Tag: Toronto

Sports

Raptors Headed To Playoffs

Canada’s only basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Toronto Raptors, are generating some excitement.

For the first time in six long years they have made the playoffs.

Of the 30 teams in the NBA, only 16 make it to the playoffs. There will be eight teams from the Eastern Conference and eight teams from the Western Conference. The Raptors play in the East.

In the playoffs, each team competes in a best-of-seven series. The first team to win four games moves on to the next round. A team has to win three rounds to make it to the finals. Then, the lone surviving team from the East plays the lone surviving team from the West.

Arts Environment News

This Famous Maple Tree Will Live… Forever

In 1867 when Canada was created, a towering Silver Maple tree standing in front of Alexander Muir’s house in Toronto gave him an idea.

He would write a poem and a song about the majestic tree, so common in Canada and so symbolic, to celebrate Canada’s confederation.

His song was called The Maple Leaf Forever and it has been the unofficial Canadian anthem to this day.

Arts News

Empty Storefronts Now Showcase Art

There is a strip of vacant stores along Eglinton Ave. W. in Toronto.

The street in front of the stores is under construction.

The stores are vacant (there is no one using them) partly because of the construction, which makes it hard for people to visit the stores to shop. And if there are no shoppers, there’s no point in opening a store.

But Toronto businessman John Kernaghan looked at the vacant storefronts and saw possibilities.

News

Extreme Weather In Many Cities Over The Holidays

Many cities in North America experienced extreme weather during the 2013 holiday season.

On Dec. 22, Toronto was struck by an ice storm which caused trees to become covered with large amounts of ice.

Although it was often beautiful, it was also destructive.

Many of the trees couldn’t support the weight of the ice and branches came crashing down.

Some of the branches took out power lines, so hundreds of thousands of people in the city were without power for hours or days.