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Five things we learned from Jon Stewart’s coverage of G20 Toronto

Jon Stewart shows G20 leaders how to put the moves on Toronto women (Image: Comedy Network)

We’re as guilty as anyone for noting that coverage of the G20 was kind of sparse in the international media, but we knew that our summit (and its associated riot) had finally hit something of a media bonanza when it was featured on the most reputable source in fake news, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Last night’s segment dedicated to G20 Toronto told the Comedy Central audience exactly five things about Toronto that are worth repeating.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 28, 2010 | 2:58 pm

2 Comments

Hogtown versus the world: how does Toronto’s G20 compare with previous summits?

"Do-little summit": Stephen Harper delivers his opening remarks while other world leaders presumably listen to World Cup coverage

The G20 summit has mostly wound down, and the result is pretty mediocre: for billions in spending and a few torched police cars, we got a statement that’s almost Zen in its blandness. The G20 leaders agree to work toward financial stability—but each one gets to decide what that means. They’re committed to economic growth—but different countries need different strategies. They agree on a bank tax—except for Stephen Harper and a few others, so not every country will have one. Reuters calls it a “do-little summit.”

Given that so little of importance has been settled, how does Toronto stack up against previous summits and global meetings?

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 27, 2010 | 1:40 pm

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Welcome, G20 leaders! Now, spend some money here

Yes, you can spend money in Toronto (Image: Sweet One)

The long-anticipated G20 summit has arrived in Toronto and has not been an unblemished joy for the people who live here. Between expensive security and shuttered businesses and Karl Rove and riots, many Torontonians now wish the summit had gone elsewhere. What would soothe the city’s irritation at having to play host to the world’s rich and powerful? How about if the foreign delegates spent some fat cash while they’re in town partying? For the leaders of the G20, here is our guide to where they should leave their money as they breeze through Toronto.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 24, 2010 | 12:13 pm

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Canadian rappers issue danceable call to arms, fuel G20 protestors’ unspecific rage

The music video for “Crash the Meeting” by local artists Test Their Logik is making the rounds on protestor sites. We see it as a fine metaphor for the activist culture surrounding the G20: fiercely anti-corporate, unabashedly angry, incredibly unfocused and filled with catch-all slogans recycled from the ’90s. Like the protest movement, it also revels in its unified disunity: “Every single one of us has a reason / Together we are strong let’s crash the meeting!” It’s like the broadest advertising campaign ever: Rage! Everyone has it, don’t worry about why!

Here, the video’s highlights and lowlights.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 17, 2010 | 11:31 am

2 Comments

Tories spend $10M on North Bay airport for G8; no G8 planes actually landing there

The passenger terminal at Jack Garland Airport in North Bay (Image: North Bay Airport)

We’ve got to hand it to the Star, which is being utterly relentless in following the G8/G20 spending debacle. Today’s front page features two stories about Ottawa’s runaway—or runway—spending in and around Industry Minister Tony Clement’s Muskoka riding. First up is a catalogue of Clement’s alleged pork-barrelling: at least $100 million has been poured into the region since he won the riding in 2006, and only half of that is for the G8/G20 summit. Next up: after spending $10 million on upgrades to North Bay’s airport in anticipation of world leaders flying in during the G8, no world leaders are expected to fly in to North Bay. They’ve all opted to land at Pearson instead. Ouch:

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The Informer

The Feds

June 4, 2010 | 11:29 am

4 Comments

Obama borrows from Stephen Harper playbook, sings Beatles song

As Stephen Harper well knows, singing a little Beatles ditty is political gold. We have to admit we swooned a little when Harper sang “With a Little Help From My Friends” with a little help from Yo-Yo Ma. Well, it seems Harper’s musical magic has rubbed off on Barack Obama, who two nights ago got up onstage at the White House to sing “Hey Jude” with Paul McCartney, Jack White, Jerry Seinfeld and a dozen or so other rich, important people. (See the video after the jump.) We think Harper (who also played piano) outperformed Obama. Disagree? Let us know in the comments.

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The Hype

Creative Types

June 2, 2010 | 1:38 pm

5 Comments

James Cameron to save world in real life, put an end to oil spill

The BP oil spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history and the possible downfall of the Obama administration, but luckily, the world has James Cameron. The blockbuster ninja has put his movie-making skills and general knack for excellence to finding a solution to halt the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil billowing into the Gulf of Mexico every day. He just wrapped up a meeting in Washington today to talk out ideas with “fellow” deep-sea ocean experts.

All right, JC. You’ve become a bit of an undersea aficionado thanks to your filmmaker career, and you own a fleet of underwater sea vessels, and you really care about the planet. We get it. You’re smart. But if the plan involves Leonardo DiCaprio or teaching a team how to speak Na’vi, we’re jumping ship.

• Avatar director joins experts to brainstorm spill solutions [Globe and Mail]
• Avatar Director James Cameron Scripting New Ending to Oil Spill [People]

The Informer

Mayor May Not

May 17, 2010 | 11:41 am

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“Political panellist” Ben Mulroney to Idol-ize mayoral debates

Starting tomorrow, Torontonians will get to witness a more civic side of Ben Mulroney. The pompadoured ex-Idol host is serving as “political panellist” for a series of live mayoral debates put on by CP24. Because having Rob Ford square off against Joe Pants isn’t absurd enough, Blazer Ben will be on hand to lend whatever political expertise one gleans from living at 24 Sussex as a teenager.

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The Informer

The Yanks

March 29, 2010 | 11:24 am

2 Comments

Hometown boy David Frum sacked after speaking his mind

Prominent Toronto-born conservative David Frum is going to have to find another tank in which to do his thinking. Last week, after being a little too pointed in his blog-based criticism of Republicans’ failed strategy to defeat health care reform (shouting racial epithets at congressmen, calling democratically elected leaders fascist dictators, etc.), Frum was fired from his $100,000 job at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He also turned down AEI’s offer of an unpaid position (presumably because working for free would have been socialist). Since then, the media has not been able to get enough of the story, with Frum appearing on Good Morning America today and Christopher Buckley rushing to his defence in the Daily Beast.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

March 20, 2010 | 11:57 am

6 Comments

G20 will allow Torontonians all the dignity of airport security without even travelling to Pearson

According to city leaders, the security planners in Ottawa aren’t listening to Toronto’s logistical concerns. Case in point: the summit—which will bring thousands of dignitaries (including Barack Obama), media and protestors to the downtown core—is going to collide head-on with a huge Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre, one where Roy Halladay faces his old teammates for the first time as a Philly. While no one expects the summit to be cancelled because of a sporting event, we can’t help but be reminded of the city’s push to hold the summit at the Ex to avoid the crushing congestion.

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The Informer

Mayor May Not

March 17, 2010 | 3:43 pm

10 Comments

Sarah Thomson’s cure for Toronto’s transit blues: subways, subways, subways (oh, and road tolls)

Cure what ails you, Toronto (Image: Kenny Louie)

Mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson believes she has one solution to most of Toronto’s problems: 58 kilometres of new subway lines. As she said this morning at her press conference (held, for some reason, at the Fox and Fiddle pub):

[A complete subway system] is our key to a strong and dynamic future, but it has fallen prey to budgetary impotence and political trepidation.

To compete on the world stage, we must inspire people to shake off their cynicism…to imagine a Toronto where the people are engaged in the process of government, to imagine a Toronto that leads innovation on the world stage, a Toronto where civic pride replaces apathy, where everyone can travel quickly and easily around the city, and where gridlock becomes a thing of the past.

In short, then, a renewed subway would be the equivalent of electing Barack Obama.

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The Informer

The Feds

March 12, 2010 | 9:09 am

1 Comment

Stephen Harper to interact with humans via machines

Stephen Harper, continuing his practice of bringing up the rear of the hip train driven by Barack Obama, has announced that he will be holding an interactive YouTube discussion on March 16. Yesterday, the PM “shared his reaction” to his Throne Speech, then asked viewers to submit and vote on questions that he will tackle on Tuesday. The idea is to engage Canada’s youth, which was also the motivation behind the PM’s other new-media forays: he’s been on Facebook since 2007, Twitter since 2008 and has had a YouTube channel since 2006.

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The Dish

Bottoms Up

March 1, 2010 | 4:20 pm

1 Comment

Harper and Obama bet on hockey game, winner takes beer

The beer of proud prime ministers (Photo by Adam Sonnett)

Sunday provided a trifecta of high stakes for Stephen Harper: Canada’s hockey matchup against the U.S.; the chance for Canada to surpass the gold-count record; and a case of beer.

Harper, perhaps as part of his continually mediocre efforts to appear hip (along with his rendition of “With a Little Help From My Friends”), wagered a case of beer against Barack Obama on the outcome of the men’s Olympic hockey final. Now that he’s won the bet, Obama owes Harper a case of Molson Canadian.

Canadian? Really? If Harper’s going to pretend to be cool, couldn’t he have chosen something a little more, well, cool? If Obama had won the bet, he would have received a case of Yuengling. Coming from America’s oldest brewery, the choice isn’t exactly underground, but it’s decidedly classier.

• Obama owes Harper beer [Toronto Sun]

The Dish

Read All About It

November 27, 2009 | 9:26 am

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The art of scotch pairing, the messiah of coffee comes to Toronto, Martha Stewart’s vegetarian Thanksgiving

Food friendly (Photo by Eric Kilby)

• According to the Globe and Mail, scotch’s “vast array of sweet toffee, smoky mineral, spiced citrus, dried fruit and delicate floral notes” are finding a greater audience among epicures who want to pair their roasted duck breast with something other than chianti. The powerful drink finds its best pairings with bold food, such as a “dark-chocolate macaroon sandwiched with pear ganache and sliced foie gras” but weds poorly with spice—“anything that bites the tongue will exaggerate the burn.” Not everyone is sold on scotch with their meal, though: “That’s the place of a red wine,” says Jamie Kennedy. “Why ruin an amazing thing?” [Globe and Mail]

• When the self-proclaimed messiah of coffee, Duane Sorenson, descended on the doorstep of the Star’s Corey Mintz, he was flanked by disciples Matthew and Andrew and came with an offering: earth-jarring java made using single-origin beans and a Chemex coffee maker. Sorenson travels the world in search of the best brew, educating growers about how to properly dry their beans and vetting prospective vendors of his products. Where to try some in Toronto? Lit Espresso Bar. [Toronto Star]

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The Dish

Read All About It

November 26, 2009 | 8:41 am

1 Comment

Barack burgers coming to Canada, locavorism under attack, the world’s best canned foods

Barack Obama, burger lover (Photo by art_es_anna)

• President Barack Obama’s favourite burger joint, Five Guys Burgers, is coming to Canada. OK, we don’t know for sure that it’s his favourite, but he made headlines by eating there in May, a few months after his wife did the same thing. Torontonians looking to emulate the coolest president of all time (sorry, Taft) will have some travelling to do—the burgery’s first international venture is opening in Medicine Hat. [National Post]

• The New York Times has gone gaga over the Obamas’ first state dinner, which was rife with locally grown vegetables and culturally diverse foods, proving that the president is not just a burger-gobbling Philistine (see above). The meatless dinner was also lauded by guests, which included Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and composer A.R. Rahman. [New York Times]

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