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Front Page Challenge: October 27, 2015
Photo by Christopher Hylarides from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
In Front Page Challenge, Torontoist analyzes the best and worst of Toronto’s four major dailies.
The Globe and Mail
The Globe‘s main image this morning is that of the capsized Leviathan II in Tofino, BC. Of the four main Toronto papers, the Globe is the only one that features information on the decision by Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau to not move his family into 24 Sussex Drive, which was good enough a residence for Stephen Harper but is in fact an asbestos-laden, knob-and-tube nightmare. Why Harper decided not to apply his own government’s home renovation tax credit to fixing up the historic Prime Ministerial residence remains one of the many unsolved mysteries of his nine-year tenure.
National Post
The National Post also features the Leviathan II as the primary image. They would also like you not to worry so much about eating bacon and then dying. But the Post wins the pun derby for today with their headline teasing their panel on the forthcoming NBA season: “Hoops There It Is.”
Toronto Star
Adorable puppies are front-and-centre this morning in a Star Investigation into an animal welfare charity under fire from the feds for allegedly spending donors’ money on questionable purchases (comic books). But the puppies are so cute that I think all can be forgiven. Kathleen Wynne also snags prime real estate on the front page for her government’s recent payouts to teacher unions some of which was allegedly used to buy food eaten during labour negotiations (“The pepperoni must be gold-plated” adds Conservative leader/zingmaster Patrick Brown). The Star‘s penchant for puns and musical cues remains as strong as ever with the song ‘Please Mr. Postman’ utilized for the article on Canada Post’s suspension of the supermailbox installations at the behest of the new government, and ‘Bond Shames Bond’ for a teaser of Daniel Craig’s recent Bond-bashing in interviews.
Toronto Sun
The Sun tends to stack the deck by finding incredibly unflattering photos of their favourite political punching bags. Today’s “exclusive” story deploys this technique next to a headline about Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s nefarious plan to seemingly tax every citizen of the province into homelessness (which would probably make her re-election plan a tremendous uphill battle). In terms of sheer eye-catching optics, however, the Sun‘s front page is the one most likely to earn you double-takes as you ride the subway to work this morning.
Today’s winner: The Star, for puppies and Kathleen Wynne.