Browse By

All posts by Philip Alves

No Thumbnail

Arista finalist in building awards

Concord-based builder Arista Homes fell short of capturing a coveted industry prize last month, losing out to a rival builder from Mississauga.

Arista Homes was runner-up for the second year in the Tarion Awards of Excellence. It was a finalist in the Large Volume Builder category, along with Hayhoe Homes of St. Thomas, Tribute Communities of Toronto, Mountainview Homes of Thorold and Mattamy Homes of Mississauga.

No Thumbnail

Top equipment firm coming here

Kidde Canada, the country’s leading supplier of fire safety equipment, is moving from its Markham headquarters to Vaughan in January, the company’s chief financial officer Robert Pizzola said last week.

The planned move follows the expiration of Kidde’s lease, which forced the company to examine its options.

No Thumbnail

New election scheme voted down handily

The small pencils wielded by millions of Ontario voters were worn out on Oct. 10 picking who would get into government and the process by which future governments would be determined.

The referendum choice came down to keeping the first-past-the-post or switching to a mixed-member proportional representation system.

No Thumbnail

Source of tainted beer discovered

Labatt Breweries says it has uncovered the source behind July 12 reports of suspected tampering of imported Stella Artois bottles, one of which was served at a Thornhill bar on July 11.

The investigation launched by the brewery following the discovery of the tainted beer determined the bottles were not tampered with as originally feared. The bottles were filled with concentrated alcohol in place of lager and were meant for display, not drinking.

No Thumbnail

Thornhill bucks trend to go Tory

Rookie PC candidate Peter Shurman benefited from the fickle nature of the riding’s electorate, beating Liberal incumbent Mario Racco by 1,700 votes in Wednesday’s election — a landslide by Thornhill standards.

Four years ago, the voters of Thornhill ousted their incumbent MPP in a close race.

In 1999, four years before that, the voters of Thornhill dumped their incumbent MPP in another airtight race.

Move over, gelato, ice cream’s in town

“Sorry about that,” Joan McCullough says as she picks up the phone again. “I’m making ice cream in the back and serving customers in the front.” She’s busy running her new ice cream parlour, Marble Slab Creamery, which opened on Sept. 12 at 31 Colossus Dr. in Woodbridge, a place not unfamiliar with ice cream.

Future seen by small crowd

Dozens of people joined city councillors and staff in the Civic Centre’s council chamber on Tuesday night to catch a glimpse of the City of Vaughan’s future self as outlined in a draft report. Vaughan Vision 2020 lays out the key priorities the city wants to act on in decades to come. Those priorities were determined with input from city staff and surveys of residents conducted by mail and phone.

A Real Jerk moves to Woodbridge

Ed Pottinger sits at an out-of-the-way table near the back of the dining room, assembling the new Interac machine – just one of the wrinkles that need ironing out. Reggae plays and green, yellow and red tinged light streams through the coloured windows of his new Jamaican restaurant in Woodbridge.

No Thumbnail

On the fringe – why do they even bother?

For candidates outside the big four parties, getting their message out can be the most important goal

The big-top tents of the four major parties in Ontario politics have front doors that are well-defined squares. To get inside, a candidate needs to be a square, more or less.

But what if a round or a triangular politico comes along? What’s an activist dodecagon to do?

No Thumbnail

Sorbara cruising to the finish line

The Greg Sorbara juggernaut is steaming toward the Oct. 10 provincial election with such momentum that only a divinely poked stick through the spokes of the Liberal incumbent’s machine could cause a derailment.

In other words — those of political observers, to be specific — Sorbara has nothing to worry about as Vaughan voters head to the polls to mark their ballots in favour of one of the riding’s five contenders: PC candidate Gayani Weerasinghe, the NDP’s Rick Morelli, Green candidate Russell Korus, independent Savino Quatela or the front-running Sorbara.