Toronto Life December 2025

CREATED FOR Dear Incoming Family, When you first walk through these doors, your world might feel like it’s falling apart. I know, because mine did. When my five-year-old son, Hendrix, relapsed with cancer, everything we knew—home, work, school, routine—disappeared overnight. Our lives suddenly revolved around hospital walls and waiting rooms. For nine months, Ronald McDonald House Toronto became our safe place. It was our home when everything else felt lost. After long days at the hospital, I could come here, cook a warm meal and feel a tiny piece of normal again. Hendrix could play, laugh and just be a kid, even while fighting the hardest battle of his life. His bone marrow transplant meant 42 long days in isolation, and we spent the first 21 inside a 10 x…

Power of Attorney Courtney Shea’s investigative feature on Singa Bui—the lawyer accused of embezzling millions of dollars from her clients to sustain her family’s extravagant lifestyle—got readers in a lather about legal ethics and a perceived lack of oversight. “Time to start holding them accountable: an unethical lawyer stealing people’s hard-earned money from legal trust accounts to fund her luxury lifestyle.” —@StrategicMove1, X “These d-bags belong in prison. But what I find most interesting is that the title and face of this negative Toronto Life spotlight is the wife. You have to read the story to know that her husband is complicit in this. Typical Toronto Life.” —PsychologicalHall820, Reddit “The wife was charged with 42 counts of fraud, 17 instances of criminal breach of trust and one count of possession…

At Toronto Life, around the time the colours turn, the big themes of the year tend to crystallize. In the past, that’s meant the rise of women’s pro sports, the AI revolution, the heroism of the front-line worker, the Raptors’ winning ways and the advent of medical marijuana. This year’s theme was patriotism, and it emanated not from within but from beyond, provoked by a venal, volatile, expansionist-minded American president. Make all the tired jokes you like about oxymorons, but Canadian pride coloured virtually every storyline this year. Premier Doug Ford, for instance, was a strong candidate for the top spot in our ranking of the city’s most influential people. He styled himself as Captain Canada, donning a “Canada Is Not For Sale” hat and appearing on any network that…

“We deserve to have a gay show that is sexy and horny and fun”—JACOB TIERNEY, P. 20 BILLY BISHOP’S EXISTENCE has always been contentious, with advocates touting the economic benefits and critics condemning the environmental harms. But, last year, the municipal and federal governments sided with the former camp when they agreed to extend the airport’s lease until 2045. Now, another coup for the aerodrome. In October, Air Canada announced that it would be dramatically expanding its service on the Toronto Islands beginning next spring. That means new routes to New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington and increased flights to Ottawa and Montreal. It also means long-term financial security for Billy Bishop. It’s good news for time-strapped Torontonians and tourists but bad news for islanders and condo dwellers suffering from…

As the brain behind shows about dudes drinking beer and telling fart jokes, you’re associated with frat-boy humour. A gay hockey romance feels like a departure, no? Yes. I stepped back from the Letterkenny universe to do something different. I loved working on those shows, but I feel like I’ve put in my dude time. I told my agents, “If you send me any work related to sports, I’m going to kill you!” Then I presented them with Rachel Reid’s gay hockey series, Game Changers. A sincere gay romance is very different from bro comedy. You don’t strike me as the typical romance reader. I discovered Rachel’s books during the pandemic. A friend suggested that I get into smutty gay romances. When I found Game Changers, I was hooked…

Keleigh McCall is a 30-year-old entrepreneur living in a one-bedroom apartment near Yonge and Bay. In the spring of 2023, she suffered a mental health crisis, which forced her to pause her career and blow through her savings. After two hospitalizations at CAMH, Keleigh got her entrepreneurial mojo back by creating the Life-Maxing App—a self-improvement gaming platform that recently landed her a spot at TMU’s start-up incubator. Now she’s hard at work building up the business while sharing daily “life-maxing” advice and activities with her 40,000 TikTok followers. She’s on track to make $23,000 this year. Here’s how she spends her money. “It was hard to accept financial aid from my parents, but it actually brought us closer together” REGULAR EXPENSES Rent: $2,000 a month. “I couldn’t have afforded it without…