Backyard Escapes with Jennifer Hayman Design Group

Greater Toronto Area homeowners know that every square foot holds great value. With limited residential space and a 9 to 5-plus work life that can often confine you to an overcast cubicle, there’s never been more of an incentive to make use of your sunny backyard space. This is where gardening guru Jennifer Hayman comes in. “In Toronto, space is at such a premium that rather than having neglected, unused lawns and gardens, why not make it a series of outdoor rooms that flow and connect and allow you and your family the opportunity to relax and really maximize your time outside.” Hayman is the founder of Toronto’s award-winning landscape design-build firm Jennifer Hayman Design Group.

While Hayman’s firm fulfills a diverse array of landscaping dreams, she says that a rising trend in outdoor space solutions is to take existing abandoned garages and transform Read more

Fuel, Food and Inflation

Stacey Unsworth, a 36-year-old actor and independent contractor, is squeegeeing the windows of his Dodge Caravan at a gas station on Highway 7 in Vaughan. The cleanliness of his car is something he still has control over; the soaring cost to get from A to B however, seems inexorable these days. What once cost him around $50 for a fill-up is costing him nearly $75 today. “I live in the suburbs and commute, which millions of people do every day. Unfortunately as much as I would like to throw my hands up and start biking, like a lot of Torontonians or people in the GTA, we’re held captive by the oil companies. We have no choice but to drive,” says Unsworth. Though he’s bitter about the spike, Unsworth knows that he’s not the only one suffering from what’s been referred to as ‘pain at the pump.’ “I feel that oil prices are grossly inflated for no real reason at all, but I think that’s the general consensus of a lot of people,” Read more

Engineered Automotive

Ahead of the curve in a fast-paced market, Engineered Automotive is an invigorating alternative to traditional dealerships and maintenance centres. With its fresh, forward-looking approach, this seasoned Vaughan-based business is focused on steering consumers in the right direction.

For more than 25 years, Engineered Automotive has been providing premier service in the high-end auto segment, specializing in a large spectrum of services from body repair, upgrades, sales and tuning, to dynamometer services (torque testing), detailing, vehicle storage and corporate events. With founding partner Billy Smilovsky behind the wheel, the company has fine-tuned its customer-geared philosophy of ensuring that quality, integrity and cleanliness Read more

Design & Décor

Modern Vintage Style
Published by Ryland Peters & Small, Modern Vintage Style paints a charming picture of the captivating world of antiques. From textiles and lighting to furniture and inspiration, Emily Chalmers offers homeowners a  faithful blueprint on how to blend the old with the new. The result is a cohesive composition of Modern Vintage Style. www.rylandpeters.com

Edgar Navarro
American eco-wood raindrops fall from the sky, turning any space into an earthy escape. Edgar Navarro’s clever creations can esthetically transform any room while it functions as a bottle cellar, magazine rack or anything else that captures your imagination. The Lluvia design concept comes in a variety of configurations like flowers and pyramids, and can even be used as Read more

U-Box-It Waste Management

“While most entrepreneurs are thinking inside and outside of the box, I focused my efforts on the box itself,” says Antonio Mammone, founder of the revolutionary waste management company U-Box-It. An industry veteran and creator at heart, Mammone’s 100 per cent recyclable concept has been hailed by Bloomberg Businessweek and won bronze at the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards in Washington, D.C. “A mini bin that was recyclable was unheard of. I just knew that there was something there,” he says, of what’s become North America’s first disposable junk bin.

Born into a thriving disposal business, some might say Mammone was destined to follow his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps. “My dad has always been more of an innovator, and I think I took after him … I’ve always tried to think differently, try new things, come up with new ideas,” says Mammone, who invented U-Box-It to fill Read more

Too Young to Die: The Tragedy of ALS

Two of Dr. Lorne Zinman’s patients die of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) every week. This rapidly progressive neuromusucular disease that is commonly associated with baseball legend Lou Gehrig, and more recently with the loss of former Canadian Football League star Tony Proudfoot, has no known cause or cure in most cases. “It’s a very complicated disease … it appears that an area of cells in the brain or spinal cord start to commit suicide, which then spreads to the rest of the body resulting in paralysis or death,” says Dr. Zinman, director of Canada’s largest ALS clinic at Sunnybrook Hospital. A fatal disease that affects between 2,500 to 3,000 Canadians, ALS is most common in individuals over the age of 55 and causes an array of symptoms from muscle weakness, cramping and twitching, to speech and respiratory problems. Read more

Falling Whistles: Democratic Republic of Congo Exposed

Rich orange flames dance across a striking African savannah in the continent’s heart. Serge Kaptegaine is trapped inside a burning house. The doors are locked, windows bolted shut. The only thing he’s certain of is that there is no escape. His fate lies miles away in the hands of the Western world, but no one can hear his cries. He clings to his only hope that someone, somewhere, is calling 911. “This is a small picture or idea that I can give you about the war,” says Kaptegaine of his psychological experience in the resource-rich, conflict-ravished Democratic Republic of Congo. “When I’m talking about fire, I’m talking about realities where you are tortured. I am talking about realities where for days you don’t even think about war, you don’t think about food. The only thing on your mind is ‘how am I going to be tomorrow or the next five minutes?’” Murder, rape and young children being used as human shields are ongoing impunities of a crisis that’s been deemed Africa’s World War. Read more

The Great Dane Cook

Dane Cook is staring at cover art for his Greatest Hits album. He’s narrowed the title choices down from 15 to three and his deadline is today. The creative process has caused the sandy haired star comedian to take a scenic route down Memory Lane – long before his Forbes list fortune and arena-filling fame. He’s spent the last few weeks listening to grassroots routines and discovering edits of CDs that he didn’t even know existed. “It’s interesting – watching and listening to the evolution of myself. It’s very, very strange.” He pauses. In that brief silence you can hear the deafening authenticity behind Cook’s quiet confidence.

Ankle-deep in conversation, it becomes refreshingly apparent that one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People hasn’t let sold-out stadiums and Hollywood movie roles alongside Kevin Costner, Kate Hudson and Steve Carell Read more

Vaughan and Toronto’s Mayoral Race

Campaigns for change carried two of Ontario’s mayoral candidates to political peaks in municipal elections that pulled more people to debate floors and polls in years. The riveting races of Toronto and Vaughan’s mayoralties are perhaps two of the most captivating political dramas of this decade.

VAUGHAN
On Oct. 25th, 2010, Canada’s fastest growing city saw Linda Jackson’s controversial reign come to a heavy halt when she lost her mayoral spot by a landslide to Maurizio Bevilacqua, former Liberal MP.

Bevilacqua, who gave up his parliamentary seat after two decades to dive into Vaughan’s mayoral race late last August, is confident that his transition process, along with a mostly fresh-faced Read more

Vaughan Municipal Election: Will Mayor Jackson Beat it?

Question marks float like buoys in Vaughan’s political waters, where six mayoral candidates tread towards a distant City Hall. Whether or not Mayor Linda Jackson’s campaign bid will be able to transcend a trail of controversy is becoming the crux of conversation. The early stages of the municipal election leave many residents wading in a murky reservoir, probing for a channel of transparency.

“It’s been entertaining, engaging and bewildering. It will be interesting to see if there is a higher turnout in this municipal election,” says Nelson Wiseman, an associate political science professor at the University of Toronto. “What’s gone on is quite unusual, quite out of the ordinary, quite wild in terms of the city and the legal cases and the intensity,” he adds, mentioning that he’s received more calls about Vaughan’s election than any other municipality, Read more

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