TORONTO

Hockey fans in Toronto can say “bottoms up” before the sun comes up this weekend.

Bars and restaurants in Toronto can open by 7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, to serve anyone looking to grab a pint and hopefully cheer Canada towards the Olympic gold medal.

Fans of Team Canada can thank Councillor Mike Layton for bringing the urgent motion on the floor Thursday.

“We’ve just watched the Canadian women take home the gold and we’re all very excited to see the men play (Friday) and then over the weekend, and we just want to make sure that everyone can have a good safe time watching the game,” Layton said.

The temporary extension will exclude nightclubs as “these are a little bit more difficult to monitor,” he said.

But even this simple motion had its detractors. Mayor Rob Ford, who said he was OK with the extension last week, voted against the motion after insisting nightclubs should not be excluded.

“It’s not fair to me that you’re taking out nightclubs,” he argued in council. “What makes a nightclub any different than a cafe?”

He suggested the city could get in trouble for the exclusion.

“If I was a club owner and if I wasn’t allowed to open at six o’clock and everyone else is, we could be in trouble, we could be facing a lawsuit,” Ford said.

Layton pointed out nightclubs “are outfitted with bars that serve very limited amounts of things.”

“They also don’t have a lot of televisions,” he said. “We don’t want people taking advantage of this. This is about joining together in community and watching a hockey game.”

Under the City of Toronto Act, council has power to extend alcohol service hours “during events of municipal, provincial, national or international significance.”

Toronto is “quite lucky” to have the ability to do this, Layton said.

“We did it for the World Cup years ago and we do it quite frequently at night to extend to later hours for things like TIFF,” he said.

He cautioned people to drink safely.

“If you’re going to be out having a beer, you’ve got to make sure that you’re not driving and that you’re being responsible with your consumption,” Layton said.