“Hobo” is the name of the pot retail chain created by pub, lounge and barbershop owner Donnelly Group—which will open eight of the stores in B.C. and one on Bank Street in Ottawa. (The nation’s capital also has ByWard management complaining about a weed store using the market’s name.) Another shop, approved for 202 Queen West in Toronto, will be called The Hunny Pot. And, this summer, the Ontario Place grounds will host a “POTio.”
Doubling down with Patrick Brown
Takedown would be all but forgotten were it not for Ontario finance minister Vic Fedeli suing Brampton mayor Patrick Brown for $8 million. In a statement of defence, Brown’s publisher counters that anything printed about Fedeli was verified through sources.
“Right now, what’s happening is some people are rushing to a judgment on the thing, even to the point of saying we should tell them to pack up their bags and go home.” John Tory’s feelings about Sidewalk Toronto came up during his appearance at SXSW. The mayor noted that a lot of backlash is driven by leaked draft documents.
Mmmuffins making for fresh nostalgia
Breakfast cakes with stumps were the stock in trade of a 130-store chain that’s down to two locations, both of which are currently marked for closure. But new Mmmuffins owner MTY Group could always revive the name.
Schitt’s Creek made Pop TV worth more to CBS. The sitcom is central to coverage of how Pop TV, a U.S. cable channel that CBS paid $100 million for half of 2013, came to be owned entirely by the network. Pop boss Brad Schwartz has credited the Canadian dollar and tax credits with allowing Schitt’s to hang around long enough to become a critical hit.
Nash the Slash beyond the bandages
The Hot Docs festival will be headlined by a movie about Gordon Lightfoot, but a documentary about the late Toronto electric violinist Jeff Plewman is currently in post-production. And You Thought You Were Normal has a trailer for the story of Plewman’s alter ego, Nash the Slash:
“How to fix Canada’s biggest media problem in one easy step.” A promised $595 million in support for news media will likely be laid out in the federal budget on March 19—raising questions about whether Postmedia deserves any, given its U.S. hedge fund backing. But American sway in the journalism industry remains unavoidable: Apple will announce its next platform for publications on March 25.
Finally, a new Howard Stern book
Howard Stern Comes Again is set for release on May 14, nearly a year after a librarian supposedly caught it being prematurely added to the Simon & Schuster Canada publication list. But the evolved Stern show is different from the one that spawned Private Parts. Nowadays, rather than interviewing female porn stars, Stern’s radio topics include a staffer from Montreal who’s looking to marry a man to avoid potential deportation.
