People's Choice Awards 2018: Complete List of Nominees and Winners

The annual People's Choice Awards, which honor popular film, TV, music, podcasts and more, took place Sunday night. Check out the full list of winners below

People's Champion Award: Bryan Stevenson

Fashion Icon Award: Victoria Beckham

People's Icon of 2018:  Melissa McCarthy

Movie of 2018"Black Panther"
"Avengers: Infinity War" *WINNER"Incredibles 2"
"Fifty Shades Freed"
"A Quiet Place"

Comedy Movie of 2018"Love, Simon"
"Blockers"
"The Spy Who Dumped Me" *WINNER"Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again"
"Crazy Rich Asians"

Toronto Becomes Top Contender for Amazon HQ2

Toronto is the only Canadian city on Amazon Inc.'s short list of 20 candidates for a second North American headquarters.

The e-commerce giant received 238 applications for the opportunity and says narrowing it down to 20 was very tough.

The other 19 locations it will consider are all in the U.S. and include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Nashville.

Amazon says it plans to choose the location later this year after diving deeper into the proposals from its top cities.

An Amazon spokesperson says the process taught the company about several new communities across North America that it will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.

The company plans to invest more than $5 billion into the forthcoming headquarters and hire 50,000 highly paid employees in the city housing it.

Three Canadians Who Made It To Time's 2017 Most Influential People List

We'll admit it — when an American news outlet puts out a list of important people in the world, we immediately start looking for the Canadians who are on it.

Call it a self-esteem issue, call it Canadian pride, but whatever it is, it never fails to send a shiver of happiness down our spines as we see some of the best and brightest from our country recognized on a world stage.

This year, Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people celebrated three Canadians who made their impact in various ways: Samantha Bee, Margaret Atwood and Ryan Reynolds.

Host/Executive Producer Samantha Bee of 'Full Frontal With Samantha Bee' poses in the green room during the TCA Turner Winter Press Tour 2017.

According to an editor's note from last year, the list is chosen to represent people "who have lessons to teach .. and the power to make us think."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is perhaps notable in his absence, though he did make the list last year, and was a close runner-up in the readers' choice poll, which was eventually won by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Meet First Canadian Woman to Win a NASCAR Race

Amber Balcaen, 24, the 1st Canadian-born woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned race in the United States.(shorttrack247)

Whether it's the tracks in Manitoba or a NASCAR race, Amber Balcaen has a need for speed.

The 24-year-old dirt racer from Winnipeg made history this weekend becoming the first Canadian-born woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned race in the United States.

"It has sunk in and it hasn't. I've been smiling for the last two days and I'll be smiling all week," Balcaen said on Sunday.

"This is something I dreamed of, and I believed that I could achieve it and make it happen. For it to actually become a reality and for me to pull off the win was really a dream come true."

Balcaen took the title on Saturday in the seven-car Limited Sportsman Field during the NASACR Whelen All-American Series. This means Balcaen is in the first level of NASCAR, and she said her plans are to make it to the top of the five tiers.

Dallas Cowboys Now Most Valuable Sport Team, Check Out Top 50

NFL team Dallas Cowboys are now the most valuable sports team in the World according to Forbes annual list of most Valuable sports franchises released this week. This is the first time since Forbes began compiling their annual top 50 lists of the most valuable sports teams in the world, that a non-football team will be topping it's list. Manchester United held the crown of most valuable in 2011 and 2012, and Real Madrid did so the last three years, but on this occasion American football outfit Dallas Cowboys rank first with a value of $4billion (£3.31bn), up 25%.

Real Madrid's fall from top of the list comes despite a value of $3.65bn (£2.76bn) and a 12% increase in value from last year, when they featured at the summit of the list. Real Madrid stocked with a pantheon of stars led by the world's highest-paid athlete Cristiano Ronaldo, tops a group of eight football clubs on the list. NFL franchises make up 27 of the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world in 2016's rankings, with Real Madrid down to second, Barcelona in third (having been fourth in 2015), and Man United staying in fifth.

FREE TODAY: Losing Murphy by Abraham King

 

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Creating Your Reality

It is okay not to have iPhone, all the girls in your class has it but you enjoy your old nokia

It is okay not to leave a life of falsehood just to fit in the brotherhood

It is okay to always want to have it simple, big is expensive and carries weight

What is not okay is pretending to tag along

---

No trouble no fun

It is okay to be out of ideas, may be that was the idea

It is okay to wear sweat pants on J’s, yo feelin’ yourself

No one misses you while you’re lost, find yourself first

Read full on ablethoughts

New Pop Singer Taylor Swift Has Top Album Of 2014 in Canada

Singer Taylor Swift performs onstage during KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2014 powered by LINE at Staples Center on December 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Nick Patch The Canadian Press
Taylor Swift’s “1989” ruled 2014 in Canada, but overall album sales were down five per cent, according to a year-end report from Nielsen Music Canada.

Swift’s pop makeover sold 314,000 units, besting the “Frozen” soundtrack’s 226,000 units sold and Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour,” which moved 157,000 copies.

Bobby Bazini’s “Where I Belong” was the top-selling album by a Canadian artist with 102,000 copies sold, followed by Serge Fiori’s self-titled effort (99,000 units) and Fred Pellerin’s “Plus tard qu’on pense” (79,000).

Sales of physical CDs decreased seven per cent and digital album sales went down by five per cent.

On the bright side for industry observers, vinyl’s resurgence continued in the form of a 71 per cent year-over-year change, with Arctic Monkeys’ “AM” standing as Canada’s most-bought LP of the year.

By genre, R&B sales were hit the hardest with a 28 per cent overall decrease, followed by rap music (down 23 per cent), classical (22 per cent) and alternative (14 per cent).

Top 10 rated safest airlines in the world

Qantas Airline plane gets takes off at Sydney Airport in Sydney on August 28, 2014. Getty Images

AFP
Australian carrier Qantas has topped a list of the world’s safest airlines for boasting a clean, fatality-free safety record for more than 60 years.

The latest safety index published by Airlineratings.com comes after a tragic year in aviation history. While 2014 saw the lowest number of fatal airline accidents — 21 — two of the crashes from Malaysia Airlines were unprecedented, claiming 537 lives, editors note.

In 2014, a total of 986 lives were lost– higher than the 10-year average.

A total of 449 airlines were surveyed.

Here are world’s safest airlines in the world in alphabetical order:

Denis Villeneuve's Enemy is Toronto Movies Critics top Canadian pick

CBC

The 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards were presented at a gala dinner on Tuesday, where Richard Linklater's Boyhood was awarded three top prizes and Denis Villeneuve's doppelganger thriller Enemy won the honour of best Canadian film of the year. 

The nominees for the best Canadian film award, which carries a $100,000 cash prize, were down to three features — Villeneuve's Enemy, Michael Dowse's The F Word and Xavier Dolan's Mommy. 

This is the third time Villeneuve has won the award, having previously taken it for 2009’s Polytechnique and 2010’s Incendies. 

“All three Canadian finalists are Montreal directors, but their films could not be more different,” said TFCA president Brian Johnson. “With Enemy, Denis Villeneuve ventured onto David Cronenberg’s home turf and took no prisoners. By embracing this nervy psychodrama, our critics held it up to the light.”

Top 25 Countries To Retire To

Oliver Wheaton | MetroUK
However the few hopeful souls who might one day be able to pack in their job and run off to the sunset have rated Ecuador as the best country in the world to retire to.

International Living drew up a list of the top 25 countries people would like to retire to, and nearly all of them a sunny exotic locations.

Although Ecuador ranks 65th on The Economist’s quality-of-life scale, the country’s lush climate and affordable health-care have put it at the top of the list.

Four out of the top five countries on the list were in Latin America.
Interestingly, none of the world’s top five richest countries by 2014 GDP (China, USA, India, Japan and Germany) featured on the list – and no, neither did Britain.

The full list, in order, is:
1. Ecuador
2. Panama
3. Mexico
4. Malaysia
5. Costa Rica

Top Ten Coldest Canadian Cities in Winter

Liz Osborn CurrentResults.com

Winnipeg, Manitoba has the coldest winter weather of any major Canadian city. It ranks first for the lowest average temperatures. Winnipeg also is Canada's city that most often drops to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) or below and it is least likely to have a day above freezing during winter.

Other Prairie cities along with several in Ontario and Quebec round out the lists of Canada's coldest in winter.

The tables below list the major Canadian cities that rank for the lowest maximum and minimum temperature averages, the fewest freezing days and the most days of really cold weather.

The cities included in these rankings are Canada's largest metropolitan areas. These are the 33 urban regions that had over 100,000 people according to the 2011 census by Statistics Canada. The temperature data are averages of weather measurements made from 1981 to 2010.

CBC Health Story Of The Year

Research suggests only about five per cent of people who try to lose weight ultimately succeed, but we cling to their stories as proof that losing weight is possible. (Canadian Obesity Network)

A story about how our biology taunts us by making short-term weight loss fairly easy but permanent weight loss nearly impossible was the top health news story of the year.

The second-most ready story was an analysis of public health inspection reports from national chain restaurants. It revealed a range of health violations, including temperature and food storage issues, food handling and handwashing problems, pest control, cross-contamination and general kitchen cleanliness.

A food-related story rounded out the top three. Researchers said artificial sweeteners may have directly contributed to enhancing the obesity epidemic that the calorie-free sweeteners were intended to fight.

Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira named Canada Business Newsmaker of the Year

Tim Hortons' former chief executive Marc Caira has been named The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year for 2014

By David Friend

Debate over the marriage of doughnuts and burgers unfolded in Canadian coffee shops and the corridors of power in Washington, as seemingly everyone had something to say about the pairing of Tim Hortons and Burger King in 2014.

The US$11-billion deal helped Tim Hortons' former chief executive Marc Caira secure the title of The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year for 2014, in an annual survey of editors and broadcasters.

"Caira (love him or not) did something major and unexpected this year. Now coffee drinkers, and coffee servers, will have to wait for the consequences," said Doug Cudmore, business editor at the Toronto Star.

Kanye West is GQ’s Most Stylish Man of the Year 2014

According to GQ magazine, Kanye West ‘is the people’s champion of swag in the year of our lord Yeezus two thousand and fourteen. Since he burst onto the scene in pink polo shirts and Louis Vuitton backpacks over a decade ago, West has shifted the landscape of men’s fashion with his forward-thinking style. 2014 was no different. From bomber jackets to Chelsea boots to over-sized coats, Kanye helped define what this year meant to men in terms of the things they wear, and we think his place as champion in this tournament was earned.’

To win the GQ most stylish showdown 2014, Kanye West beat out British actor Idris Elba and more

Top 20 top pirated movies of 2014

The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's dark comedy about a stock market swindler, tops a list of the most pirated movies of 2014. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was illegally downloaded about 30 million times by torrent users this year, according to piracy tracking company Excipio and quoted in Variety.

Disney's smash hit, Frozen, came in a close second with 29.919 million downloads — despite worldwide sales that exceed $1.2 billion dollars US, according industry website Box Office Mojo.

Here's the 20 top pirated movies of 2014, ranked by downloads:

1. The Wolf of Wall Street, 30.035 million 
2. Frozen, 29.919 million 
3. RoboCop, 29.879 million 
4. Gravity, 29.357 million
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 27.627 million 

Plunge in crude oil prices named top Canadian Press business story of the year

A person pumps fuel in Toronto after gasoline prices rose overnight on Wednesday, September 12, 2012.  CP

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

From Alberta oilfields to Bay Street boardrooms to the gas station on the corner, the precipitous drop in crude prices is expected to have far-reaching impacts across the country heading into 2015, making it The Canadian Press Business News Story of the Year.

The abrupt turnaround in oil markets was chosen by half of the 50 editors and news directors across the country who participated in the annual survey.

In explaining their pick, many respondents noted the story's ripple effects beyond the oilpatch.

Richard Dettman, business editor at News 1130 in Vancouver, said the halving in crude prices over a six-month span created a "gusher of stories" — the hit to federal and provincial government coffers, the plunging loonie and the benefit to consumers, to name a few.

Comedian Chris Rock Left Wife Of 18yrs For Top Five Co Star

After nearly 20 years of marriage, comedian Chris Rock and wife Malaak Compton have decided to end their marriage. Malaak last night announced the split in a statement

"After much contemplation and 19 years of marriage, Chris and I have decided to go our separate ways,' she said

Chris's lawyer also released a statement confirming the couple have split

"Chris Rock has filed for divorce from his wife, Malaak. This is a personal matter and Chris requests privacy as he and Malaak work through this process and focus on their family.'

According to MTO,Chris has been dating Top 5 co-star, Rosario Dawson but waited until this moment to make finalize his divorce to unite with his new love. 

How Votes Were Cast In Canadian Press News Story of Year

Supporters pay tribute as the Body of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo is transported in a hearse from Ottawa to Hamilton, along the Highway of Heroes in Porthope, Ont., on Friday, October 24, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

The Oct. 22 attack on Parliament Hill and targeted killing of soldiers Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa and Patrice Vincent in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., are the overwhelming choice as The Canadian Press News Story of the Year for 2014. Here are the voting results:

Parliament Hill attack: 59

Sexual harassment/Jian Ghomeshi: 10

RCMP murders in Monction:10

Death of Tina Fontaine: 2

Senate scandal: 2

Prostitution laws overturned: 1

Nursing home fire in L’Isle Verte, Que., kills 32: 1

SOURCE: The Canadian Press

Forbes Top Five Overpaid Actors

Adam Sandler/ CP

Adam Sandler

Returns $3.20 for every $1 paid.
Sandler's latest movie, Grown Ups 2, was a hit but it didn't do well enough to compensate for the losses from Jack and Jill and That's My Boy.

Johnny Depp

Returns $4.10 for every $1 paid.
When Depp's movies hit, they're huge. The Pirates of the Caribbean films have earned a total $3.7 billion at the global box office. But he's been overpaid for misses like The Lone Ranger and Dark Shadows.