Recent Posts

Short Feature by Dhriti Gupta

‘It’s Never-Ending’—Another By-Election in Don Valley West

Candidates for TDSB trustee in Ward 11 are up against winter weather and election fatigue in a ward that will have four votes in less than a year.

Feature by Alison Motluk

Under Ford, Hallway Health Care Has Devolved into ‘Chair Care’

Doug Ford became premier on a promise to end hallway health care. Seven years later, ERs are more crowded than ever and the system has never been in greater disarray.

Analysis by Emma McIntosh

How the Greenbelt Scandal Is Quietly Shaping Ontario’s 2025 Provincial Election

The controversial and now-reversed plan to build homes on the protected area around Toronto marred the Doug Ford government’s second term—and the saga is far from over.

Feature by Rob Csernyik

Doug Ford’s Big Wager on Online Gambling

The province’s three-year-old online casino market, iGaming Ontario, is already bringing in billions of dollars. The Tories are betting the revenues outweigh the human costs.

Feature by Wency Leung

Province Invests $1.3 Billion in New Schools—Just Not in Toronto

The Tories will fund 45 school building projects across Ontario—and not a single one in the TDSB, the biggest board in the province. Critics say the opaque process puts politics over students.

Analysis by John Lorinc

Doug Ford, City Builder

Unafraid to spend heavily—and break things—Doug Ford is determined to leave his mark on the city that wouldn’t have him as mayor.

Feature by Nicholas Hune-Brown

After the International Student Gold Rush

Foreign students were harmed by the policies that brought them here, and they’re being harmed once again by the policies shutting them out.

Analysis by Tai Huynh

Life Expectancy Varies by Almost 12 Years Across Toronto Neighbourhoods

A joint project by The Local and St. Michael’s Hospital, the first-ever neighbourhood-level analysis of life expectancy in Toronto, reveals stark disparities across the city.

Feature by Rebecca Gao with photos by Christopher Katsarov Luna

Why a Two-Kilometre Strip of Yonge Street Has the Highest Life Expectancy in Toronto

This North York neighbourhood has plenty of public amenities and walkable streets. But the secret to residents’ good health may have a less expected explanation: immigration.

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Recent issues

The Immigration Issue

The last year has seen sharp changes in attitudes and policies around Canadian immigration. Nowhere are those changes felt more than in Toronto. In this issue, we dig into the complicated, sometimes contradictory, ways newcomers change life in Toronto, and how this city affects them in turn.

Divided City

In Toronto, neighbourhoods separated by just a few TTC stops can be worlds apart in terms of how residents experience life, and death. Our five-year-anniversary issue is an unprecedented deep-dive into this city’s disparities—on everything from health and housing to who makes 3-1-1 complaints.

A Thousand Cuts

Close to a quarter of a million students attend schools in the Toronto District School Board, the largest board in Ontario and one of the largest in all of North America. Yet decades of underfunding have left it struggling to meet students’ needs. From cuts to caretakers, to overworked school administrators, to a lack of resources for special education, our ongoing series examines how our schools got to where they are now—and what it will take to fix them.