Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Toronto Life

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IT HAPPENED LAST MONTH: A LOOSE CHRONOLOGY…

CREATED FOR TORONTONIANS SCHMOOZED and toasted to celebrate the unveiling of Toronto Life’s annual list of the city’s 50 most influential people on Nov. 17 at Yorkville’s Harry Rosen store. Guests headed to the party on the upper two floors of the menswear shop on Bloor Street, where they snacked on passed hors d’oeuvres and sipped artisanal mixed drinks at a series of sleek bars dotting the room. Partygoers could choose from a list of signature cocktails at the World Class bar, which featured premium spirits like Ketel One Vodka, Tanqueray No. Ten Gin, Don Julio Blanco Tequila, Bulleit Bourbon and Johnnie Walker Black Label Blended Scotch Whisky. A mocktail station provided a delicious booze-free option as well, featuring Seedlip Non-Alcoholic Spirits. Here are some of the creative cocktails and…

HAYLEY WICKENHEISER has been skating almost as long as she’s been walking. She honed her skills on a backyard rink flooded by her dad in the tiny hockey-obsessed town of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. Late-night games of shinny at home led to lacing up with the boys (and having to change in the boiler room) and then to joining the women’s national team, where, at 15, she was a good decade younger than most of her teammates. Despite the sacrifices hockey involved, Wickenheiser knew it was for her—a certainty on clear display in her memoir, Over the Boards, and in a new documentary called Wick. Wickenheiser’s 23 years as a pro are unparalleled in hockey: she is the first woman to score a goal in a men’s professional league (in Finland), and…

For those seeking refuge from the King West bacchanal Othership 425 Adelaide St. W., 416-361-0101 THE TREATMENT: The Self-Care Sweat guided session at Othership’s bathhouse retreat takes participants on a temperature adventure from near-boiling heat (95 degrees) to near-freezing cold (two degrees). It starts with calming breath-work in a 50-person red cedar sauna. Participants work out their corporeal kinks by self-massaging with dowels and quartz gua sha tools. Then it’s off to the ice plunge. Sitting in bone-chilling water may not sound relaxing, but the opposite extremes have restful results. After yo-yoing between hot and cold, visitors feel clear-headed, calm and ready to start the cycle all over again. TARGET AREA: Full body SORT-OF-SECRET ELIXIRS: Othership’s 100-plus essential oils add an aroma-therapeutic element to every session. TOTAL TIME: 75 minutes…

CHINESE HOT POT has a long, rich history that goes back a couple of thousand years. According to one origin story, Mongolian horsemen would cook dinner over outdoor fires, their helmets doing double duty as pots and bowls. Today, many countries have their own versions of hot pot—Japan has nabemono; in Korea there’s jeongol—but what unites them is the communal experience: delicious morsels are plunged into a pot of boiling soup stock and shared by everyone at the table. For first-timers, going to a hot pot restaurant can be intimidating, especially given all the options—broths, proteins, veggies, sauces, spice levels—and the meal’s DIY design. In the spirit of public service, we visited Vintage the Hot Pot in Markham and waded ecstatically through its epic 70-plus-item menu, learning how to hot…

JEFF SAMMUT Host of Canada Now, Sirius XM Canada STAY WITH ME BY CHRISTINA MARTIN “One of my favourite artists today is singer-songwriter Christina Martin. I’ve had her 2021 single ‘Stay With Me’ on rotation since its release. You can hear her heart and soul poured into it. It’s raw, layered, relatable and moving—everything I’ve come to expect from Martin.” DOROTHY ELLEN PALMER Writer and disability activist INSIDE MAN “I love a little dark, wry wit with my thrillers. Inside Man, starring Stanley Tucci and David Tennant, delivers both chuckles and chills. Over an expertly written four episodes, two storylines converge: a vicar falls from grace by imprisoning a woman in his cellar, and a wife murderer seeks redemption by preventing another murder.” SOPHIA SALADOR Director of comedy programming, Live…

Under the Influence As always, our list of the 50 most influential Torontonians of the year generated robust debate—a roughly equal mix of “Couldn’t agree more” and “What were you thinking?” plus a sprinkling of “How is deserving candidate A not on here?” and “Why is deserving candidate B not higher up?” “What a city. Full of personalities big and small, all fighting, creating and trying to make a difference. Lots of us here have opposing views, but we make up Tkaronto today. Miigwetch, @torontolife.” —@TanyaTalaga, Twitter “Why is Doug Ford @fordnation even on this list?” —@TappingGoddess, Twitter “Doug Ford, while influential, needs to be investigated for going back on his biggest election promise—leaving the Greenbelt alone. Some big investors are going to profit big time.” —@bigmomma99, Twitter “Ford, Tory,…

A leaked report drafted by Metrolinx has confirmed the worst: not only is the Eglinton Crosstown LRT $1 billion over budget (and rising), but the transit agency says there’s no “credible plan” to complete the project. It’s enough to make Torontonians sick. The line, which was designed to provide a speedy new way to get across the city and to relieve the entire transit network, was originally scheduled to open in 2020. Metrolinx blames its contractor, Crosslinx Transit Solutions, for underperforming, and city councillors are demanding a public inquiry. But, as bureaucrats bicker and the long, hard investigative process begins, everyday Torontonians are living the disaster—mangled streets, shuttered businesses and some of the longest commute times in North America.…

WHEN SECOND CITY—the venerable Chicago theatre company known for crafting live, long-form comic improvisations—arrived in Toronto in 1973, it was a fun, fresh voice in a comedic landscape that seemed stale, parochial and wholly underdeveloped. Second City buzzed with a liberating, free-form energy. And it drew in a group of friends, a rotating cast of actors and students who thrilled at making one another laugh. Across various stages and performance spaces, Second City Toronto catalyzed a Big Bang of Canadian comic talent. It nurtured performers whose wit and chummy faces would dominate the comedy landscape, on both sides of the border, for decades to come: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Dan Aykroyd, Andrea Martin, Robin Duke, Gilda Radner and many others. The early…

THE BUYERS: George Slinko, 34, who works in capital markets at CIBC, and Samantha Slinko, 30, who works in operations at a tech consultancy. THE STORY: Back in 2019, George and Samantha bought a two-bed, one-bath stacked townhouse in West Queen West for $646,000. By the summer of 2021, they were married, thinking of starting a family and ready to upsize. Their preferred neighbourhood was Riverdale for its Victorian architecture and good schools. “We love that the area is urban but also family friendly,” says Samantha. They landed on a budget of $1.2 million and began the hunt. OPTION 1 GRANT STREET near Queen and Broadview Listed at $1,099,000 Sold for $1,452,000 Samantha and George viewed this home in August 2021. It was right in their target location and had…

These kids were not cool by traditional standards. But it takes gumption to perform extemporaneous make-believe in front of strangers. To expect money in exchange requires a whole other level of swagger. The cast of Second City Toronto, as they became known, were smart, zany and hell-bent on getting their audiences to double over with laughter. They were subversive too, stuffing cultural commentary inside goofball characters to lampoon icons, celebrities and the inner hoser in each of us. In tame 1970s Canada, this was new, and it was revolutionary. Still, for a while, the whole enterprise reeked of flop sweat. The audiences were thin and the financial rewards thinner. The cast, however, was having too much fun to care. As Dave Thomas says in our rollicking oral history (page 32)—which…

Congratulations on the new gig. Were you surprised that no one ran against you? I ran a full-on campaign from September to December, the same as if there had been opponents in the race. I was in it to win it and would have welcomed any other MPPs to compete. Some of your critics say that the lack of interest in the leadership position means your party is out of gas. What say you? I say it’s a sign that our party isn’t wasting time. We want to focus on the real race, which is against Doug Ford. The NDP lost nine seats in last year’s election. In retrospect, what should have been done that wasn’t? There was a historically low turnout: about 43 per cent. Which means that none…

$500 New City of Toronto fine for shirkers who fail to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice. $16,200 Projected cost of groceries for a family of four in 2023—up from $15,135 last year—laid out in a recent report by the University of Guelph, Dalhousie and other schools. $1,500,000 Newly raised salary cap for Premier Hockey Federation players—twice as much as last season’s cap. The Toronto Six and Montreal Force are the league’s sole Canadian teams. $34,000,000 Total fines collected by the City of Toronto via its speed-enforcement cameras from July 2020 to October 2022. The city’s busiest camera, on Parkside Drive, captured 16,742 violations from April to October last year. $144,000,000 Price paid by Danish beverage behemoth Carlsberg to buy craft beer purveyors Waterloo Brewing. Shareholders will receive a…

I was born in a bustling Nairobi slum called Kawangware. Vendors lined every inch of its narrow streets, selling meat, fruit, fish, used clothes, cheap dishware and more. It was never quiet there. The air was always filled with sounds of haggling shoppers and shopkeepers, soaring music from the market stalls, and honking matatus shuttling people from one destination to the next. As a kid, I would run through the winding streets with my friends, playing with toys we made out of trash. We teetered on tin-can stilts, raced old tires and hurled ourselves across open-sewer trenches. For years, it was the only world I knew. It was only later, when I was no longer a child, that I came to see the slum as a place where bad things…

Every month, TL Insiders enjoy terrific experiences and events across the city. More than 1,000 Torontonians have signed up, and you can too! Members get front-of-the-line access to cultural events and private dining experiences plus exclusive invitations to Toronto Life’s salon-like discussion series. Membership is only $75 a year—so sign up today and rediscover the city as a member. Don’t miss out. Sign up at: members.torontolife.com SINGAPOREAN HAWKER MENU: TL Insider’s last dinner of the year featured a Singapore hawker–inspired menu at one of our favourite restaurants, DaiLo. The multi-course menu by executive chef and DaiLo partner Nick Liu (@ninjachef) offered unique dishes to please even the most discerning of palates. The special menu was curated with a welcome cocktail and wine pairings as well as luscious desserts to end…