The race is on for one of the country’s hottest retail sites after Sears Canada Inc. abandoned its flagship store at the Toronto Eaton Centre, reported The Globe and Mail Oct. 29. . . . The battle between big-name retailers underlines the scarcity of prime retail locations in Canada’s biggest urban markets. “The best stores – there’s going to be a dogfight over them,” said Jim Danahy, managing principal at consultancy CustomerLAB and director of the Centre for Retail Leadership at York University’s Schulich School of Business. Read full story.
A really scary story about Halloween
Halloween was imported to Canada by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the mid-1800s, according to York University history Professor Nicholas Rogers‘ interesting book, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. In the 19th century, Oct. 31 was a night for the urban poor to run wild without fear of punishment or consequences, reported the Waterloo Region Record Oct. 30. “It was customary to root up vegetables from backyard gardens . . . unhinge gates and shutters, tip over outhouses, pull down signs and fences and even tear up the wooden sidewalks,” Rogers writes of early Halloween rituals. Read full story.
Aerospace training and research hub slated for Downsview Park
Eighteen months after first reported in The Mirror, an aerospace campus is coming to Downsview Park. Centennial College will receive up to $26 million from the provincial government to relocate its aviation programs to the former de Havilland aircraft manufacturing centre at the park, reported the North York Mirror Oct. 29. . . . The de Havilland plant will be renovated to accommodate new classrooms, workshops and hangars, and will house an innovation and research working group consisting of industry leaders and academic officials from York University, the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. Read full story.
Master jazz artists to prop up some eclectic repertoire
The Vernon Jazz Club will be taking flight this Saturday night with Turboprop, featuring Ernesto Cervini on drums, Joel Frahm and Tara Davidson on saxophone, William Carn on trombone and Adrean Farrugia on piano, reported the Vernon Morning Star Oct. 30. . . . A native of Toronto, currently on the faculty at York University, Davidson has performed at such prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and the International Jazz Festival in Peru. Her sophomore CD, Code Breaking, featured Juno award winners Mike Murley and David Braid, and was nominated for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year for 2007. Read full story.
SFU Beedie places in Canadian Business’s top 10 MBA programs
In Canadian Business‘s ranking of the top MBA programs in Canada, the magazine looked at price, value and reputation, reported BC Local News Oct. 29. York University’s Schulich School of Business took Canada’s top spot, followed by HEC Montreal and Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. “Under Dean Dezsö Horváth, Schulich has become a rankings darling,” wrote CB’s Richard Warnica. “It competes in all the major competitions and has come out as the top Canadian school, and one of the best schools in the world, on many recent lists.” Read full story.