Toronto Life

Shrink Piece Olivia Stren’s adventures in AI therapy sounded alarms about the risks of taking advice from an inanimate object. Mostly, readers shook their heads at the irony of relying on tech to cure the very problems that tech created. “The only solution is to ditch the cellphone, period. Since 2007, when the iPhone came to be, people’s mental health problems have skyrocketed. The addiction is palpable—one we will look back on in many years and say to ourselves, WTF were we thinking?” —@GDMK26, X Weapons of Mass Distraction Response to Aubrey Cottle’s memoir—about his role in the collective known as Anonymous—was wildly mixed. Some readers applauded the hacktivist known as Kirtaner and the movement he helped launch. Others did not. “Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear masks. The…

“Are you kidding me?” That was the response we got when we asked family and friends to divulge their foodie secrets for this month’s sprawling cover story, “The Incredible Edible Bucket List” (page 23). Evidently, giving up one’s local mom-and-pop was akin to ratting out a loved one. Yet we persisted. And we relied heavily on Rebecca Fleming, our encyclopedic food and drink editor, and Suresh Doss, the GTA-traipsing food spelunker and host of the CBC’s new show Locals Welcome. Over six decades in business—Toronto Life celebrates its 60th birthday this year—we’ve gotten to know the city’s food scene extremely well. And we love it when restaurants featured in our annual Best New Restaurants issue find themselves booked solid once the list drops. But those are usually sit-down spots with…

“Going back to the office is a return to the Stone Age”—DAVE BULMER, P. 14 TORONTO’S MUSEUMS ARE ON A TEAR. Over the past few years, private donors have injected piles of cash into the city’s arts institutions. Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss gave $35 million to the AGO’s new contemporary wing. The Hennick Family Foundation contributed $50 million to blow open the ROM’s cavernous crystal atrium. And the Radlett Foundation donated $9 million to the Gardiner Museum’s new lobby and Indigenous gallery (shown here). All those zeroes mean that the buildings housing our precious treasures can be every bit as breathtaking as their contents.…

Doug Ford has ordered government employees back to the office five days a week, starting January 5. As leader of more than 16,500 workers—IT experts, policy analysts, even veterinarians—how do you feel? Incredulous. My members have worked three days a week in the office since April of 2022. Five days feels like a return to the Stone Age. When did you realize your pyjama-bottom days were ending? Honestly, the premier’s announcement was a complete shock. My members have a contractual right to request flexible work, and more than 6,000 of them have recently asked for as much. But the Ontario public sector employer never consulted us. Meaning you think this is the province barrelling its agenda forward, procedural requirements be damned? Yes. Had a proper consultation occurred, we could have…

Hilary Henderson lives alone in a studio apartment steps from Yonge and St. Clair. In 2021, after earning her master’s in public administration from Queen’s, she realized that a career in the corporate realm would be tough on her social life and even worse for her creative ambitions. So she decided to take a stand-up class at Second City and launch a side hustle as a comedian. Her total income is roughly $83,000 a year. Here’s how she spends it. “Investing in mental health is important. I have an unlimited membership at Othership in Yorkville” REGULAR EXPENSES  Rent: $1,930 a month. “I’ve been here since mid-2024.” Insurance: $18 a month with Square One. “My landlord asked for this as a condition of my lease. I shopped around online until I found the…

The Buyers: Anna Cianni, 29, who works in film, and Ethan Solomon, 27, an account executive at a legal software company. The Story: After nearly six years as a couple, Anna and Ethan were ready to move in together. They’d been saving money by living with their respective families while watching the market closely. By November of 2024, Toronto’s glut of condos had created a buyer’s market, so they decided it was time. On their wish list were two bedrooms, a south-facing view, and above all, a kitchen built for cooking and hosting—a rarity in the city’s condos. They set a budget of $750,000 and began their search. 1 Yonge Street near Finch Listed at $699,000 Unsold IN THEIR first few months of hunting, Anna and Ethan saw roughly 20…