The federal government's defence plan will cost $20 billion more than the federal government said it would cost, at least according to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff. Stephen Harper responded to the criticism by explaining that the country would be purchasing its planes and tanks through Canadian Tire, and that the Canadian Tire money generated by the purchases would be applied directly to the national debt, thus equalizing out costs. Tory MP Jason......

TTC riders can get a refund after last weekend's strike (see Torontoist's story here). If you bring your pass to a collector's booth, you will get $7.50 back. Torontoist personally plans to invest its Metropass refund in the stock market, purchasing 1/95th of a share of Google. The United States Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point. On second thought, maybe Torontoist should invest its $7.50 in a wheelbarrow factory. (Obscure......

Copper theft in Toronto has reached record levels. Thieves just can't get enough of that golden-brown stuff. You can do anything with it—sell it for four dollars per pound, or...well, actually that's pretty much all a copper thief can do with copper, come to think. Jim Flaherty will have a nice sit-down with Dwight Duncan. The federal and provincial finance ministers are tentatively scheduled to enjoy a nice snack of tea and crumpets before......

NDP charges Liberals "deceptive" over nuclear energy plans. Apparently the nuclear energy commitments the provincial government has made require almost four times the nuclear energy generation capability that their promised plant could deliver, unless the plant itself was four times larger than the Darlington plant. This is all part of the current clever government plan to get ahead of everybody else and be massively involved in the next energy crisis when the world runs out......