A fact of life for most urban Canadians is that we get a disproportionate amount of news from our nation's media capitol, Toronto. Christmas news from city they call The Big Smoke is especially troubling this year.
A few weeks ago, one of the Toronto school districts banned the use of balls, deeming them unsafe for children. Yes, the ball, the most universal of all kids' toys, swept away from the playgrounds of clumsy Torontonian tykes for their own good. I hear that the decision was eventually amended so that children could indeed play with balls as long as they carried valid permission slips. Way to go, Toronto.
Now, I've heard that Toronto's Eaton Centre shopping mall banished Santa Claus because the jolly old elf has become unprofitable. Now there's something to ponder: only in Toronto would Christmas become so commercialized that they don't even have room for Santa. It turns out that the little "Santa's Village" display in the center of the mall took up too much space that could have been occupied by retail kiosks. The cost-to-benefit analysis concluded that the man in the red suit deserved the boot much the way that Ralphie got treated by Santa himself in that great Christmas movie (partially filmed in Toronto, as it happens). Santa's village has been replaced by a much smaller display where kids use freeware Skype to contact Saint Nick online, presumably in his workshop at the North Pole.
Just don't ask for a soccer ball, kid, because you'll kick your eye out.
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