Results tagged “mikeharris”

Anyone who’s read a newspaper or magazine in the last few months can verify: recession chic is the new black. The only thing more irritating than regularly seeing a decline in the figures on your RRSP statement, though, is the spate of sanctimonious and insulting articles on frugal living being churned out in economy-sized quantities in almost every Canadian publication. Every journalist around seems eager to strike the pose of the poverty-stricken: Eye’s Kate Carraway bravely survived on $60 for a whole week. Macleans’ Chris Johns and his girlfriend cut their food budget from $300 a week (!) to a meagre $50 (with recipes courtesy of "some of the country’s best chefs" that spawned a collection of $5 recipes designed to feed families of four, flying directly in the face of Agriculture and Agrifood Canada’s "nutritious food basket" which costs at least $137 a week for a family of four).

1. Get Mike Harris to co-author it.

Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie.

Everyone's favourite appropriately-named party leader hasn't been having a great time over the past few months. Ever since John Tory's upsetting dual loss in October's provincial election, the vultures have been circling over him. Both established and grassroots party members have been calling for Tory's head, and they'll finally have a chance to oust him at the Progressive Conservative Party's General Meeting at the end of the month.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Photo by matthewfromtoronto from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Reader Cy Goldsbie (yes, relation) sent us the above photos of a box that popped up in St. Clair station over the weekend. Marked "DEPOSIT PUBLIC CONSULTATION SURVEY HERE," the box is at the "end of the southbound platform tucked into the alcove of the non-working elevator." (In other words, they're about as conspicuous as what Joe Clark calls the TTC's "intentionally hidden online complaints form.")

The so-called Three Amigos Summit will take place this week at a resort in Montebello, Quebec, where the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico will meet with business executives to discuss stuff that's none of your business. Incidentally, the tag line for the 1986 movie The Three Amigos was "They're Down On Their Luck And Up To Their Necks In Senoritas, Margaritas, Banditos And Bullets!"

Torontonian Vanessa Delsooz (not pictured) has organized an impromptu protest of proposed TTC cuts next Saturday July 28th at Nathan Phillips Square at 1 p.m. The rally will reportedly be outside the law, since it takes longer than a week to secure a permit for such things. Also, the office that issues protest permits just got eliminated due to budget cuts. (Just kidding. We think.)

It seems that many people believe that the City of Toronto doesn't need to levy taxes in order to maintain a high level of City services. If only the City had its finances in order and cut back on spending, they say, then there would be no financial crunch. In response, Mayor Miller likes to point out how many cutbacks there indeed have been and how much contracting out is already taking place and, above all, how the TTC was recently rated the "most efficient" transit system in North America

Faced with a distasteful choice between imposing unpopular new taxes or recommending draconian budget cuts, City Council came up with the ingeniously gutless idea of deferring the decision until after the provincial election in October. The premise is that maybe that the province will agree to once again pony up for the social service costs that it downloaded under Mike Harris. Or maybe the City Hall lotto pool will win the 6/49, like, forty times in a row. Either way we’re golden.

You want a greener city? Prepare to pay $4 million per year in taxes to plant and maintain trees. Alternatively, you could covertly plant them yourself with your own funds. We hear that chicks dig tree planters.

Toronto's tap water places third in blind taste test. So the next time somebody from New York tells you how awesome it is there, you can say "well, sure, but our water is delicious."

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.

A source at City Hall recently warned that the ONESTOP Media Group, which operates the advertising screens on TTC station platforms, will soon make another play to put video ads inside subway cars (the Toronto Public Space Committee successfully warded off their last attempt). The new cars the TTC has ordered will have video displays, anyway (see after the jump), but as of yet there are no plans for them to be used for advertising.

It may be the least-sexy part of an already un-sexy concept (i.e. The Provincial Budget) but the end to GTA pooling is quite significant indeed. For the last few years the 905 municipalities have put hundreds of millions of dollars into a big pool to pay for Toronto's social program costs.

A small Cessna crashes into Lake Ontario after losing power. The three passengers had minor injuries but were all rescued by emergency workers.

The Star leads with a story leaking the fact that the McGuinty government is going to announce that they'll want to build more nuclear plants now that their plans to scrap the province's coal plants aren't going forward anytime soon.

By now, most everyone in the city knows of the single most unfortunate event in Toronto this year: On Boxing Day, while shopping, 15-year-old Jane Creba was killed by errant gunfire. Six other innocent bystanders were also wounded.

star Paul Gross, have lobbied for the Brier to come back to the Toronto since it left the city in 1941. Former Premier Mike Harris, father of the Common Sense revolution, has also raised eyebrows at the prospect of more curling in the GTA. If the plan follows through to bring the Brier back to its roots (it started here in 1927), longer than average line-ups are expected at local neighbourhood Tim Horton's.