When the variants become the terrorists
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The second phase of vaccinations in Ontario is accompanied by a new stay-at-home order issued for the province. It was preceded by Toronto reverting to remote learning after a nervous day of school. And while fully vaccinated Americans can officially travel safely, their national health authorities are currently cautioning against travel to Canada as variants define a wave.
Mayor of Twitter logging off
The decade of social media politicking cultivated some early optimism in Naheed Nenshi becoming the mayor of Calgary, but his Twitter enthusiasm waned after winning a third term. Still, it was useful for confirming he won’t seek a fourth. Besides, it’s gotten difficult to imagine candidates doing more with the platform than smearing opponents.
The bubble debate returns to Toronto real estate. Comparisons with the initial lockdown provided headlines that home sales in the region were up 97 per cent in a year, with the average sale price hitting $1.1 million. The banks are divided about whether the market will cool or overheat, but talk about a bubble has gone national.
Young hustle brings a reward
Toronto journalist Max Gao boasted of getting a New York Times byline a few weeks before turning 19. The subject is the gender-flipped reboot of Kung Fu, filmed in Vancouver for the CW Network: Gao wasn’t born when the prior iteration of the series was made in Canada. The paper will hopefully forgive taking forbidden freebies:
R.I.P. Blue Peter frontman Paul Humphrey. The frontman of the Toronto new wave band was an early Canadian music video icon via “Don’t Walk Past,” the biggest hit of their run from 1978 to 1984. Humphrey continued performing in other guises and did live theatre composing and sound design, along with occasional Blue Peter reunions.
Finally, unmasking the Red Skull
Jordan Peterson decided he’d rather conduct interviews than agree to them in the name of selling books, but his weird family empire knows attention was sure to follow questioning a comic book. The new Captain America storyline, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, features longtime Cap enemy the Red Skull, with a familiar messaging style:
