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Recent Stories
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Editor’s Welcome: The kids are all right, 2022 edition Editor's Welcome
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] E-bikes rev up the fun for Leaside locals Cycling
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] The inaugural Ruth & Harry Goldhar Journalism Award awarded at LHS Community
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Congratulations to Leaside’s outstanding graduates of 2022! Community
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Summer means using your “packing gene” Terry Fallis
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] The Bells of Leaside: Remembering the Canada Varnish Carillon History
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Howard Drukarshs Right at Home Realty is an industry disruptor Business
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] We all scream for Hollywood Gelato Business
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Update – Road safety and the Leaside Neighbourhood Transportation Plan City Councillor
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Trifecta! Leaside Rugby 7s take three city championships in return to field Sports
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] The LGS Garden Tour 2022 was a green showcase to remember Gardening
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Gearing up for a big fight at Bayview and Broadway Development
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Curious Idler August edition Curious Idler
  • [ August 1, 2022 ] Traffic and transit and gridlock – oh my! Leaside Residents Association
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] It’s Gardenzilla to the rescue! Gardening
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] Drive to “open up” neighbourhoods like Leaside slows Development
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] Bikes Without Borders cycles to Leaside Business
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] Bye bye, Lake Leaside? Property Standards By-law update City Councillor
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] Growing up and out with the Leaside Business Park Business
  • [ July 1, 2022 ] Tour de Thorncliffe is back! Cycling
HomeCommunityHistory

History

Edwards installed a carillon at his Leaside factory in 1958. Photo THE TORONTO STAR, APRIL 9, 1959.
History

The Bells of Leaside: Remembering the Canada Varnish Carillon

August 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

From 1924 into the 1970s, Canada Varnish Ltd. was among Leaside’s most established companies. The firm manufactured paints and varnishes at its plant on Canvarco Road off Laird Drive, and its founder/president, Rupert E. Edwards …more

History

Leaside’s indispensable public servant

July 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

To the adults and children who go there to socialize and play, R.V. Burgess Park at 46 Thorncliffe Park Drive is a popular and valued community asset. But like many other civic landmarks in Toronto …more

REL and other Leaside war workers board buses, 1943. Photo from TTC Archives.
History

How Leaside helped win World War II

June 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

The heroic victory of the Royal Air Force over Hitler’s Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain in 1940 is a well-known chapter in history. Equally well-known is the vital contribution the fledgling technology of radar …more

The Canada Wire Water Tower
History

Whatever happened to the Canada Wire Water Tower?

May 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

If you’re like many Leasiders, you may not know about the Canada Wire and Cable company’s water tower. Like other bygone Leaside landmarks – from the Bayview Ghost apartment building and the old CP train …more

Toronto Star, August 15, 1951.
History

The amazing adventures of Butterball the groundhog

April 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

Thanks to our proximity to Toronto’s ravine system and the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Leasiders have grown accustomed to sharing their habitat with a variety of wildlife – everything from hawks, raccoons and foxes to deer, …more

History

Broadway tower not North Leaside’s 
first community protest

March 1, 2022 Geoff Kettel

The application for a 25-storey tower at Bayview and Broadway I wrote about in last month’s Leaside Life is not in fact the first development proposal on the block between Craig and Broadway to meet …more

History

A Leaside beauty queen from a bygone era

March 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

Beauty pageants may seem outdated now. But they were a big deal in the previous century, especially in the years immediately before and after World War II. In Ontario alone, dozens of contests took place …more

History

World’s first video game built in Leaside

February 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

Computerized video games are common today. Just ask any parent. But they were unknown back in 1950. That was the year the world’s first publicly displayed electronic video game was created. And it happened right …more

History

Memories of Leaside from the early 1940s

January 1, 2022 Guest Contributor

In 1963, to help commemorate Leaside’s 50th anniversary, Arthur Donahue, founder and editor of The Leaside Advertiser, wrote an article for the newspaper’s September 12th issue describing what Leaside was like when he and his …more

The Sangamo plant on Laird, 1955.
History

Remembering the Sangamo company

December 1, 2021 Guest Contributor

Long-time Leaside residents may remember the Sangamo Company Ltd. at 215 Laird Drive near Eglinton – a site now occupied by Canadian Tire and other retail establishments. Sangamo specialized in the production of electric motors …more

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In the Spotlight

Bowman holds DVW for the Liberals – a Q&A

by Guest Contributor in Local Politics

“I have always been someone who believes in the value of community service.” – Stephanie Bowman. On June 2nd Ontario gave Doug Ford and the PC party its second majority mandate in the Ontario legislature. ...more
Recent Posts
  • E-bikes rev up the fun for Leaside locals
  • Editor’s Welcome: The kids are all right, 2022 edition
  • The inaugural Ruth & Harry Goldhar Journalism Award awarded at LHS
  • Congratulations to Leaside’s outstanding graduates of 2022!
  • Summer means using your “packing gene”
  • The Bells of Leaside: Remembering the Canada Varnish Carillon
  • Howard Drukarshs Right at Home Realty is an industry disruptor
  • We all scream for Hollywood Gelato
  • Update – Road safety and the Leaside Neighbourhood Transportation Plan
  • Trifecta! Leaside Rugby 7s take three city championships in return to field
  • The LGS Garden Tour 2022 was a green showcase to remember
  • Gearing up for a big fight at Bayview and Broadway
  • Traffic and transit and gridlock – oh my!
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