday night at the Gardiner Museum. Urban agriculture provides, according to these speakers, a raft of environmental, social, and economic benefits, and ought to......

The second annual Picnic at the Brick Works was held this past Sunday, and it was a veritable extravaganza of foodie fun. From the simple (sliced and dressed heirloom tomatoes) to the avant-garde (chocolate beet cakes, anyone?), local ingredients and chefs showed off their stuff. The goal of the picnic is to highlight local and sustainably produced food. It's also a fundraiser, a joint venture between the Toronto chapter of the Slow Food movement......

Photo by functoruser. The dramatic rise in gas prices has the prime minister wannabes speaking out against it. However, as much as they talk, like our mamas taught us, actions count for more than words. And we're willing to gamble that not a single leader has had to pump his or her own gas in recent months.......

Photo of the T3 Tramway from *** Fanch The System !!! ***. On Friday evening at City Hall, two representatives of the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP)—Vice-President Philippe Martin and Director of Open Spaces and Heritage Remi Feredj—gave a public presentation on Paris's T3 LRT system to share lessons for Toronto to learn from. Their appearance seemed perfectly timed to reignite the debate over subways versus light rapid transit, most notably along the......

Torontoist's European bureau decamped this past weekend to the French Riviera. And you can rest assured that—between enjoying the beaches and drinking on sunny patios—we took time to consider the public transportation system. Nice has a good (and not over-infrastructured) blend of transit modes: trams on dedicated lines along the most-travelled stretches, buses that blanket the city, and affordable intercity coaches. A 25-minute ride to a medieval village for one euro ($1.50)? Sounds good......

God works in mysterious ways. Rather than manifesting Himself and, say, ending world hunger, killing the devil, or giving us all the ability to fly, He has taken a significantly more Dennis the Menace-y route to salvation, blasting the Virgin Mary into a tree in a backyard near Danforth Avenue and Birchmount Road. The Sun interviewed Christopher Moreau, a condo superintendent who first spotted Mary (above) in his neighbour's yard. Moreau told the Sun......

Some fifty-odd canoeists and kayakists collected on Lake Ontario last night to show some local water-based support for Canada's Olympic canoe and kayak teams. The get-together, brainstormed over beers by Jeff Needham of the Complete Paddler and David Newland, included paddlers from the Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre, The Complete Paddler, Canoe.ca, and the Virtual Voyageurs Canoe Club. The group congregated on the shore at 5:30 and spent two hours paddling around the lake......

So, your buddy just flew in from his exotic, six-month trek throughout Thailand. You're at work when he lands, so you send your older sister to go pick him up (she owes you a favour, as per usual). She drives to the airport, picks him up, and he returns, full of coconut curry and stories of full-moon parties. He doesn't bring back any drugs, or snakeskin shoes, but on the ride back he buys......

Photo by news46 from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Two years after it was a major election issue, the Toronto Island Airport is no less contentious. Today, CommunityAIR forwarded on the Toronto Port Authority's newly-released collection of noise complaints submitted in June [PDF], and there are plenty: in total, there were 195 complaints from 65 complainants, a significant increase over previous months. And sometimes there were dozens of complaints filed for one individual incident, like......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve. Hug Tree BY IZAK_NEUTRON......

Spacing reports on the fate of the Hug Me tree at Queen Street West and Peter Street after it was found knocked down yesterday. After narrowly avoiding being hacked up by the City's Forestry department, the tree is back—intact—in the hands of Elicser, the artist who had been painting it for the past few years, thanks in part to a woman whose husband proposed to her in front of the tree six years ago.......

Environmental groups including Ecojustice and Earthroots are decrying that golf courses on the Oak Ridges Moraine use billions of litres of water a year. The report they issued points out that groundwater levels in the area are declining sharply. Not in their report but should have been: the fact that golf sucks. Peter Kormos and Cheri DiNovo once again plan to introduce a bill calling for a revamp to our organ donation system, which......

Wild Toronto is a bi-weekly comic strip about the animals and plants that make a living in our city. Due to a lot of big (good!) changes, this is my last Wild Toronto comic. I'm really sad to have to go. Thanks so much for reading and for your insightful comments. Enjoy your wild spaces, Toronto!......

These photos, of a garden constructed atop a bus shelter on Greenwood Avenue between Gerrard and Dundas, were recently uploaded to one of the Facebook groups of the Toronto Public Space Committee's Guerrilla Gardeners. More after the fold.......

Tuesday's enormous storm was not without shitty consequences. Around Sunnyside Beach, the hard and fast rainfall caused a storm sewer to overflow, spilling sewage and rainwater onto the beach, flooding the park and grass, pushing up the boardwalk, and forcing the city to close the beach and nearby Sunnyside Gus-Ryder Pool. While the beach is still closed as the city makes sure things are safe, parents are back to dropping the kids off at the......

Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice has demanded a meeting with the honchos from Bell and Telus so they can explain to him exactly why they decided to charge their pay-per-use users 15¢ per received text message, calling the decision "ill thought-out." Canadian technology users are consequently planning to demand a meeting with Minister Prentice to ask him to explain ACTA and Bill C-61, calling them "ill thought-out." Recently released documents have revealed that Canadian......

Wild Toronto is a bi-weekly comic strip about the animals and plants that make a living in our city. Rosemary Mosco makes the comics, and would love to hear your suggestions (in the comments!) on wildlife to be profiled.......

People work hard for their money, but don't make their money work hard for them. It's time to fix that. The last Wednesday of every month, Saverist whips your income into shape with smart, practical advice. Photo by shervin2 from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Being green is popular, but can it also help the wallet too? Whether grabbing a cup of coffee, foraging through the laundry, or making popcorn in the microwave for a movie,......

The art world is abuzz with eco-friendly, small-footprint art. From Santa Fe to our own little urban oasis, enviro-art is where it's at. One such green group at the fore is Ecotecture, a charitable organization working out of the Deleon White Gallery space (the gallery that brought you crazy films and Microsoft fantasies). Ecotecture's mandate states that they "offer a public forum to those working through questions of sustainability and facilitate the exhibition of......

It rained a lot yesterday, and it will most likely rain more today. Then it will probably rain some more on Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday. If you're like Torontoist and don't have air conditioning, you are all for more rain. Keep raining, rain! (But no more funnel clouds, please. That kinda freaks us out.) Omar Khadr wrote a letter to the CBC answering six questions they sent him. The young detainee says he......

Wild Toronto is a bi-weekly comic strip about the animals and plants that make a living in our city. Rosemary Mosco makes the comics, and would love to hear your suggestions (in the comments!) on wildlife to be profiled.......

Jeremy Bell and Jessica Lax are just like your average young married couple, but with about ten-times the ambition. What started out as a simple plan of buying a new house in which to raise a family has ballooned into a large-scale building project—and they want you along for the whole thing by following their magnificent blog. After doing a quick Google search, Bell was surprised to learn that there hasn’t really been a......

Drivers idle their cars at the drive-thru picking up grub, at curbsides waiting to pick someone up, and on their driveways warming up their cars. (Contrary to popular belief, it's better to warm up a car by driving it slowly rather than letting it sit idle.) While idle, a car releases twice as much exhaust compared to when it is moving and wastes gas, since just ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than......

Wild Toronto is a bi-weekly comic strip about the animals and plants that make a living in our city. Rosemary Mosco makes the comics, and would love to hear your suggestions (in the comments!) on wildlife to be profiled.......

Sunshine, mild breezes, birds chirping… ah, spring. But before you know it, we’ll all be complaining about the damn heat, and lawns everywhere will look like hay. The city will issue a frantic "don't water anything" order and those fresh green shoots you see now will be wilted, yellow clumps by August. Fear not, green thumbs. Paul Needler has the solution for you. Needler, a part-time musician and full-time inventor, has come up with......

A man carrying a coffee cup through the doors of a downtown theatre is stopped by an usher. Usher: Oh, excuse me—sorry, you're only allowed to bring water into the theatre. (The man begrudgingly accepts, then walks past a garbage can and starts squishing the cup through the narrow slit opening of a recycling bin marked "paper/newspaper," spilling coffee onto his hand and around the opening of the bin.) Man, to no-one in particular: This......

The committee charged with reviewing Ontario's payday loans law recommends a hard usury cap of sixty percent. Were it any lower, payday loan companies would have to shut down and go get real jobs and make their mothers proud of them. Were it any higher, payday loan companies would be dancing in the streets and shouting "hooray!" So sixty percent is apparently the fair number. A judge will decide today whether a videotaped interview......

Look for packs of perplexed wheelie-encumbered tourists roaming Front Street this week in a fruitless search for shelter, as the Fairmont Royal York darkens its iconic rooftoop sign for seven days. The hotel is taking the step as part of Energy Awareness Week, an initiative spearheaded by the Ontario Power Authority to raise awareness of and disseminate information about energy conservation (events include "Tieless Tuesday," not a huge conservation measure in itself, but with......

Mayor David Miller is asking the province for "strong mayor" powers, which would give him the authority to hire and fire the city manager as well as to meet with his executive committee behind closed doors. If the request is approved, Miller will look for "super mayor" powers, which would allow him to travel in time and turn difficult councillors to stone with his gaze. Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has appointed an investigator to......