Kevin O’Leary might be back to Trump you up. Shark Tank ratings are tanking, and the dozen federal Conservative leadership candidates aren’t inspiring much positive attention, so why not threaten to revive what was assumed to be a dead idea? O’Leary tells the Globe and Mail that President Trump “puts Canada in a horrific place” due to the carbon-pricing plan he thinks would make the country less competitive.

“I am the rightful owner of Fashion Santa.” Yorkdale insists that it reached out to model Paul Mason to reprise his character months ago and got no response—which led them to hire a younger replacement. While admitting they have no trademark on it yet, the mall told the Toronto Star it was their creation, which Mason disputed on CTV’s Your Morning: “It’s my pitch," he said, "and I’m here to defend it.”

Postmedia execs took $2.3 million in retention bonuses amidst cutback chaos. Paul Godfrey unlocked a new level of outrage upon the revelation that he’d be getting $900,000 more this year. This comes right after a company-wide plan to cut salary expenses by 20 per cent led to 20 departures from the National Post—whose founding editor-in-chief (who now works for Rogers) was especially incensed about:

The shouting gets louder for an ad-free CBC. A proposal submitted by a group of former public broadcasting big shots calls for the Ceeb to dump commercial time and space; Conservative leadership hopeful Maxime Bernier offered his concurrent pledge to get them to axe any service the private sector offers. CBC president Hubert Lacroix countered critics who want digital ventures reined in, arguing that the $25 million it now generates is no real threat.


Today's edition of 12­:­36 is brought to you by A Daughter’s Deadly Deception, reporter Jeremy Grimaldi's book about how a sinister plot by Jennifer Pan left her mother dead and her father riddled with bullets, and then a 10-month trial that untangled a web of lies.


PartyNextDoor isn’t popular enough to avoid hometown media. Drake's protégé Jahron Brathwaite latched on to Kylie Jenner this past summer with the expectation that he would become famous enough to give Canadian outlets the cold shoulder. Alas, with a pop-up shop and concerts to promote, PND succumbed to talking up a shtick of repping Mississauga as culturally distinct from Toronto.

Doo Doo the Clown reunites with one of the women he saved a year ago. CityNews delivered some anniversary journalism just before the trial of the suspected attacker Doo Doo interrupted last fall. And so, the recently tortured reputation of professional clowns everywhere comes one big-shoed step closer to restoration.

The uninspired art of the Instagram apology. Yorkville men’s clothier the Serpentine figured #BlackFridaysMatter was incredibly clever, even when Vice came calling for comment; one staffer bragged the store's campaigns have “always been very racy and controversial.” But the mea culpa that followed is a blathering block of text.

Word of the moment

HIGHWAY ROBBERY

John Tory's 2003 mayoral campaign used this term to describe David Miller's plan for road tolls, which Tory has now come around to proposing.




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