TTC does end-run around Toronto Preservation Board. The TTC wants the right to redesign 63 of its 69 stations. Heh. We have 69 TTC stations. Never noticed that before. Heh. Ontario budget released. The budget contains small business tax cuts (not as large as Jim Flaherty would like) and small amounts of additional spending on infrastructure in public service (not as much as Howard Hampton would like). In short, it is the classic Liberal budget......

TTC union reps walked away from the bargaining table yesterday, meaning you could be walking to work as early as next Tuesday. Much like everyone else on the planet, the union is looking for more money and better benefits, but unlike everybody else on the planet, they can force the city into shutdown if they don't get it. As Clint Eastwood famously said in Unforgiven, "Deserves got nothin' to do with it." More snow......

Four federal byelections are being held today, including two in the Toronto ridings of Willowdale and Toronto Centre. The Liberals are considered to have the edge locally, where the Conservative "We Loathe Toronto" campaign of the last two years hasn't been as well-received as hoped. Happy St. Paddy's Day and remember to get voting before you get drinking. Conrad Black's son, Jonathan, 30, has been charged with failing to stop after an accident, driving......

Toronto principal in controversial controversy over explicit poems he wrote and posted to his website. This is of course the first recorded case ever of somebody getting in trouble for something they wrote on the Internet, and the scandal has sent shock waves through the online community. "Wait, somebody actually reads this shit?" said Patrick Metzger. "Dammit, I better re-emphasize that my erotic snuff story about Geri Halliwell is purely a work of fiction!"......

Gas prices in Toronto are at $1.09 or more a litre today, reflecting all-time record oil prices of over US$108 per barrel. For all our driving readers, it might cheer you up to consider that it's still cheaper to fill up your car with gas than say, orange juice or Diet Pepsi. By the way, if you do decide to go with orange juice, remember that the pulp-free kind is less likely to gum up......

Far be it from us to conflate professional sports with Bill Shakespeare—but the Toronto Maple Leafs’ actions before, during and after Tuesday's NHL trade deadline recall Macbeth’s famous words: full of sound and fury, yet ultimately signifying nothing. Charges of heresy will be duly acknowledged. In the end, the promised blow-up never materialized. None of the five big-money, no-trade-clause-holding players could be moved. Pavel Kubina was apparently ready to be shipped off (to San......

No Country For Old Men cleans up at the Oscars. The Coen Brothers finally got some big-time recognition with nods for best picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, and best husband of Frances McDormand. In other news, a bunch of Canadians got nominated for stuff and didn't win any of it. (There! We could totally write entertainment news for any major Canadian newspaper now!) Visa IPO expected to be worth nineteen billion smackers. MasterCard responded......

If you're reading this and it's between the hours of 7-9:30pm EST, do yourself a favour and tune into Hockey Night in Canada. You might be witnessing the end of an era in Toronto sports. Mats Sundin, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1997, is on the trading block. Earlier this week, TSN broke the news that interim general manager Cliff Fletcher had asked Sundin for a list of teams he'd be willing to......

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,......

TTC promises more buses, new routes, candy. Okay, they're not promising candy, but over the next year there will be gradual extra service along all of the TTC's major routes to lessen the impact of crowding. In 2009: possibly we get candy. Speaking of the TTC, Dalton McGuinty wants to bring it under provincial control as part of the Metrolinx regional transportation authority. Bypassing the fact that "Metrolinx" is a terrible, terrible name for......

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......

A three hour Blackberry outage affected millions of people across North America yesterday, leading to much wailing and handwringing over the temporary unavailability of a technology that didn't even exist ten years ago. Truly we are a nation of whiners. The Toronto Maple Leafs braved the cold to hold an unannounced outdoor skate at Withrow Park yesterday, where they were cheered on by 300 local grade-schoolers. Following the warmup, the kids formed a pickup......

Hey, did you know it's snowing? School buses have already been cancelled for today, meaning that children will romp and play in the streets and sabotage snowplow drivers and Chevy Chase will duel with a rival meteorologist for some reason and the mayor will declare it to be the "funnest day ever." Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have a nice, pleasant debate about minute policy issues. The debate was thus about as interesting as watching......

TTC subways twice as costly to build as Madrid's. And they got tapas while they were building it. Rogers increases their fake "system access" fee. Torontoist has learned that this is only the first in a proposed system of additional fees, including an "energy cost of making your phone ring louder" fee, a "remembering that you're paying for additional services" fee, and the obviously necessary "keeping track of all the fees you owe us"......

The saga of John Ferguson, Jr. is mercifully over: the beleaguered General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who's been a whipping boy for the team's misfortunes ever since his appointment in 2003, has been fired. Say what you will about Ferguson (and if you're a Leaf fan then you probably have): the way he's been treated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, particularly during his final few weeks in charge, has been nothing......

Ottawa to introduce new fuel economy standards. They will be "at least" as stringent as American fuel economy standards. In response, David Suzuki blew upon a party horn sarcastically and waved a tiny flag, his derision apparent to all and sundry. Bobby Fischer dies at 64. The former world chess champion was famous for beating the Russians, and for being quite possibly fairly insane, which inspired the nifty little film Searching For Bobby Fischer.......

Government fires head of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Linda Keen. However, it is understandable, considering that Ms. Keen went public about government interference in her job and threats of being fired if she shut down the Chalk River reactor for being potentially unsafe. We mean, you can't say she wasn't warned that her bosses were mendacious assholes, is our point. Mitt Romney wins Michigan Republican primary. The former Massachusetts governor, thought to be made......

We have no problem admitting our man-love for Mats Sundin: he's been the captain of our favourite hockey team for most of our adult lives, he's one of the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time and he's a shoe-in hall-of-famer once he retires. Seeing him score his 500th career goal still ranks as the greatest sporting moment we've ever witnessed. We know we're supposed to be too old and too sophisticated to have favourite......

The rumour mill is swirling around the Maple Leafs this week, as a less-than-stellar season and mixed signals from club ownership lead to daily reports about the fate of the team's management and captain. With all signs pointing to a third straight early vacation at season's end, the team's followers are steamed. Fans 70 years ago may also have been frustrated with the club, though in their case the problem was a team that......

Just in case this is something you like to be reminded of, you're going to die someday. The good news is that day is likely to be further off than ever, because average life expectancy in Canada has risen, with a baby born in 2005 likely to live to 80.4 years of age. On the other hand, who wants to be an 80-year-old baby? CIBC has announced that they will be selling $2.75 billion......

Sections of downtown core shut down for fear of falling debris. David Miller responds by initiating the "Less Wind Now" campaign, encouraging Ottawa to build "a giant wall" around Toronto to serve as a windbreak. Forty year mortages have arrived. Suggested advertising slogan: "Now you can be in your seventies and still not have paid down your house! Federal poll shows Tories back on top by seven points. Apparently, the secret for the Tories'......

In some households, hockey is a key element during the Christmas break. Skates under the tree. That long-desired California Golden Seals sweater from Santa. Fans that cannot be pulled away from the TV during holiday games and tournaments. Christmas songs recorded by a favourite player. We didn't make the last one up. There were people who believed that goaltender Johnny Bower had patrolled the net since the dawn of man, which wasn't far off......

A UN Envoy is calling Canada a climate hypocrite. Harper, in return, stomped his feet and said he was going to throw a party and only invite the people who didn't call him names. The Queen is upset with Canada because she wasn't invited to Quebec City's 400th birthday bash. The Queen then stuck her tongue out at Harper, and he told her to blame the UN. The OPP spent money meant for the......

City councillor wants to bring in the army—literally—to fight gangs. Torontoist ultimately decided to link to the Star's version of this story over Holy Shit Somebody Actually Said That Weekly. You are welcome. Mitt Romney delivers passionate speech defending religious plurality in America. The gist of the speech is thus: "Don't be intolerant of me because I am a Mormon; be intolerant of those agnostics and atheists over there who should not even be......

Say what you will about the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’re not boring. Incompetent, sure, but definitely not boring—not even during their recent, well-publicized losing streak. The Leafs are a middling 3–4–3 in their last ten games, yet they're oddly compelling to watch: they’re tied for third in league scoring (this, despite the inability of some of its key players to put the puck in the net) and they’re by far and away the......

A large part of the downtown core from College to Queens Quay and York to Bayview, was blacked-out for about 2 ½ hours yesterday. In response, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said that Toronto has the ability to generate all the power it needs and certainly wasn't getting any more from the Province, while Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty agreed, adding that Torontonians should stop whining and being all dependent on electricity. Web search giant......

Police had to quell trouble at the One Bloor condo site yesterday, as queue-jumpers moved in on agents and spotholders who had been standing in line for as long as a week. Although the interlopers were ultimately forced to the back of the line, many of those waiting were still too late to buy a unit in the development. One dissatisfied linestander said, "When do I get my iPhone?" A Caledon couple won $18.5 million......

One month into the new NHL season, and this much is obvious: the Toronto Maple Leafs are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, dressed in the league’s silly new jerseys. The Leafs are scoring more often than your younger sister, but they’re also leaking goals at a potentially historic rate. They’ve lost two games by 7–1 final scores, but they’ve also got an 8–1 win and consecutive 4–1 road victories against consensus preseason favourites......

It's been a strange week for Leaf Nation. On Tuesday, Toronto was embarrassed 7-1 (on home ice, no less) by the Carolina Hurricanes—and by Wednesday, the media was gleefully sounding the death knell for this year's edition of the Maple Leafs. On Wednesday night's edition of Off the Record, the panel spent ten minutes analyzing what was going wrong with the Leafs' year, which by then was exactly four games old. The team had......

Photo by alexindigo from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The leaves are falling; the days are getting colder and the nights longer. All this can only mean one thing. It's hockey season. In Toronto, hockey is virtually synonymous with the Maple Leafs. Which is fine if you're into teams with questionable goaltending, aging stars and $45 nosebleed seats. Luckily for us, the Leafs aren't the only game in town. Quality hockey, pleasantly free of suits......