Blog Posts by Andrew MacDonald

Vote for the top Canadian Sports Newsmakers of the year

Vote for the top Canadian Business Newsmaker of the year

African penguins Pedro (R) and Buddy interact with each other at the Toronto Zoo.The most popular couple on the Internet last week didn't have one movie, record deal, or red carpet appearance between them.

In fact, the Toronto-based lovebirds, who captured the world's attention with their heartwarming devotion to one another, don't even have opposable thumbs.

Pedro and Buddy made headlines for their unusual relationship when workers at the Toronto Zoo revealed the two African male penguins appeared to reject female companionship in favour of swimming and nesting together.

The duo arrived in Toronto last year from Toledo and has reportedly been inseparable ever since. Penguins are considered a monogamous breed and once they select a partner they tend to mate for life.

News of the aviary bromance flew through the wires, inspiring many to weigh in on the animal kingdom's "same-sex" pair. As CBC reports, the zoo began fielding hundreds of calls, including one from a mysterious group called the Canadian Society for Gay Animals.

But Tom Mason, the zoo's curator of birds

Read More »

While Canadians know our country is filled with natural wonders, we may be about to get a little extra recognition from the rest of the world.

On Friday, results from an international vote put on by the Swiss Foundation, New7Wonders, will determine whether The Bay of Fundy can claim bragging rights as one of the planet's seven new natural wonders.

The list of new wonders originally started with 441 sites from every corner of the planet, and has been whittled down by public vote to 28 finalists. Voting for the final seven began in July 2009, and will close at the end of the week.

Along with Arizona's Grand Canyon, Nova Scotia's famous bay was one of just two North American sites to make the cut.

Other finalists include Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, Israel's Dead Sea, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

According to Bay of Fundy tourism spokeswoman, Terri McCulloch, it's the Bay's record-setting tidal waves that make it an excellent candidate for the honour.

"I think everything centres

Read More »

From Scott White, Editor-in-Chief at The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press has been naming Newsmakers since 1946. The very first was Igor Gouzenko, a lowly cipher clerk at the Soviet Union's embassy in Ottawa who came forward with details about spying that caused a Cold War sensation at the time.

The news service asks newspaper editors, broadcasters and, for the last few years, the news chiefs at web sites like Yahoo! Canada to make their choice for the top Canadian Newsmaker, the top Canadian news story, the Male and Female Athlete of the Year and the Team of the Year. A few years ago, we also added the top Business Newsmaker and the top business story of the year.

There is no exact criteria for the Newsmaker other than it should be a Canadian who dominated news coverage during the year. And we never say someone "won" the Newsmaker, because sometimes someone makes headlines for all the wrong reasons.

For the most part over the years, editors have chosen politicians. The all-time

Read More »

If you're a Canadian woman considering breast implants, you may also want to consider having the procedure done outside our borders.

As QMI agency reports, a group of leading scientists claims women are essentially "playing Russian roulette" when they sign up for the elective surgery in Canada, saying the silicone gel implants available in the country are still considered unsafe and share marked similarities to those banned by Health Canada in 1992.

"They made a few small cosmetic modifications, but in the end it's the same technology, the same product, the same problems as before," says chemist and former Health Canada advisor, Pierre Blais.

Blais says he's analyzed over 16,000 breast implants through his company, Innoval, which gathers used implants and studies them for flaws and structural weaknesses.

He says the implants currently available to Canadian women have been shown to rupture, cause leaks, calcify or contract. When that happens, women risk a host of side effects, including

Read More »

Watch live footage from Occupy Toronto events here on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. ET.

Join the conversation live as Rupert Murdoch and his son James testify at a British Parliament hearing.

It might not feel like it in every corner of Canada, but June 21 is the official start of summer. Also known as the Summer Solstice, it's regarded as the longest day of the year since it's when the sun reaches the highest point in our skies.

This year, the Summer Solstice will occur on June 21 at 1:16 p.m. ET.

To mark the occasion, we were joined by The Weather Network's astronomy correspondent Andrew Fazekas in a live chat event which you can now read below. He and meteorologist Chris Scott answered a variety of interesting astronomy and weather-related questions.

Enjoy!

(AFP photo)

Read More »