Toronto Life special edition features city's 100 Best Restaurants

Toronto Life has revealed its list of the City’s 100 Best Restaurants. The list will be featured in The City’s 100 Best Restaurants special edition, which is on newsstands today (November 6). Subscribers will receive the issue in addition to their regular monthly copies.

Toronto Life's no. 1

"At the top of the list is chef Patrick Kriss’ Alo, located at Queen and Spadina [said the magazine in a release.]. "The fine-dining restaurant, now three years old, seems to be improving with age: it’s home to one of the most singular restaurant experiences in this city, or any other." 

“There’s so much depth in Toronto’s restaurant scene right now that choosing only 100 was a real challenge,” said Alex Baldinger, Food Editor of Toronto Life. “But when it came to naming the No. 1 restaurant, our assessment was unanimous. Alo is thoroughly deserving, and consistently exceptional.”

The top 10 are

1.  Alo (163 Spadina Ave., Toronto)
2.  Edulis (169 Niagara St., Toronto)
3.  Sushi Kaji (860 The Queensway, Toronto)
4.  Actinolite (971 Ossington Ave., Toronto)
5.  Jacobs and Co. (12 Brant St., Toronto)
6.  Buca Yorkville (53 Scollard St., Toronto)
7.  La Banane (227 Ossington Ave., Toronto)
8.  Brothers Food and Wine (1240 Bay St., Toronto)
9.  Canoe (66 Wellington St. W., Toronto)
10.  Quetzal (419 College St., Toronto)

[The full list is available online at torontolife.com/TL100.]

In addition to the top 100 Restaurant list, the special issue also includes rankings of the city’s 30 best bars, 10 amazing out-of-town restaurants and 120 excellent wines.

Corporate Knights celebrates Canada's greenest buildings

Illustration by Studio Tipi

Corporate Knights magazine has published its 2016 review of the best green buildings in Canada, singling out 12. A panel of building experts selected them based on such higher construction standards as data on energy efficiency, human wellness and better operating costs. The complete ranking list is included in the spring issue of Corporate Knights, the magazine for clean capitalism. 

"The 12 buildings selected this year show that smart, clean, efficient design and construction can be done today," said Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights. "With the right incentives, reporting and permitting standards, the stock of green buildings could grow rapidly and, simultaneously, take a big bite out of energy costs and Canada's annual carbon emissions."

St. Mary's Hospital on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast was designed to be North America's first carbon-neutral hospital. VanDusen Botanical Garden and Visitor Centre aims to achieve net zero standards for water and energy use. The Jim Pattison Center of Excellence is powered with photovoltaic solar panels. TELUS Garden has fully integrated smart building program controls, while MEC Head Office took a Lego-like construction approach with an eye to ease of disassembly at the end of building life. All were built to the LEED Platinum or LEED Gold standard.

British Columbia is home to six of the greenest buildings in this year's review, four buildings are in Ontario with Quebec and Nova Scotia housing one each in the top 12. Featuring prominently in their design and construction were living walls and garden spaces, solar and geothermal systems, use of reclaimed materials, and rainwater capture and recycling for grey water and irrigation.

Challenging environment, but still a money-maker finds Alberta Oil top 200

In the face of slumping oil prices and astounding political change in the oil patch, Alberta Oil magazine, published by Venture Publishing, decided to up the ante by expanding its annual review from 150 to 200 companies reflecting the entire sector. The list was unveiled today at a luncheon in Calgary.

The list is of  the biggest producers, midstream and service companies by revenue. The companies on this year’s list had combined revenues of just more than $332 billion and saw an average growth rate of 11.8 per cent and an increase of assets by 10.7 per cent.

"This year's expanded list really showcases the depth and breadth of Canada's energy sector," says Max Fawcett, editor of Alberta Oil.  "And our four top companies demonstrate that even in a challenging commodity environment it's possible to grow, expand and make money." 

The four companies highlighted as the "best of the best" are

• Top Oil Producer – Raging River Exploration  • Top Gas Producer – Tourmaline Oil• Top Midstream Company – AltaGas• Top Service Company – Calfrac Well Services

The magazine has created a comprehensive online package with a searchable database to complement the  printed issue.  

There's two sides to every story in the Feathertale Review

One of my favourite little but mighty magazines, Feathertale Review, has created its latest version (no. 14) with 152 pages of satirical poetry, fiction and illustrations. That's not unusual, but the format is: a magazine with two beginnings and no end, as demonstrated by the trailer below. (The magazine, which comes out twice a year and won the 2012 National Magazine Award for best single issue, is on the newsstands now for $15.)

"This issue is the end result of a creative and social experiment: a magazine with two beginnings and no end, presented to you like an old vinyl record. Like an LP, this issue has two sides. Unlike an LP, those two sides are equal in merit: that is, the stories, poems and illustrations you find on the B-side are just as entertaining as those on the A-side.

"What’s more, the two sides of the magazine mirror each other. We recently approached thirty writers and told them we had fifteen story titles they could choose to write from. Each writer could take on one title, but each title required two writers. The pairings were not meant to spur a creative duel, but rather a creative duality. And in the end to prove that old adage: that no two minds actually think alike."

Spacing magazine launches special French language version of Cities for People issue

We have relatively few examples to offer of French language versions of predominantly English-language Canadian magazines; perhaps Canada's History, enRoute, University Affairs and a few others, some of which publish bilingually, others of which publish standalone French numbers. 

So it is interesting to note that Wednesday 10th, there is to be launch party of a French language version of Spacing magazine's  summer "Cities for People" issue ("Des Villes Pour Tous"). It's being held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920, rue Baile, Montreal, from 6 - 10 p.m.

The Cities For People issue focuses on four themes: livable civic spaces, social-purpose arts, the shared economy, and empowering citizens to reappropriate their cities [says the release]. We are also publishing an online series on Spacing.ca.

The project is done in partnership with Cities for People, a pilot initiative funded by the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation. 

Taddle Creek's summer issue is just kidding

Taddle Creek, the Toronto-based, twice-a-year, award-winning literary magazine is focussing its summer issue on kids. 

Taddle Creek No. 33 features brand-new fiction and poetry by Philippa Dowding, Cary Fagan, JonArno Lawson, and Dennis Lee. Plus: comics by Claudia Dávila and Jay Stephens, fun and games by Matthew Daley, Dave Lapp, and Steven Charles Manale, and music by Friendly Rich. The Kids’ Issue also contains a feature on white squirrels, a profile of the T.T.C.’s biggest little fan, Cole Fleming, the long-awaited return of Fun Science Facts, and more! 

The issue will be launched at a summer party at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library on Sunday, June 22 from 2 - 4. 

[Cover by Frank Viva] 

The Hockey News hustles out digital commemorative Olympics edition

The Hockey News already has out a digital commemorative Olympics edition with a beaming cover pic of the team after Sunday's Team Canada men's gold medal hockey win. Available for iPad. 

BCBusiness magazine devotes entire February issue to TED

The much-discussed TED Conference is making its base in Vancouver and at higher altitudes in Whistler for 2014 and 2015. BCBusiness magazine (pure coincidence, the recent spate of stories) is devoting its entire February issue to the inaugural, made-in-BC TED conference which starts in March. The magazine wangled exclusive access and filmed all of it for its iPad edition. Plus it got a one-on-one with Chris Anderson, the somewhat elusive TED founder.

"To quote our tech columnist Robert Lewis,[said Tom Gierasimczuk as editor -- before it was announced that Matt O'Grady was coming back] 'TED isn’t going to compare to, say, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. But it also won’t saddle the city with debt, inflate real estate prices and annoy businesses whose storefronts become inaccessible during, either. Without causing a ruckus, TED will help solidify Vancouver’s newly forming reputation as a real, hard-working city capable of punching above its weight.' ”

Corporate Knights magazine goes global with MBA rankings based on sustainability

Corporate Knights magazine has cast its net internationally this year with its MBA sustainability rankings. The list now includes 30 business schools from 11 countries based on their efforts to promote sustainability in learning. The list accompanying the feature is led by two Canadian business schools - York University's Schulich School of Business, followed by Concordia's John Molson School of Business.

In an editorial, managing editor Jeremy Runnalls says that schools are only beginning to respond to changing corporate conditions, although MBA program rankings are done by a number of magazines in Canada and elsewhere, such as Canadian Business, Maclean's, Financial Times and The Economist.  

"Each ranking is slightly different, but they all end up rewarding programs that place graduates in the highest-paying jobs possible".

Read more »

Wall-to-wall baby pictures and stories in special from Hello! Canada

Hello! Canada magazine will have its special royal baby issue out on newsstands on Friday. The "special souvenir edition" contains a 44-page section detailing apparently everything to do with this event, even an exclusive article by Princess Diana's biographer, Andrew Morton, speculating about what kind of parents William and Kate will make. 

OH! Canada issue of HAL pays tribute to George Grant

Seems appropriate for Canada Day weekend to mention the current issue of the online magazine HAL (Hamilton Arts and Letters) HALmagazine.com which is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a special OH! Canada suite of articles, reflecting on Canada's place in the world and including tributes to the somewhat neglected public intellectual George Grant. 

HA&L is a labour of love (as what literary publication is not), principally created by editor Paul Lisson and Associate Editor/Designer Fiona Kinsella of Samizdat Press.  (While the online magazine is free, the biannual online publication relies on memberships, and is able to offer tax receipts through a community partner, Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts.)

Châtelaine publishes special newsstand tribute to Pauline Marois, first female premier of Quebec

Châtelaine magazine has published an 84-page, 45,000-copy special newsstand issue on the career of the first woman to be elected premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois. The issue has photos and articles about election night, an exclusive interview, commentary by former PQ cabinet member Lise Payette who says "She [Marois] climbed Everest" and articles comparing Marois to other powerful women in the world.

(Elsewhere, the Montreal Gazette's Janet Bagnall grumbled that there was very little in Marois's election on September 4 or her program that felt like progress.

"The Parti Québécois does not come across as a party that wants to be part of the global economy or the free flow of ideas and people around the world. The PQ program in effect called for immigrants to be pushed farther to the margins of Quebec society, forced to prove fluency in French before running for public office. Members of religious minorities would be forbidden from wearing religious insignia if they wanted to work in the public sector. And only anglophones would have the right to college-level education in English.")

Canadian Wildlife publishes special issue to mark publisher's 50th anniversary

Canadian Wildlife magazine is publishing a special issue called "The Future of Conservation" as part of its celebration of publisher Canadian Wildlife Federation's 50th anniversary.

"As CWF celebrates its golden anniversary and charts its course for the next 50 years, we wanted to do a special edition that didn't look back on past accomplishments, but rather looked forward and raised issues and ideas about the future," says Wade Luzny, CWF CEO and Executive Vice-President.

The special edition includes features interviews with four world-renowned conservationists—Robert Bateman, Jean Lemire, Alexandra Cousteau and Wade Davis—on their ideas for making a better world. It also features an article by award-winning journalist Wayne Grady on Canada's emerging National Conservation Plan and a story on the new Rouge National Urban Park by John Lorinc, another award-winning journalist and the former political columnist for Toronto Life magazine.

Published 6 times a year, a print sub is $29 and it is also available as a digital edition for $24.99. The magazine is available in French as  Biosphère.

Sportsnet magazine highlights the hottest athletes

3-time U.S. World Cup overall downhill champion Lindsey Vonn

Canadian Sheldon Souray, a three-time hockey All-Star  

'Tis the season for sex and sports (actually when isn't it?) but hard on the heels of the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, Canada's Sportsnet magazine from Rogers has come out with its March 12 Beauty in Sport Edition  featuring 30 of the buffest, most attractive athletes, men and women, Canadians and otherwise. Readers are given the online opportunity to rank the top 5 most beautiful males and females.

Editor-in-chief Steve Maich says people look at sports differently in comparison with years past and tells how “sporting talent, sex appeal, charisma and marketing savvy today combine to form an incredibly potent cocktail that can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Maclean's sums up the Shafia "honour killing" trial with special 22-page section + ebook

Maclean's magazine  has published an impressive 22-page special insert in its current issue, devoted to the so-called Shafia "honour killing" trial. Plus it is offering a 99-cent e-book for the iPad app. Writer Michael Friscolanti attended the three month trial and writes a narrative that gives an in-depth look into the horrific dysfunction of one family.

The story of the murders of the Shafia sisters and their "stepmother" Rona Amir Mohammed, is not just an account of what happened on that pitch-black night at the Kingston Mills locks, where the victims were found drowned. It's also a story of cries for help that were missed or ignored; sibling rivalry and family snitches; passionate young love; and old-fashioned police detective work. And it's a story about a custom-built courtroom, where father, mother - but not son - took the stand to proclaim their innocence.