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Malcolm Johnston

Malcolm Johnston is the editor-in-chief of Toronto Life, a role he took on in 2022 after more than 11 years at the magazine. He has worked as a writer and features editor, with a strong focus on investigative journalism and in-depth reporting on the people, politics and culture shaping Toronto.

Latest from Malcolm Johnston

Editor’s Letter: Toronto Life has been reviewing restaurants since before I was born

Editor’s Letter: Toronto Life has been reviewing restaurants since before I was born

In this wobbly economy, when people splurge on a meal, they want to be sure the experience will be worth the price. That’s where we come in

Editor’s Letter: Will the real Blue Jays please stand up?

Editor’s Letter: Will the real Blue Jays please stand up?

For Jays fans, the start of baseball season is a painful reminder of how close we came to winning it all. After an injury-plagued start, can the team get back to the promised land?

Editor’s Letter: In praise of Canadian brainpower

Editor’s Letter: In praise of Canadian brainpower

Ours is the most educated country in the world, and as the 20 trailblazing tech innovations featured in Toronto Life’s March issue attest, we’re not afraid to show it

Editor’s Letter: Spend it or save it?

Editor’s Letter: Spend it or save it?

Is it worth scrimping in your 20s in order to save up for early retirement? The Torontonians featured in our latest cover story certainly think so

Editor’s Letter: The best meal of your life is just around the corner

Editor’s Letter: The best meal of your life is just around the corner

To kick off 2026, we set out on a massive foodie undertaking: compiling a GTA-wide list of one must-try dish for every day of the year ahead

Editor’s Letter: Who is Toronto Life ’s most influential person of the year?

Editor’s Letter: Who is Toronto Life’s most influential person of the year?

From the World Series finals to the animated smash hit KPop Demon Hunters, Torontonians were behind some of 2025’s biggest stories

Editor’s Letter: Would you spill your secrets to a machine?

Editor’s Letter: Would you spill your secrets to a machine?

We sent a writer to field-test one of AI’s most controversial applications: robot therapists

Editor’s Letter: The city’s insatiable appetite for real estate stories

Editor’s Letter: The city’s insatiable appetite for real estate stories

Torontonians are obsessed, whether they’re in the market or not, so we devoted an entire issue to real estate: the next hot neighbourhoods, what to do about the affordability crisis, alternative housing options, and more

Editor’s Letter: This month, TIFF brings home the magic of the movies

Editor’s Letter: This month, TIFF brings home the magic of the movies

Now in its 50th year, the Toronto International Film Festival turns the entire city into one big red carpet

Editor’s Letter: Who is cottage country for?

Editor’s Letter: Who is cottage country for?

The explosion of short-term rentals and the wild parties they attract is disturbing the peace full-time residents covet

Editor’s Letter: The metamorphosis of Doug Ford

Editor’s Letter: The metamorphosis of Doug Ford

Lately, we’ve witnessed yet another stage in the evolution of Ontario’s premier: international statesman

Editor’s Letter: Toronto Life got a makeover

Editor’s Letter: Toronto Life got a makeover

Our new logo honours the magazine’s past and signals our ongoing commitment to high-quality long-form journalism

Inside the rise and fall of the Vaulter Bandit, the 21st century’s most notorious bank robber

Inside the rise and fall of the Vaulter Bandit, the 21st century’s most notorious bank robber

To fellow tourists he met around the world, Jeffery Shuman was a semi-retired developer with a bright smile, an even tan and a fat wallet. In truth, he was a legendary bank robber on the run from the Toronto police and the US Marshals

Donald Trump is Toronto’s most effective recruiting tool

Donald Trump is Toronto’s most effective recruiting tool

From the AI scientist ushering in self-driving labs to the surgeon expanding robotic operations, the city is seeing an influx of talent from our beleaguered neighbours down south

Editor’s Letter: Your workplace is watching you

Editor’s Letter: Your workplace is watching you

How many of us have typed something over Slack, WhatsApp or email that we wouldn’t want our bosses to see? And yet employers have the right to read everything we write on our work devices. Two high-ranking executives at RBC learned that the hard way

Editor’s Letter: Edward Rogers is rewriting the rules of succession

Editor’s Letter: Edward Rogers is rewriting the rules of succession

Third-generation heirs are notorious for tanking the companies their forefathers built. But Ted Rogers’s son is proving to be an exception

Editor’s Letter: How bike lanes became a scapegoat for all of Toronto’s traffic angst

Editor’s Letter: How bike lanes became a scapegoat for all of Toronto’s traffic angst

Cycling infrastructure is intended to elevate a city from a place where the car is king to one where commuters have safe, healthy alternatives. So why, in Toronto, does it face such fierce opposition?

Editor’s Letter: Chaos in the courts

Editor’s Letter: Chaos in the courts

A 2016 Supreme Court ruling has thrown the country’s justice system into disarray, allowing violent criminals to walk free without so much as a trial

Editor’s Letter: Our annual debate over the year’s most influential Torontonians

Editor’s Letter: Our annual debate over the year’s most influential Torontonians

Last year, PWHL games were the hottest ticket in town. Now, the stars of the Toronto Sceptres are at the head of a global movement in professional sports

Editor’s Letter: The search for intelligent space in the city

Editor’s Letter: The search for intelligent space in the city

Too many Torontonians are forced to decide between the vitality of city living and more square footage somewhere else. But there’s a third option: finding creative ways to maximize what little space is available

Editor’s Letter: Inside the desperate search for a family doctor

Editor’s Letter: Inside the desperate search for a family doctor

The cover story for our October issue documents the province’s failing health care system in painful detail

Editor’s Letter: Wellness, the new religion

Editor’s Letter: Wellness, the new religion

Local boutique health brands Othership and Nutbar represent a new era in the age-old pursuit of physical and mental well-being. That is, for acolytes who can afford to shell out

Editor’s Letter: The city’s intractable dog problem

Editor’s Letter: The city’s intractable dog problem

When did pet owners decide they answer only to themselves? Our August cover story takes readers inside Toronto’s dog wars

Editor’s Letter: My salary? None of your business

Editor’s Letter: My salary? None of your business

When it comes to the incomes of public figures, everyone wants to know, and no one wants to say

Summer Camp Guide

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Discover our top-rated summer camps for kids of all ages

Best New Restaurants

Toronto Life ’s Best Restaurants returns for its 10th-anniversary edition on June 8

Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants returns for its 10th-anniversary edition on June 8

General admission tickets are now on sale for Toronto’s biggest culinary night, featuring top chefs, restaurants and drinks

Big Stories

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

When Sami and June Suomalainen died, it fell to the executor of their wills, a lawyer they hardly knew, to sell their million-dollar midtown home and split the proceeds among their inheritors. Seven years and six lawsuits later, the beneficiaries haven’t seen a cent

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

This year’s list includes a 150-square-foot omakase counter, a Parisian brasserie in the Annex, Korean comfort food, Filipino karaoke and a Summerhill seafood spot that’s reinventing the raw bar

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

After years of false starts, months of nail-biting negotiations between the league and the players’ union, and an 11th-hour scramble to build a roster, Toronto finally has its own major-league women’s basketball team. Now it just has to live up to the hype

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Slowikowska is the first Canadian to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in more than 25 years. She’s also this season’s breakout star. Now all she has to do is keep crushing it

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

The man who represented the infamous drug lord is unapologetically flashy—he has a Lamborghini and two Maseratis and wears $1,200 Louboutins. But did he become an accomplice to his client’s crimes? Deepak Paradkar says he was just doing his job. The FBI says he crossed a line

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

We’re not over it, but they are. Six months after that devastating defeat, the Jays take the field once more, bent more than ever on winning the World Series. Dispatches from the dugout

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My dad was the infamous Rolex Killer. The news of his crimes nearly broke me. And ever since, my family has been hounded by reporters, podcasters and true crime fanatics—a whole new circle of hell

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Larry David is the indisputable king of brutal honesty. But if anyone comes close, it’s Robby Hoffman, the suddenly everywhere comic from whom no group is safe

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Pamela Sugiman, a former arts dean at Toronto Metropolitan University, was a key player in the school’s push for diversity, equity and inclusion. When the backlash against DEI arrived, she was demoted. The school says it was a coincidence. She disagrees

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

Scenes from the rent-for-life revolution

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

It’s hard out here for a 20-something

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

Desperate wannabe parents are betting their life savings on unproven treatments and false promises

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Last spring, a chatbot convinced Allan Brooks that he had discovered a revolutionary mathematical theory. He says it nearly destroyed him

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Homegrown innovations that will transform lives for the better

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

When Valentino was abducted, I knew three things: he’d been taken by his father, he was somewhere in India and I would not rest until I found him

The Violent Life of a Tow Truck Driver: How an unremarkable profession turned Toronto into a war zone

The Violent Life of a Tow Truck Driver: How an unremarkable profession turned Toronto into a war zone

The towing industry has been hijacked by criminals and kingpins who fleece customers, beat up dissenters and shoot their enemies. Inside the brutal turf war for the city’s wrecks

Street Fight: Inside the battle raging over Toronto multiplexes

Street Fight: Inside the battle raging over Toronto multiplexes

If this city stands any chance of solving the housing crisis, it will need buildings with multiple units in residential neighbourhoods—a move that has many residents saying, “Anywhere but here!”

Just Listed

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

As luxury buyers become increasingly focused on wellness, privacy, and long-term livability, a new generation of custom homes is emerging – one defined less by excess and more by thoughtful design

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

This rare property features 2 houses on 1 lot

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

A testament to time presiding over one of Uxbridge's most storied streetscapes, this magnificently preserved circa 1880 residence commands its prominent corner lot with the quiet confidence of a true architectural landmark

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

A commanding architectural statement in prestigious Stonegate–Queensway, this newly completed custom residence by Bali Homes Group presents a refined interpretation of contemporary luxury living

For Sale: 75 Queen Street

For Sale: 75 Queen Street

Guelph is having a moment