To You, I’m Fluff …
But is there more to Reader's Digest?
To you, I’m fluff. I kill time in doctors’ waiting rooms. I’m the magazine your grandmother subscribes to. No one can remember a time when I wasn’t here. You probably don’t know anything about me, but people trust me. Every month I show up in nearly a million mailboxes. I’m read by eight and a […]
The Numbers Game
So much work goes into the Maclean's university issue and other rankings, but what does the reader really learn? A look at our rank obsession
One September evening during my last year of high school, I went up to my room with a pack of stickies in one hand and Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities 2002 in the other. Like thousands of other 16-year-olds, I needed advice on my educational future. No one knew more about Canadian universities, it seemed, […]
Into the Wild
An incredible journey deep into the heart of Walrus country
In its premiere issue almost four years ago, The Walrus magazine introduced a front section called Field Notes. Its purpose: to offer Canadian readers a peek into indigenous cultures abroad. In scientific circles, the term refers to the notes taken by scientists during or after their observations of the phenomena they are studying. These types […]
A Wasteland No More
There's a new kind of climate change heating up the nation's newsrooms.Welcome to the Golden Age of environmental journalism. But is it a sustainable development?
It’s another warm, sunny day in late October 2006 and Alanna Mitchell is working in a tiny window-walled office that overlooks her porch in Toronto’s east end. She’s finishing an article for The Walrus, to be published in the winter, about the furious pace of climate change. A framed copy of the mock front page […]
Dear Sylvia
You are a pioneer of first-person journalism in Canada. So, has it always been just about you?
I’m in the basement and it’s cold. Above the low hum of the ventilation duct and the steady breathing of two elderly men sharing the room with me, I hear creaky wheels approaching. I’ve been waiting for only a few minutes, but not knowing what to expect and being in unfamiliar territory, makes it seem […]
Hot Prospects
The Calgary Herald has huge ambitions: to turn a minor-league paper into a major-league daily—even if it means putting up with a slew of embarrassing rookie mistakes
Except for his $250,000 grey F430 Ferrari and his equally costly Bentley Arnage, Brian Hunter kept a low profile in Calgary. The 32-year-old millionaire lived otherwise inconspicuously in one of the city’s many sprawling suburbs, waiting for his one-hectare, $3-million house to be built. Hunter traded in natural gas for a Connecticut hedge fund called […]
It’s a Crime
Toronto streets aren't "nighttime killing fields"—but it's easy to say they are
Chuckie smashes the metal pipe into the side of Freshy’s face. Freshy hits the cement with a thud. Before the 16-year-old knows what’s happening, he’s pummelled by half a dozen guys wearing heavy winter jackets and thick-soled basketball shoes. Curses fly through the night air near the intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue in […]
Shining a Light
The editor who fell down the elevator shaft and other tales, trials and misconceptions from the subterranean depths of the trade press
In a prospector’s camp, Bob Richards reads by oil lamp about the toil behind a modest Newfoundland mine. The story of Duck Pond and its deep sedimentary rocks captivated him – this, he thought, is how Canada was built. The article moved him to contact the author. “Madame,” he wrote, “I bow to your journalistic […]
The 140-Year War
A close look at the warriors, battlegrounds and legends of a Canadian institution: the Parliamentary Press Gallery
Sitting in the House of Commons, above and behind the Speaker’s chair, I’m enjoying the 50-yard line view reporters get of all the debating and name-calling in federal politics. It’s Monday, October 30, 2006, and Speaker Peter Milliken declares “case closed” on the Peter McKay-Belinda Stronach “dog-gate affair.” But I’m not here just for the […]
The Case for George
To the surprise of many, Strombo is still on the air. Sometimes he even has depth
Eight thirty p.m.: the crunching sound of a key working a lock. George Stroumboulopoulos opens the door to his Queen West home in Toronto and throws his keys on the coffee table. He sits down with a plate of pasta to watch the Canadiens game. He’s reading The Guardian online when Jennifer Dettman, executive producer […]
