Many fast-food chains and grocery stores are reintroducing tomatoes to their menus after the American tomato salmonella outbreak last week. Officials for the stores said that they waited until everybody had forgotten about the salmonella thing before bringing back the tomatoes, and that in future they hope to make us forget about bad things faster. Howard Hampton confirmed this weekend that he will not seek re-election to the NDP's provincial leadership next March. Hampton......

Stephen Harper pledges $40 million to polar research. Forty million dollars? That will buy an entire research station! By 2015, we will have turned drowned polar bears into a renewable energy source! Electioneering party leaders promise to get tough on street racing. Most impressive: Howard Hampton's promise to bring back photo radar. Yes, Howard. That will get the NDP lots of votes. Peter Mackay calls Liberal MP's trip to Afghanistan a "stunt." However, when......

New laws will officially criminalize identity theft by making it illegal to gather personal information which can be used for criminal purposes. Fun fact: if your identity is stolen online, the chances of the crime ever being investigated or prosecuted are practically zero. Surf safe, kids! Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton did a little preaching to the choir yesterday when he told a crowd of supporters that Canada's banks should "stop whining and start paying......

"It's hard to beat the system / when we're standing at a distance / so we keep waiting / waiting on the world to change." - JOHN MAYER How Do You Get To Massey Hall? I don't know, I only came close. I can at least tell you that practice has nothing to do with it. I'd practiced my speech a lot. Last night I was invited to represent my party (the Green Party of......

Right now, if you turn on your TV to channels 2, 3, 6, 8, 15, 24, 62, or 104 (presuming you have cable), you will see the leaders of the provincial political parties having at each other. Or, more accurately, you will see Dalton McGuinty, John Tory, and Howard Hampton having at each other. You will not see Green Party of Ontario leader Frank de Jong having at anyone. As they like to do,......

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......

The price of oil scaled new heights yesterday, climbing up over $80 US for the first time ever. That's good news if you're an oil company, but bad news if you're a regular folk who likes to go places, or do things, or eat stuff. McDonald's Canada is going upscale. Influenced by popular chains such as Starbucks, the fast-food giant will renovate its restaurants to make them more "comfortable," creating cosiness with leather chairs,......

After weeks of non-campaigning, the provincial election campaign officially opened with a bang yesterday, as Dalton McGuinty warned voters that if they don't vote Liberal, the Tories will form the next government. While true, the comment seems unnecessarily hurtful to poor Howard Hampton. Muslim groups say they didn't ask for it and don't need it. Parliament says they don't like it and didn't legislate it. Regardless, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand stands by the......

Environment Canada reports that this has been the driest summer in fifty years for Toronto, with the city only receiving around half of its usual rainfall. Short-term predictions suggest that fall will be equally dry, with the the long-range forecast calling for global warming followed by drought, famine, plague and societal collapse. Sounds like great picnic weather! Provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton has said that, if elected, he will roll back college and university......

Dalton McGuinty will pledge to plant fifty million trees to help fight climate change. Now, some might say that this is a somewhat lackluster pledge, what with the small print of promising to print all the trees over thirteen years. But what they didn't mention is that the trees are actually sentient and will come to your home to politely discuss with you the merits of public transit, and help you compost and reduce your......

NASA is embarrassed after a Toronto man found an error in their climate reporting. The new data mean that the warmest year on record in the US was 1934, not 1998, and skeptics have seized on the story as proof that the whole "global warming" thing is a hoax. Upon hearing the news, the newly navigable passage through the Arctic Ocean immediately refroze. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is shuffling his cabinet. The move will......

Once upon a time, governments worked together to create ambitious and expensive projects like, say, public transit. Then came the 1990s when funding was summarily cut off. Since then, we've seen funding restored in dribs and drabs, the half-implementation of several ideas (we're looking at you, Sheppard subway!), and the odd difficult move forward (the St. Clair ROW). We've also seen the creation of the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, but since no one seems......