By taking the job as spokesperson for Toronto mayoral candidate (and current deputy mayor) Joe Pantalone, former NOW writer Mike Smith is giving himself the chance to potentially replace another former NOW writer in City Hall. Don Wanagas, who wrote for the alt-weekly until 2005, is the communications director for current mayor David Miller. Miller is not running for re-election.
Andrew Cash is the New Democratic Party's candidate for the Davenport electoral district, located in Toronto's west end. Cash, who is also a well-known singer-songwriter, was named the candidate of the social democratic party back in October but is gearing up his campaign with an initial fundraiser set for later this month. If elected, he would become a caucus colleague of his former bandmate Charlie Angus, who has served in Parliament since 2004. Due to the intricacies of Canadian electoral law, the date of the election is not yet set, but Cash tells AAN News that it will most likely happen in either the spring or fall of 2010.
In a story previewing 2010, NOW sized up city councillor Adam Giambrone's chances of becoming mayor. "He's young. He's bright. He's gay," the story read. "And he looks better than any of his challengers so far." But there was one problem, Giambrone says. "I'm not, in fact, gay," he wrote on Facebook. "Sarah, my partner, has taken the news in stride and with good humour and I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it from the LGBTQ people in my life." NOW has acknowledged the mistake and changed the phrasing to "gay-positive."
AAN News has learned of two great resources for anyone who is writing about the United Nations Climate Change Conference or climate change right now. First, climate scientists from the American Geophysical Union will be providing round-the-clock support for journalists reporting on the conference through Dec. 18. In addition, NOW Magazine's editor and CEO Alice Klein, who is attending the conference, is available for interviews about what's happening in Copenhagen. To set up an interview, email jasonh (at) nowtoronto.com or call 416-364-1300 ext. 372.
The Toronto alt-weekly last week debuted NOW Magazine: The Movie, a nine-week web film series that simultaneously chronicles the paper's history and makes fun of it in the mockumentary style. In the movie, a fictional theater troupe is commissioned by NOW CEO Alice Klein to create a musical about the paper on the heels of its 25th anniversary in 2006, with that plot intertwined with archive footage from NOW's real-life history. "It is actually truly funny, and one of the only ways you can achieve that is to be prepared to take the piss out of yourself," editor and publisher Michael Hollett says. "It's entertaining, but at the same time there is real information that emerges about our history, which is a pretty proud one." The five-minute episodes, directed by Second City alum Brian G. Smith, will all be released on the NOW Magazine: The Movie microsite. You can check out the trailer below.
NOW Magazine - The Trailer from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.
That's the question Ryerson Journalism Review's Daniel Kaszor set out to investigate in that magazine's Spring issue. He sits down with independent owners Ron Garth of Vue Weekly, Michael Hollett of NOW Magazine and Dan McLeod of the Georgia Straight, as well as an editor with Eye Weekly, a corporate-owned weekly that competes with NOW in Toronto. His conclusion? "Readers may find it difficult to spot major differences between the two breeds of paper ... [b]ut there are distinctions," Kaszor writes. "Corporate papers are usually more personality-driven and apolitical. And the indies are not so much labors of love as pure acts of will held together by shrewd owners with deep personal and financial interests in their papers."
Wayne Roberts' The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food covers the loss of "real food," the growing dominance of Western agribusiness, and successful alternative practices based on the concept of community food security. Roberts, who writes about food issues for NOW, is also active in the community food security movement, serving on the board of the Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada, and coordinating the Toronto Food Policy Council. "[The book] clocks in at just under 200 pages and is a great primer for how the global food system really works," writes Jeff Nield in a review on Treehugger.com.
