32 search results for "coin of the year"

Hard-working cleaner wins $50 million Lotto Max

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Sophie Rizavas

A North York grandmother who works four jobs including as a hospital cleaning woman, has won the $50 million Lotto Max draw. Sophie Rizavas and her husband came to Canada from Greece in 1970 and have both worked here the entire time. She dropped into the corner store to check her numbers on Saturday and was unable to  believe the huge winning jackpot that spun out in front of her eyes. The man who helped process her winning ticket was crying and gave her a big hug, Rizavas said,  She and her husband, Tom, announced the win to the family at dinner on Mother’s Day. Ms. Rizavas says a family vacation is the first thing on their list. “We’ve never had a proper family vacation. We’ve tried over the years but someone always had to stay home to work.” She noted the coincidence of the date. “My husband and I came to Canada from Greece on May 10, 1970, and 44 years later, May 10, 2014, we find out that we are multimillionaires.”

John Tory wants to be mayor — “Sorry Karen”

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John Tory wants to be mayor. The talk show host on NewsTalk 1010 has told his fellow employees there that he will file his nomination papers for inclusion on the ballot Monday morning  (February 24, 2014). He does so on the same day that another candidate, former TTC Chair Karen Stintz, will file her papers. It might be coincidence, but it’s more likely scene stealing. The millionaire former cable executive, head of the Progressive Conservative Party and 2003 candidate for mayor, says he wants a livable city and a “new tone” at City Hall. The tone thing should be easy. The livable city seems like a rather vague wish for things that cost money, and which in the end may not be universally popular. We have to see what they are. Does John Tory, for example, think a roaring La Guardia style airport on the island will make Toronto more livable? The unlamented bridge to the island airport is generally thought to have been an issue in his defeat when he lost by 36,000 votes to David Miller eleven years ago. Miller ran an effective campaign against the airport. This time as well, Mr. Tory is talking about “congestion” — the devil or bogeyman of city life, depending on your view.  He wants to “get the shovels in the ground” for the so-called Yonge Relief Line. Tory says he also wants to keep taxes low, especially property taxes. He wants to have the city government work in a way that makes people proud.  He will have lots of time to say this to the face of mayor Rob Ford. “You can have the greatest plan in the world, but if you can’t get it through the city council because you’re not possessed of the right skills or determination to work with other people, well then, it won’t matter as much,” Mr.Tory told NewsTalk 1010.  The joker in the pack for many observers is Olivia Chow, the NDP MP for Trinity Spadina and widow of the late Jack Layton. Her benign expressions of love for Toronto and the lingering feelings of sympathy for the passing of Mr. Layton will be a potent force in the October general election if Ms. Chow decides to run.  Tonight Mayor Ford’s brother, Doug Ford, welcomed Mr. Tory to the race and in questioning by CP24 went on to suggest that the radio commentator isn’t really a Conservative and can’t make up his mind. 

Grupo Bimbo buys Canada Bread for $1.83 billion

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Canada Bread, perhaps the oldest name in bread-making in this country, has been sold by its parent, Maple Leaf Foods to Grupo Bimbo,  the largest bread-making company in Mexico. The price was $1.83 billion. Canada Bread is baked in Toronto and 21 other factories in Canada and the U.S. and United Kingdom.  The 103-year-old firm owns famous names such as Dempsters, Bon Matin and others. Maple Leaf Foods has had an interest in selling Canada Bread for some time so it can concentrate on its core meat packing business.  Shares of Canada Bread have surged 22 percent since October when Maple Leaf said it was mulling the sale. The purchase builds on Grupo Bimbo’s large U.S. acquisitions in recent years and strengthens its position as the top bread maker in North America. Bimbo has expanded its footprint in recent years, acquiring Sara Lee Corp’s North American bakery business for $959 million in 2010 and buying Hostess Brands Inc’s Beefsteak bread brand last year. Many will be mislead by the Mexican company’s name. The English language slang word bimbo has no recognizable connection with the same word in Spanish usage. According to the company history, it was coined in 1945 by mixing the words bingo and Bambi and has a somewhat child-like connotation. Today, Bimbo is synonymous with bread-making in the Spanish speaking world. Twitter

Rogers outage a reminder of digital frailties

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Rogers Communications has its service back on line after a six-hour or so outage Thursday evening.  The company has said it will  “proactively credit” all of its postpaid customers one day of service for the failure, something that was much on the mind of every Rogers customer last night. The company has not explained what happened. At the height of the outage cell phone users were being advised by straight-faced news anchors to “use a land line instead.” To which the stranded wireless victims might have muttered: “Easy for you to say.” The most common analysis of the wireless phenomenon in recent years is always that customers are cancelling their land lines at a frenetic rate. And that would be fine if the rather over-confident brave new world of wireless was as reliable as its providers advertise. The state of the digital revolution, it appears, is still somewhat fragile. Many will recall the failures that coincided with the downward spiral of the BlackBerry empire. 

Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s) and Canadian colours

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The post below records the red, white and blue paint job of the prime minister’s Airbus. That colour-scheme has drawn this snicker on Twitter from the much-loved MP from St. Paul’s, Dr. Carolyn Bennett.  “O my … since when are Cdn colours red, white [and] BLUE.”  Yes, colours are political.  Mr. Harper said as much as he recalled his childhood in Leaside when he spoke here late in April.  He recalled that the country was gripped by a debate over whether the new Canadian flag should contain two stripes of blue down each side to symbolize the Atlantic and Pacific. Harper’s mother and father wanted the red, white and blue flag. In the end, Lester Pearson the (ahem) Liberal Prime Minister accepted the present flag, which is very nice but just coincidentally is red on white. Mr. Pearson appears to have been a stand up guy, as they say, but we don’t know whether he would be as frank about his political appreciation of red as Harper is in his preference for blue. Politics aside, there is an awful lot of Canadian blue in our flags past and present. In fact we have lived under and saluted a national red, white and blue flag for many more years of our history than otherwise. Flags of blue from Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec are shown. There are lots more, including Ontario’s flag and you can see all the flags of red, white and blue at Wikipedia. 

Valueless penny reached “tipping point” in 1982

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The Canadian penny is scheduled to begin being withdrawn from circulation next month. One authority on the use of currency says it should have been pulled out of service more than 30 years ago. Jean-Pierre Aubrey is a retired Bank of Canada economist. He says that Canadians began to “hoard” pennies as early as 1982 when the coins didn’t represent sufficient value to them. Mr. Aubrey’s economic models show that year as a “tipping point” that required the Mint to churn out new pennies to keep retailers stocked because consumers were throwing them in a drawer. The Royal Canadian Mint starts collecting one-cent coins on Feb. 4 for melting and recycling of the metal content, with some six billion pennies expected to be surrendered by Canadians over the next six years. Mr. Aubrey also predicts that the nickel is nearing the same tipping point long ago reached by the penny.

Wife, 23, must stay away from husband, 69

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The young wife of a Canadian senator has been told by a court to stay away from her Senator husband, someone 46 years her senior. This was a  court requirement for the release of  Maygan Sensenberger, 23. She is  accused of causing a disturbance on an Air Canada flight from Halifax to Saskatoon on Thursday. Her Monday court date coincided with her first wedding anniversary to 69-year-old Manitoba Sen. Rod Zimmer, who was appointed to the Senate in 2005 by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin. 

Another incident at Bayview and Eglinton

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Following is a police report on yet another incident involving young people near the corner of Eglinton and Bayview. There have been enough such incidents that it seems naive to think that they represent a coincidence. Which raises the reasonable question of whether there is some other type of illegal activity going on in this ares which sets the scene for these kinds of crimes. We’re asking. Here is the police report: : A 16 year old male reports that on October 14, 2011 at approximately 1850 hours, he was in the area of Eglinton Avenue East and Bayview Avenue when he was approached by three male suspects. One suspect made a demand for the victim’s phone. The victim did not comply. The suspect produced a handgun and threatened the victim. The victim punched the suspect and fearing for his safety fled the scene. The suspects fled the scene in an unknown direction. No injuries were sustained by the victim. Police are requesting the assistance of the public in identifying the following described persons in connection with this offence. Description of Suspect #1: Male, 14 years, 5’4”, 110 pounds, medium build. Suspect #2: Male, black, 14 years, thin build. Suspect #3: Male, black, 14 years, 5’2”, 79 pounds, thin build.