Canada’s richest citizens give the least to charity

While the rich are growing richer, their generosity is getting poorer — not just compared to those earning much less than them, but compared to what they gave in years past. It’s old news that Toronto is the income inequality capital…

Arts boards still don’t represent Toronto’s diversity

Toronto is the most diverse city in the world, yet many of its arts boards are woefully bereft of women and men of colour. Four years ago, I wrote a Star column on the shocking white maleness of the boards of Toronto’s “Big 6” arts…

Canada isn’t young, but it’s a great place to live

Is Canada young? Not any more. If I heard it once this past weekend, I heard it 150 times: “We’re a young country…” But we’re not young at all, certainly compared to the 15 countries that were born after the death of the Soviet Union…

Fit for a Maharaja: Not Your Traditional Adventure Through India

Everyone who travels to India returns to say a variation of this: “I am inside the most opulent palace in the world—and outside its gates, the most pitiful beggars are pleading for enough rupees to keep them alive.” In other words, the…

Canadian Women Are Storming The Ivory Towers

True, Hilary Clinton didn't break through the Everest of glass ceilings. True, 44 per cent of Canada's public companies don't have even one woman on their boards. True, Canadian women earn just 73.5 cents for every dollar a man makes. But…

Quotas required to have more women on corporate boards?

Of the 12 largest European markets, five – France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Norway — have mandatory quotas on women serving on boards. So, 46 per cent of 733 TSX-listed companies have no women sitting on their boards. Not even one. This…

10 Ways To Make Canada’s 150th As Big And Memorable As Possible

 Whether it was Big for you or not, you need to start planning for next summer -- Canada's 150th -- right now. Because waiting till next June to plan your July 1st will attach a lifetime of bad memories to the word "staycation." So here are…

Bike parking falling far short of demand

Toronto needs a dramatic increase in the number of bike racks — and let’s make them attractive while we are at it.  If you own a bike, and more than half of Torontonians do, you may have more routes to ride it on this summer, but no place…

How White American Males Can Walk Away From Donald Trump

The news that Donald Trump's support is falling within his fortress of white males puts many of them in an awkward spot: how to abandon their leader while holding on to their pride. So here's a 10-point guide to doing that very thing. 1.…

Where Is This Generation’s Joseph Nye Welch When We Need Him?

Imagine you're Justin Trudeau's speechwriter and you're on the phone with his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeu, who will soon give a speech in support of her husband. She says that one of the people she has always liked is Laureen Harper, Stephen…

When Is A Car No Longer A Car?

We are not car people. Our car is 7 years old and the only route it knows is from downtown Toronto north to Georgian Bay, which it faithfully plies most every weekend. Beyond that, it's clueless, and so are we. So when a connected colleague…

Working amid the murky legality of assisted dying

Without updated laws, doctors face prison for helping patients die on their own terms Two decades ago, a woman who was deeply involved in the right-to-die movement, died at home in Toronto after a long, gruesome illness. She was surrounded…

Where else can you buy your way onto a war memorial?

The site, size, design, charitable status, funding model and budget aren’t the only problems hobbling Ottawa’s Memorial to the Victims of Communism. There’s the matter of dignity and taste. It seems you can send $1,000 to the Tribute…

Toronto’s positively cringeworthy bike lanes debate

Don Tapscott, meet Denzil Minnan-Wong. One of you is a visionary. The other, Toronto’s deputy mayor. Jane Jacobs, meet George Mammoliti. One of you is a visionary. The other, a Toronto city councillor. Mr. Tapscott was not at the debate…

If Can content is your thing, then you must head to this Newfoundland festival

WOODY POINT, NFLD-Writersat Woody Point is to summer festivals what Gros Morne is to natural splendours. Both are understated, full of surprises and oddly Canadian. They’re a 2-1/2-hour flight from Toronto to Deer Lake, then a 45-minute…

What Happens When We Pass Beyond The Point Of Gender Parity?

What beats gender parity? Gender dominance. And it's busting out in some telling places. Last month, media reported that women will outnumber men on what could turn out to be the most influential group of people around Prime Minister Justin…

When does an airline lounge become the reason to fly through a city?

That question never entered our heads when we booked a trip from Toronto to Africa, cashing in our Aeroplan Miles to fly business class. When our travel agent booked us back home from Cape Town to Toronto, we hunkered down in the Turkish Airlines…

Gansevoort hotel serves as oasis in midst of New York’s Meatpacking District

NEW YORK-Rundown warehouses, dodgy streets, and zero nightlife filled the city’s Meatpacking District back in 2003. A year later, the boutique hotel Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC, opened at 9th Ave. and W. 13th St. Twelve years later, the hotel…