On a day slated full of playoff action for Toronto sports teams, hometown favourites Team Epping took to the stage first, against Team Koe, at the historic former Maple Leaf Gardens.
The Hard Rock Café Toronto has always had employees fall in love with its rock history. Some waited tables while singing and dancing to Britney Spears’ songs, others remembering Led Zeppelin. Three years ago, Sam Taylor, 20, was waiting for his job interview at The Hard Rock Café while discreetly playing Gov’t Mule’s Soulshine with an imaginary guitar. “I was on my way out of the restaurant when I saw this plaque on the wall, right beside the door,” he said. “This place used to be the old Friar’s Tavern. I was hired, and I knew it was just the beginning of an amazing job.”
A University of Toronto says having a female premier will not change the nature of Ontario politics. On Saturday, Kathleen Wynne won the Liberal leadership and will become Ontario’s 25th premier. She defeated principal contender Sandra Pupatello and four other candidates during the convention held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Maple Leaf Gardens. Nelson Wiseman, a U of T political science professor, says the leader’s gender does not matter.,“Having a female premier to me does not make much of a difference,” he said.
Hockey lives once again at the place that was formerly beloved as Maple Leaf Gardens. And though visiting forward Kevin George was the one to score the building’s first goal in 13 years, the home team Ryerson Rams would narrowly prevail 5-4 over the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks.
Jian Kourdah made the trip from Markham to the corner of Church and College streets to buy groceries in one of hockey's most storied shrines. He was among the hundreds who checked out the new 85,000-square-foot Loblaws location at Maple Leaf Gardens following its grand opening on Nov. 30.