ADVENTURE LIFESTYLE PEOPLE CULTURE WILDLIFE PROTOTYPE ISSUE, JANUARY 2010 CANADAMAGAZINE www.gravitymagazines.com/canada WEL COME …TO THIS ‘DUMMY’ EDITION OF CANADA MAGAZINE. THIS IS NOT A MAGAZINE FOR DUMMIES, BUT A REALISTIC MOCK-UP OF A BRAND NEW AND EXCITING MAGAZINE THAT’S GOING TO APPEAR FOR REAL IN 2010. WHO ARE GRAVITY? Gravity Magazines is a trading name of Gravity Consulting Ltd, a marketing communications consultancy in the historic city of Durham, in North East England. Gravity has a long record of producing W HAT IS CANADA MAGAZINE? high quality magazines for both consumer and trade audiences. Canada Magazine is our first W ell, firstly, here’s what it’s not!C anada Magazine is NOT a travel subscription-led consumer magazine and it brochure, nor is it a publication issued on behalf of any particular will, we hope, be followed by other bespoke business or interest group. magazines devoted to revealing more about destinations that are popular without being the Canada Magazine is a consumer magazine that will bring victims of mass-market tourism. together the best writing and photography about Canada. We thank both UK Trade & Investment Why Canada? Because, although Canada is a land of many and regional development agency One North superlatives, people in the rest of the world often have only hazy East for the support that has made Canada notions about the detail of this vast Canadian canvas. Magazine possible. Our editorial policy reflects our emphasis Yes, Canada is a land of pine trees, lakes and Arctic tundra and, on responsible tourism and responsible yes, there is the odd lumberjack to be found. It is also a land of rich consumption, enabling host communities to cultural and ethnic diversity; of fine fresh food and single vineyard reap the greatest benefit from visitors. Travel wines; of hot summer days; of liberal democracy. It is a land that should broaden the mind and enrich the spirit enjoys some of the best North American qualities, of customer of both the visitor and the visited. Travel may shrink the world, but it should service and economic opportunity, of the sense of adventure, but do so in inverse proportion to the growth in without some of the downsides sometimes associated with aspects understanding between people and nations. of the USA. Canada Magazine won’t just present the country through rose- Publisher: Stan Abbott tinted spectacles: we are editorially independent and objective. But Designer: Barbara Allen Sales: Tom Boden our job is nonetheless to celebrate the positive. Website: Neil McLoram If you love Canada and go there often; if you would like to go Canadian in-country team: Martin Smith to Canada but never quite got round to it; if you’re interested in (corporate) and Bob Fisher (editorial) buying property in Canada or even emigrating; or indeed if you are Canadian and already living in Canada, Canada Magazine is for HEAD OFFICE Gravity Magazines, Suite 14-16, you. Abbey Business Centre, Abbey Road, We hope you enjoy this prototype edition and will subscribe to Pity Me, Durham, DH1 5JZ, UK the real Canada Magazine! Tel: +44 (0) 191 383 2838 STAN ABBOTT Web: www.gravitymagazines.com/canada Email: see page 51 Publisher, Canada Magazine F OR SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS, SEE PAGE 51 www.gravitymagazines.com/canada C ONTENTS 26 16 ADVENTURE LIFESTYLE PEOPLE CULTURE WILDLIFE MAGAZINE REGULARS CANADA 6 Upfront news, reviews, letters 10 My home town Bob Fisher’s Toronto 14 Q & A with Senator Nancy Green 25 Time Traveller A lexander Graham Bell 26 Great Canadian journeys Montréal-Halifax by rail www.gravitymagazines.com/canada COVER canoes rest on the 31 24 hours in... S aint John, New Brunswick dock of Lake Moraine, Banff. AN POULIN / TRAVEL ALBERTA TRAVEL / POULIN AN 40 Profile with R ufus Wainwright H P E T S 44 Moving to Canada one family who’ve never looked back 47 Food and drink the Five Fishermen in Halifax NTRÉAL, NTRÉAL, O M 48 Events guide what’s going on around Canada URISME URISME O 50 L’Étranger an outsider’s view of Canada T FEATURES 16 Siksika nation a new heritage centre for one of Canada’s First Nations OLD VIGER STATION COURTESY COURTESY STATION VIGER OLD 21 Cortes an island paradise for the young and young at heart 32 Skoki Trail a wild and wonderful trek through the Canadian Rockies 37 Business V iking Air reintroduces the Beaver and the Otter PHOTO168/FOTOLIA / / PHOTO168/FOTOLIA 42 Property it’s a great time to buy a home in Canada 21 32 www.gravitymagazines.com/canada UPFRONT NEWS, B OOK AND PRODUCT REVIEWS JASPER SURFS TO TOP ON WEB Users of the UK-based hotel comparison website, Trivago, have named Canada’s Jasper National Park, the world’s number three in their top ten most spectacular nature reserves. Trivago says of the largest national park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains: “The beauty of Jasper National Park speaks for itself. “With two million visitors per year it is one of the most popular national parks in Canada, where visitors can follow the trails of grizzly bears, coyotes and wolves. “The fissured mountain landscape in Athabasca Valley has sparkling seas and enormous glaciers. The impressive Columbia Icefields feed the eight large glaciers.” The complete list ranges from deserted islands and coral reefs close to mountain villages in Italy, to Irish moorlands. C www.trivago.co.uk Iff OUNTRY Banff Springs A LBERTA’S TOURISTS GET A BOOST Alberta’s tourism industry received a $71 million 2009 promotional boost, with the formation of Travel Alberta. Travel Alberta is the new tourism marketing agency of the Government of Alberta, with $57 million first-year budget to support domestic and international marketing. I ’M READY FOR MY In addition, the 2009 budget allocated CLOSE UP NOW… $14 million to tourism development, generating economic activity and This ground squirrel has become a supporting the expansion of tourism celebrity after popping up in the foreground attractions and destinations in the when Melissa Brandts and her husband province. set the timer on their camera for a picture Funding for tourism marketing and of themselves in Banff National Park, by development is based on collections under Lake Minnewanka. Says Mrs Brandts: “We a four per cent provincial Tourism Levy. had our camera set up on some rocks “With a new corporate structure, and and were getting ready when this curious with a sound business plan in place, little ground squirrel appeared, became I am confident that Travel Alberta will intrigued with the sound of the focusing use this funding to aggressively market camera and popped right into our shot. It our province as a must-see tourism was a once in a lifetime moment – we were destination, to travellers in Canada and laughing about this little guy for days!” around the world,” said Cindy Ady, Minister The image has appeared on various ON I of Tourism, Parks and Recreation. “That’s S S I websites, national television and – now – in M absolutely crucial at this point. We need M Canada Magazine! CO to keep building on the successes Alberta M S If you have a similarly engaging story has had over the past few years, and to communicate why not get in touch remain top-of-mind with travellers.” with Canada Magazine – see page 51 for contact details. Photo Melissa Brandts CANADIAN TOURI CANADIAN 6 UPFRONT Sun by Nikol Aghababyan C ANADIANS KNOW ART STAMP WHERE THE WILD An initiative by a group of art-lovers in Montréal is bringing undiscovered art THINGS ARE from forgotten corners of the world to public attention. Desert-like dunes in the middle of the All his life, Asbed Palakian had country. Volcanoes on the verge of the heard stories of his ancestors’ Pacific. Tropic-like waters within hours of homeland – stories of rapturous beauty, vibrant cities. Canada is full of surprises and stories of unspeakable suffering. Now, secrets and these surprises were at the heart at the midpoint of his life, he felt drawn of the Canadian Tourism Commission’s 2009 to see that homeland for himself, to find summer initiative to inspire Canadians to his roots in Armenia. explore their own country. Among his many discoveries was LOCALS KNOW was an eight-week a the richness and diversity of Armenia’s national integrated advertising campaign art. He had gone to Armenia on one (print, magazine, TV and online) made mission; he returned to Canada with possible by special stimulus funding from the another – to work with a group a Government of Canada. group of art-loving friends to establish The CTC is investing $10 million per year Passport Arts. for two years to support the tourism industry In its debut months Passport and stimulate Canada’s economy. Arts has focused on countries of the “The visitor economy makes a valuable Caucasus, primarily Armenia, but also contribution to the economic, social and Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the environmental well-being of Canadians Black Sea region of Russia. across the country,” says the Honourable “These are countries that have Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State (Small endured centuries of pain,” says Business and Tourism). “Now, more than Palakian. “But out of torment and ever, we want to entice and encourage turbulence, great beauty has emerged. visitors – including Canadians themselves Art has sprung up like a flower growing – to explore our country. I applaud this from a rock. In the Caucasus, you are campaign as it will give Canadians a reason surrounded by three millennia of artistic to discover more about their own country creativity, from ancient khatchkars, the and keep tourism dollars at home.” stone crosses of Armenia, to the most The campaign focussed on the innovative and experimental work of the unexpected, encouraging Canadians to seek 21st century.” out new and exotic experiences in places Passport Arts currently displays they didn’t know existed.