Toronto became the first major city in Canada to ban plastic bags on Wednesday. The move came as a surprise because council was debating killing a 5-cent voluntary fee on plastic bags that was instituted a few years ago as a way of reducing the amount of garbage bags in the city's landfills.
On Thursday, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford lashed out over the bag ban, saying "the people" are to blame for the "dumb" plastic bag ban.
And telling a local radio show that it was "the dumbest thing that council has ever done."
The bag ban became one of the most buzzed about topics in Toronto and HuffPost Canada readers were no exception.
Our story on the bag ban had more than 900 Facebook shares and dozens of comments.
"I've been voluntarily using re-usable bags for the past 2 years. Plastic bags are not necessary. It's just a habit. Time to break it. Good job Toronto!," said the Village Green.
"What about veggie/meat bags. Or did Council just short-sightedly create new by-laws again?
"While paper bags are biodegradable, increasing our use of paper products can't be great for the environment," wrote Kiddub.
On Facebook our readers were equally vocal. "They're doing it all over the World ...so why cant we...It's called raising consciousness on our daily habits," said Roberta Maxwell.
And Josh Rachlis gave a thumbs-up to council for an eco-friendly move. "Yes, it will be a bit annoying for some people to have to bring their own bags. But I believe sometimes we have to make little sacrifices for a greater benefit. Kudos to council for this surprise move," he posted.
While a poll we posted showed the overwhelming majority of you agree with the plastic bag ban.
We solicited reactions on Twitter with the #BagBanTO tag and got some interesting results.
We've posted some of them below:
And take a look at earlier reaction to the plastic bag ban on Twitter:
If you've got more to say leave a comment or reach out to us on Twitter.