ArchiveOctober 2015

John Tory in 2014. A full year after he was elected mayor, a whole lot of questions about Mayor John Tory’s biggest and most expensive campaign promise remain frustratingly unanswered. We just don’t know much about SmartTrack. The unanswered questions aren’t minor, either. This isn’t just me wondering about nerdy details. These are fundamental questions — existential ones. Questions like, hey...

A camera operator waits for the start of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's event in Montreal on Monday, Oct. 19, 2015. More than anything else, Toronto needed a new federal partner. Now, at last, we have one. With the Liberal Party having secured a commanding majority in the House of Commons and Justin Trudeau set to become Canada’s next Prime Minister, the complexion of a bunch of important...

A homeless man sits on a city grate to keep himself warm wearing only a jacket in the frigid temperatures. A question as you head to the polls today: heard anything about Canada’s middle class lately? If you’ve been following the federal election at all over the last few months then, yeah, you have. Talk of the “middle class” has dominated the messaging from all three leading parties right up...

Donmount Court is a new affordable housing subdivision off of Carroll Street in East Toronto. There are just two weeks left before Canadians go to the polls, so here’s a quick update on the election feelings I’m feeling: tired, frustrated, disappointed. I had high hopes this would be an election about the kind of issues that matter to those of us who live in Canadian cities. But it hasn’t really...

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons celebrates after winning the first baseball game of a doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015, in Baltimore. Toronto won 15-2 to clinch the American League East. With the division clinched and the playoffs coming, the Toronto Blue Jays have obviously done a whole lot of good. They’ve reignited Toronto’s interest in baseball...