Toronto Life November 2022

Star Power There was a lot of love for “The New Hollywood North,” our cover story on the diverse and talented screen artists emerging from Toronto these days. “Easy to be a fan of these great actors and shows! Aren’t we lucky to have such stunning talent on our screens?” —patriciamills895, Instagram “I’m really digging this Canadian Marvel takeover. Liu, Vellani, Maslany, all really great.” —purplepopsicles, Instagram Many readers singled out their favourites, and Iman Vellani ranked high on their lists. “I love you, Iman Vellani, in every universe.” —@Likkash1, Twitter “So proud to see brown representation in the superhero world.” —rejoicewellnessmedspa, Instagram Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Mae Martin and Bilal Baig were up there too. “Maitreyi is such a gift to watch! Best show I’ve seen in ages!” —megnatics, Instagram “It’s…

At 83, William Baker has had his share of injuries and illnesses, but nothing compares to what happened to him on January 4, 2022. At some point that day, Baker, a Stouffville resident, began feeling enormous pressure in his abdomen – so much so that he ran to the bathroom, where a startling amount of blood started pouring out of his body. He eventually managed to get into his car with his wife, who drove him directly to the emergency department at Oak Valley Health’s Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH). As he waited to be triaged, he experienced a second bleed so severe that he nearly passed out from blood loss. Baker underwent numerous tests until a colonoscopy showed the bleeding had stopped. Seemingly stable, he was discharged home, but a…

We started slowly, wending through the leafy side streets near Bathurst and Lawrence, where we caught sight of kids freshly liberated from school zooming around on bikes. Farther south, in Forest Hill Village, we spotted a hive of shoppers, sun worshippers and patio sitters. At Sir Winston Churchill Park, as we turned left, a kite lifted off into the sky. We took a right at St. Clair and beheld the handsome cityscape as we rolled south on Avenue Road. In Yorkville, busy, elegant types swished past one another. In the Annex, students, professors and residents commingled. Through the heart of the U of T campus, swarms of backpacktoting students passed the car on all sides. At Richmond and John, we came to a standstill, which sparked an unholy din: honking…

“The days of browsing bookshelves are behind us”—Peter Ruis, CEO of Indigo, p. 32 When it comes to ballet, London and Paris usually get first dibs on world premieres. But, this month, MaddAddam debuts at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts before making its way to London. It’s the third co-production between the National Ballet of Canada and the UK’s Royal Ballet and the first to debut here. The show is based on Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of dystopian novels, and she serves as creative consultant. The ballet is a showcase of Toronto: choreographer Wayne McGregor says he was inspired by the city’s iconography and proximity to nature, and he’ll even be hanging an upside-down model of the skyline above the dancers—an apt staging for a surging city.…

One perk of running Canada’s largest book retailer must be the endless reads. So what’s on your nightstand? I’ve got the biography of Edward Enninful, the Ghana-born editor who changed everything at British Vogue. Then there’s the novel Trust, which my staff say is going to be the hot new thing. Former CEO Heather Reisman, now Indigo’s executive chair, developed a cult following with Heather’s Picks. Can we look forward to Peter’s Picks? I don’t think so, but we’re curating for our customers more than ever. Say you buy a music book—we could suggest some vinyl too. It’s about meeting the needs of diverse patrons. The days of just browsing the shelves are behind us. Why is that? Indigo has roughly 15 million titles. Increasingly—and this has become big with…

“We’re going out more now that we can see people again” LAUREN CAIN, 24, AND KEVIN MAIER, 24 WHAT THEY DO She’s a graphic designer at a marketing agency; he’s a network support analyst for an internet solutions provider WHAT THEY MAKE $120,000 combined WHERE THEY LIVE A one-bedroom condo in Bathurst Quay—purchased by Lauren’s parents in 2018 as an income property—with their cats, Callie and Milo REGULAR EXPENSES RENT $1,600 a month. GROCERIES $800 a month. Lauren admits that they prefer to shop at Loblaws despite the high markup. CELL $72 a month each with Freedom Mobile.  INTERNET $133 a month with Rogers. PET SUPPLIES $200 a month for Callie and Milo’s food, litter, and cat grass, which the kitties like to munch on. CAR-RELATED EXPENSES $370 a month…