
Windsor to celebrate birthday in style with opening of City Hall Square
The City of Windsor is marking its 133rd birthday with a major celebration on July 13, and everyone's invited.
The free event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature the grand opening of the long-anticipated City Hall Square, which came in at a cost of around $15.4 million.
This new, year-round event space is designed to bring people together in the heart of the city. Residents will get a chance to explore the downtown core in a whole new way.
'Super excited people will have another reason to come downtown,' said Downtown BIA Chair Chris MacLeod.
'It's a great opportunity to make an afternoon/evening out of it and visit our downtown shops and restaurants.'
The city was aiming to open the ice rink in January but was delayed. The oval shaped rink is expected to open later this year.
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CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Buy Canadian moment creates opportunity for Roots and its domestic leather business
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Chances are, if you bought a leather bag or jacket from the retailer, they came from the Caledonia Road site, which has given Roots bragging rights in an era where everyone wants to buy Canadian. 'Every time I bring someone through the factory, they kind of look at me and say, 'I just didn't realize you did this here,'' Roach said of the facility where dozens of workers cut leather, stitch it together, emboss it and ultimately, handcraft up to 8,000 pieces monthly. The Canadian operation is a rarity these days, after clothing manufacturing largely migrated overseas in the sixties, when brands wanted to reduce costs and offload repetitive and sometimes time-consuming tasks. Roots has not been entirely immune to the allure of international production. It sources some of its clothing in Asia and Europe, but designs everything in Canada, which remains the heart of its leather business. Domestic production has been 'very challenging,' Roach said. Canadian suppliers have been dwindling, so the company has had to look to Italy and France to source leather and even farther afield for zippers. For a time, it had a Canadian company helping it with piping on bags, but they went out of business, so Roots bought its machinery and trained staff to use it. The decision was a point of pride long before shoppers started letting patriotism rule their pocketbooks this year in hopes of countering U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariff whims. The moment has shoppers rallying around any company with a shred of Canadiana so Roach is determined not to let it slip away without customers learning more about the brand's, well, roots. Founders Michael Budman and Don Green were raised in Michigan but met at Camp Tamakwa in Ontario's Algonquin Park in 1963 and 10 years later, decided to head north of the border to start Roots. Initially, they specialized in negative-heel shoes, which reduced pressure on backs, but when the footwear sold out in less than a month and spawned a waiting list, Budman and Green dreamt bigger. They started pumping out varsity jackets, leather bags ideal for weekend getaways and salt-and-pepper sweats. Eventually, they became a Canadian staple with stores dotting the country, a discount airline shuttling people from coast to coast, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starring in ads and a coveted contract to outfit the nation's Olympic team. Nowadays, the stores remain but the airline has folded, the business no longer sells shoes, ads aren't quite so star-studded and Lululemon Athletica Inc. outfits Team Canada. Budman and Green? They sold a majority stake in Roots in 2015 to Searchlight Capital Partners L.P., a firm split between Toronto, New York, Miami and London. Roach worked at the firm before joining Roots. 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Some of those efforts are working because Roots appears to have stronger margins and renewed consumer interest, said Liza Amlani, principal of Retail Strategy Group in an email. But she still feels the brand has work to do because 'not all stores are consistent in the customer experience and many are packed to the brim with product' that needs to keep evolving if Roots wants to hang onto customers long after the buy Canadian bubble bursts. These days they're marketing a Canada collection of red-and-white apparel, T-shirts dedicated to local waterways like Okanagan Lake and leather goods like an emoji bag charm with maple leaves for eyes. Roach insists the unabashedly Canadian items aren't a sign that other markets aren't still a priority. When she joined Roots, she relaunched the brand in China and began plotting to expand its presence even further into the U.S., where it has two stores. That plan is still on the table, even now that Trump has chosen Canada as one of his top tariff targets, because she says, 'there's a huge amount of potential there once we get through the current volatility.' 'The thing about being with a brand that's been around for 50 years is you have to look past the short-term nature ... like not what's happening next month or next year but what's going to happen over the next 10 to 15 years,' she said after strolling the leather factory. 'You're thinking what do I have to do and invest in and what are the green shoots I have to build today for this business to be successful more over a longer period of time?' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2025. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press


Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
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Why make Canadians cringe anew at Ford struggling with his demons in public and emitting sordid soundbites about 'drunken stupors' and how he had 'more than enough to eat at home'? Did all that sound and fury signify something? Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem treats Ford largely as the stand-alone story about an addict possessed of a certain chaotic charisma who ended up a leader of the fourth largest city in North American thanks to an electorate momentarily miffed by a garbage strike. Elbows (and bottoms) up: The down-low on the upfronts at Corus, Rogers, Bell Media and CBC It has nothing to say about his legacy in burying the myth of Toronto as 'New York run by the Swiss' – or the endurance and evolution of the Ford Nation phenomenon under his brother Doug Ford's mantle. Indeed, the hour-long doc is designed to only have passing interest in its subject. It's part of an 'anthology documentary series' produced for the streamer by Raw TV, a London-based film and television company, that revisits media circuses from the past quarter century. A brand that started in 2022 with the three-part Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 now has a shorter attention span; its first episode this season re-examined the fatal Astroworld Festival crowd crush in Houston in 2021, and the episode to come after its documentary on Ford will be on the so-called 'poop cruise' disaster of 2013. That 'remember that terrible thing?' focus, or lack thereof, makes Trainwreck feel like the flipside of those old VH1 I Love… nostalgia series. It's an approach no doubt in tune with our times – kind of an I Love to Hate... the 2010s. While Torontonians may be frustrated by this framing, at least Mayor of Mayhem is not one of those docs that tries to come up with a contrarian pseudo-compassionate view on a maligned figure from the past. 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CTV News
14 hours ago
- CTV News
Barrie, Muskoka get lyrical nod from Canadian artist Drake in new track
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