Trending on Twitter #canadianactionmovies

I’m not a big Twitter user, but my partner Judy is always on there doing something or other. If you are so inclined, you can follow her using the tab on the right side of this page. Below, you’ll find a list of the most recent (tongue-in-cheek) Canadian ‘action movies’. #CanadianActionMovies was a trend onTwitter for the better part of 48 hours this week. Who knew such a thriving ‘home-grown’ movie industry was lurking behind-the-desks of Canada’s tweeters.

Conan the Calgarian  – The Icewine Cometh  –  Never Ending Sorry  –  The Toques of Hazzard  –  Lord of the Rinks  –  The Manitoban Candidate  –  The Bacon Ultimatum  –  Slightly Annoyed Max  –  The Bourne Polite Request  –  Full Down-filled Jacket  –  Frostbite Hand Luke  –  Dude, Where’s my Chesterfield?  –  Don’t Fear the Beaver  –  Pearson: The Man, The Prize, The Airport  –  Politefellas  –  The DaVinci Postal Code  –  Glengarry Glenn Gould  –  Live Free or Hurry Hard  –  The Chronicles Of Sarnia  –  The Magnificent Group of Seven  –  The Hunt for Warm October  –  Black Goose Down  –  Harold and Kumar go to Whitehorse  –  Mutiny on the Mountie  –  Beaver Dam Busters  –  A Mansbridge Too Far  –  Big Trouble In Little Regina  –  The Codfather  –  The Eh Team  –  Hockey Diaries  –  Legal Weapon

If you are confused by any of these Canadian cultural references, post a question in the comments and we will do our best to enlighten you. Until then, keep your stick on the ice.

In Canada, it’s darker at this time of year. There are fewer waking hours and dusk and darkness are often inhabited by unexplained events and ghostly phenomena. We are not a superstitious people, not susceptable to assumptions of supernatural causation. But facts are facts, and we are a curious bunch. So every year at about this time we venture out, often by candlelight, in search of the truth that awaits us in the cold darkness…

The Haunted Stirling Mansion, home of Fright Night

European settlement in Nova Scotia dates back to the seventeenth century. In Canadian time, that’s a lot of history. @AuthenticCoast  and @travelbyterry have been tweeting me about an interesting Nova Scotia haunt. The DesBarres Manor Inn was built in 1837 in the seaside village of Guysborough on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore for Supreme Court Justice, W.F. DesBarres. Justice Debarres was the grandson of J.W.F. Desbarres, a military man and mapmaker who accompanied Major-General James Wolfe at the great battle on the Plains of Abraham. It is rumoured that Wolfe gave DesBarres his pocket watch at the moment of his death, and that it hung in the Manor for many years. Spooky!

Surrounding the Plains of Abraham is Québec City. As night falls, Ghost Tours of Québec guide visitors through the cobble stone streets and ancient buildings of the old city, regaling them with tales of murders, executions, mysterious sightings, tragedies and hauntings.

Mon Dieu! Tours are in English and French.

In Ontario (known before confederation as Upper Canada), Fort George is regarded by many as the most haunted place in Canada. It was headquarters for the British military in Niagara during the War of 1812, and the scene of much blood, death and suffering. Many soldiers and civilians alike are still buried on the grounds of the fort. Some people say that distant cries can still be heard there.

If you dare to set foot in the fort on a weekend in October, check out the Friends of Fort George Halloween ghost tour. This two-hour guided candlelit walking tour is conducted by Ghost Tours of Niagara.

In the Canadian Badlands of southeastern Alberta, ghost tours and other paranormal events are wafting through the mist. The Haunted Atlas Coal Mine has BIG BOO and LITTLE BOO tours into the darkest corners of the abandoned coal mine. The Medalta Ghost Hunt is a nocturnal tour through a 100 year old pottery factory led by the Medicine Hat Paranormal Investigation team. And in the normally peaceful village of Stirling, Alberta, the Haunted Stirling Mansion is one of the best-produced haunted houses I have seen anywhere in Canada.

On Twitter, the Stanley Park Hallowe’en Ghost Train is known as @Ghost_TrainYVR. This year’s theme is Circus of Disaster. @Ghost_TrainYVR has been tweeting little teasers about this year’s event. Example: “The 1st circus in Ancient Rome was called the ‘Circus Maximus’ & more than 200-thousand people came to watch the show” Here’s a review of this year’s ghost train from the Georgia Straight, a popular Vancouver area media outlet.

If you know of a ghost tour or spooky Canadian factoid, please share it with us in the comments below.

On a recent trip to Long Point Provincial Park we spotted what we thought was a huge, beautiful butterfly. Upon showing her this picture, the park naturalist informed us that it was not, in fact, a butterfly, but a moth. None other than the Cecropia moth, the largest in North America!

Cecropia Moth photographed at Long Point Provincial Park

The scientific name is Hyalophora cecropia and it’s a member of the Saturniidae family of giant silk moths. Females with a wingspan of 160 mm (over six inches) have been documented. It is found all the way from B.C. to the Canadian maritime provinces.

Long Point Provincial Park, near Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada is part of the Lake Erie beaches. It’s a stunning place to visit if you like sand-dune camping and deserted beaches. It is also world-renowned for migrating birds in the spring and fall (many of which probably feed on the Cecropia moth). Bird-watchers have spotted 383 different species of birds on Long Point itself, which is recognized as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations.

The beaches at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie

 It  started with  @whygocanada tweet. Julie Ovenell Carter is a well known Canadian travel writer and she tweets for WhyGoCanada.com, a Canada travel source.  Julie’s tweet read: “My favourite food souvenir from Canada? Hawkins Cheezies of course! What’s yours?…”

I discovered one on a road trip to Quebec last year.

We were with Carole and Andy,  friends from Calgary, staying at a cottage in the Laurentians. While in town shopping for groceries, we spied Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses.

Now, if you’ve ever trick or treated on Hallowe’en, you know what a Hallowe’en kiss is. Gooey, taffy-like candy and done right,  made with molasses. In my old neighbourhood, Halloween kisses were popular. They came in orange, black and yellow wrappers. They were cheap. And they were shelled out by the handful. Here’s the deal: Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses are different. They’re better, WAY better.

Bigger, softer and good.  Very good. Too good. The four of us went through an entire bag in a week. At Christmas, Glenn and I looked for a bag to send Carol and Andy thinking they’d get a good giggle. We never found the kisses

Julie’s tweet for our favourite souvenir food was my motivation to find out the story behind the kisses. My online / telephone journey took me across Canada from Vancouver all the way east to the city of  Saint John, New Brunswick and the home of the  Grandma Molasses company. Turns out it Grandma Molasses doesn’t make Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses but it does supply the molasses.

Molasses is made from 100% sugar cane juice amd has been a staple in North America for over 200 years. According to Grandma Molasses, it used to arrive in Saint John by ship in ‘puncheons’ (big wooden barrels) and was sold in bulk at local general stores. That got me to wondering if my dad’s habit of serving us toast topped with molasses on winter mornings didn’t come from his New Brunswick roots. Original Foods , a Quebec company, makes Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses. So my next call was to Original Foods, based in Montreal. Two calls later  I found out that you can’t buy Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses in Vancouver (Sorry Julie!). but Metro and Walmart sell them in stores in the  Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario.

As for Julie’s favourite, Hawkin’s Cheezies. Check this Halloween post that Julie wrote for more about them.

In the Canadian Badlands between Cypress Hills and Etzikom, Alberta

Even though we’re big travelers of Canada, there’s still plenty to see. Canada is so big and the average vacation so short ( 2 weeks) that it’s difficult to cover a lot of ground. One way to do it is a fly-drive.

Hoodoos and beehive hills near Drumheller, Alberta

A 4-hour flight west from Toronto will put you in Calgary. A car rental and an hour later and you’re in southeastern Alberta, a landscape so foreign from central Canada that a travel writer from Toronto described it as reaching out and slapping her. 63 municipalities have coined it the Canadian Badlands and aim to make it Canada’s next iconic travel destination (just like the Canadian Rockies, an hour west of Calgary).  From a road trip perspective, we think it’s already there.

The massive prairie landscape is intersected by river valleys with hills that look like giant beehives. The valleys are part of a prehistoric sea that once occupied a good portion of North America. Wind and water have stripped away the sandstone and they’ve revealed something else. Dinosaur fossils. Millions of them. Two places to learn about the biggest finds are Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the world’s largest devoted to palaeontology.

If you love driving but hate traffic, this is the place. Armed with an Alberta road map and GPS, we crisscrossed the region by paved and gravel road, sometimes not seeing another car for the better part of two hours.  Gas stations are scarce though. So are corner stores and other things that we take for granted in the city. Topping off the gas tank and having lots of drinking water in the car quickly became necessities.

Streetcar in downtown Toronto, Ontario

On the Trans-Canada Highway west of Brooks, Alberta

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India

In Canada, Victoria Day has long been associated with the unofficial start of the summer season. Veggie gardens get planted, family cottages are opened for the season and the cobwebs are dusted off the old bar-B-Q. Canada’s May holiday actually celebrates Queen Victoria’s birthday. The Queen was born on May 24, 1819, at Kensington Palace in London, England. She reigned for almost 64 years until her death in 1901. Canada has been a constitutional monarchy since Confederation in 1867 during Queen Victoria’s reign. It’s a special day for us. We tend to have parades, drink lots of beer and burn up fireworks.

Ever since Commander John Ross named a remote bay in Canada’s arctic after the young princess in 1831, map-makers and civil servants have been busy labeling our geography with her name. There is no name more popular than Queen Victoria’s when it comes to Canada’s public buildings, streets, towns and parks. The Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal, Victoria College in Toronto, Victoria General Hospital in both Winnipeg and Halifax are just some of the big public institutions named after her. In all Canadian cities, and most of the towns, villages and hamlets, it’s a safe bet that you’ll find a street named for her majesty. The capital city of British Columbia is Victoria. There are more than 300 instances of this name on the map of Canada.

Many attractions, resorts and lodges which operate seasonally (May to October) open on Victoria Day weekend. It is unofficially called “May 24”, a not-so-veiled reference to the number of bottles in a large box of beer. In fact, the whole ‘Canada’ thing is key to marketing some of our favourite beverages. Check out this  Molson Canadian beer commercial.

Canada is a country that has wild temperature extremes – cold winters and hot summers. So the first long weekend of the warm weather season and weather-obsessed Canadians are out to make the most of it.

In Ontario you will find Victoria Corners, Victoria Square, Victoria Harbour, Victoria Springs, Victoria Lake and just plain Victoria. In Québec there are fewer Victorias, but Victoriaville (population: 21,500) was named for the queen in 1861, and the Grand lac Victoria is at the head of the Ottawa River, south of Val-d’Or. My buddy Suzie, who does tourism promotion in Québec Maritime, tells me that the holiday in that province is known by at least three names: Fête de la Reine (Festival of the Queen), Fête de Dollard (commemorating the defense of New France against the Iroquois by Dollard des Ormeaux in the 17th century) and Fête des Patriotes (a reference to the struggle of the rebels of Lower Canada against the British colonial forces in 1837-1838)

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia both have counties named Victoria. In Prince Edward Island you’ll find an attractive seaside village called Victoria, not far from Victoria Cross and Victoria West (nothing is very far from anything else in PEI). In Newfoundland, on the west side of Conception Bay about 50 km NW of St John’s, there are about 2000 souls that call Victoria “home”.

Not to be outdone, Victoria Island (also called Kitlineq) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago sits on the border between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is our second largest island (Baffin is the first), almost double the size of Newfoundland and a bit larger than the island of Great Britain. Also, on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut we have The Victoria and Albert Mountains.

For more on Victoria, check out The Canadian Encyclopedia.

If you’ve ever driven any distance through the Canadian bush (as Shania Twain calls it), especially endless miles of tree-lined, two-lane highway, then you will know about the moose. There are foreboding signs along the way featuring outlines of these hulking creatures nonchalantly strolling across your path. The message is not one of protecting the environment, it is one of avoiding mortal danger. An uneasy feeling starts to set in right about dusk, when the light of the sky darkens enough to match the light thrown by your high-beams.

If you know about the threat of the moose you will tend to slow down just a little, and your eyes will skirt furtively for motion and shadows along the treelines. Because you do not want to hit a moose. If you do, it will almost certainly be THE event of your day.

Except for the driest regions of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, and big parts of the far north, moose are EVERYWHERE in Canada. Unconfirmed reports from my travelling buddy Bob Fisher state that there are now more moose in the province of Newfoundland than there are inhabitants of the capital city of St. John’s. And moose are not even indigenous to the island.

My partner Judy recalls the first time she ever saw a moose: “I was barreling down a highway through La Verendrye Provincial Park in my old Vega, on my way back to Montreal from Val d’Or. I had just passed a big lumber truck and when I came over the crest of a hill there he was standing beside the highway. I stopped, afraid he’d cross in front of me and all the while fearful of that lumber truck bearing down behind me. The moose and I eyeballed each other for what seemed like an eternity and then he turned his back on me and clambered down into a mineral pool beside the road.”

Moose-spotting at Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario
Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park is a good place to spy a moose. There are about 3,400 in the park. Moose are elusive creatures but in spring, you can often spot them alongside Highway 60 which runs through the southern portion of Algonquin Park. Beside the highway are small mineral pools  filled with runoff and salt from winter highway maintenance. Moose can be salt-depleted by spring and often feed in these pools which are salt-rich. The month of May is susceptible to “moose jams”, when you can see 30-40 cars of travellers stopped on the side of Highway 60 to watch a moose feed in a roadside pool.

All of the moose photos in this post are courtesy of Ontario Parks. The moose twins pic was snapped last spring by a staffer who works with the provincial parks system in Ontario, Canada’s second largest province.

Photo courtesy of Ontario Parks

In the course of my work, I sometimes get to stay at really nice hotels like the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. We’re talkin’ personal service, great food and a centre-of-the-world piano bar I want to live in forever. Anyway, the best thing about these places is that I get to meet interesting people.

I’ve known Judy Eberspaecher and her husband Alex for years. They’re travel writers. They make a living exploring exotic locations around the world and writing about them. Nice gig. I usually just sit there and listen as they take turns stretching my imagination with adventurous tales. Last time we were together, eating elaborate chocolate creations prepared at the hotel, and discussing ways of making the world a better place, Judy told me about her new book, Totally Scallops.

I didn’t know she was the high priestess of the scallop, the matriarch of the mollusc, the undisputed authority on my favourite edible bivalve! During her travels all these years she’s been collecting recipes for preparing scallops. Judy is from Nova Scotia, so she knows what she’s talking about. She takes a mean picture too, and her recipes are all illustrated with delicious photographs.

I have a mild scallop fetish myself. Once in a while I need to order up a big plate of them at Rodney’s in Toronto. When I’m in Canada’s maritime provinces, I eat them by the bagful. Come to think of it, if you know a great place to get scallops, let me know in the “comments” below.

Totally Scallops is almost as much a travel book as it is a cookbook. It’s a work of passion by a person who obviously loves her subject. Judy won the Best Fish & Seafood Canada Award from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (Madrid). Totally Scallops also placed 4th at the Paris Cookbook Fair for the Best Fish and Seafood Cookbook in the World. You can order a copy online at EberImage.ca Way to go Judy. I’m looking forward to the next time we meet.

View of Montreal from Mont Royal

Rather than drive, we flew to Montréal and spent six glorious nights in Quebec’s largest city. Our flight was complimentary, thanks to WestJet Airlines. Westjet’s VP happened to pick my husband’s business card out of a bowl at a conference and it won us two tickets anywhere WestJet flies (except Hawaii). After much discussion, we chose Montréal. Why? Because of our affection for this city.

I was born and raised in Montreal. Later, I completed a degree at Montreal’s Concordia University. Even though I’m biased, I think most Canadians would agree that Montréal is one of Canada’s BEST cities to visit. “Les Montréalais” are truly special. They have the best fashion sense in the country, particularly the women, who always dress with a “je ne sais quoi” appeal. Les Montréalais are also known for their “joie de vivre”. You’ll find plenty of it especially at the city’s major events like Just for Laughs , North America’s largest comedy festival or the Grand Prix Montréal. The city’s biggest annual party though is the Montréal Jazz Festival.

"This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." – Mark Twain on a visit to Montreal in December 1881

Montrealers have a love affair with their delis. Two of the best are  Schwartz’s and The Main. They sit right across the street from one and other on Boulevard St. Laurent and both are famous for their smoked meat sandwiches and fries washed down with cherry cokes. Fresh bagels are another passion. St. Viateur and Fairmount Bagel run 24-7. For many Montrealers, a Friday or Saturday night would not be complete without a stop for a dozen of these hot out of a wood-burning oven.  Then there’s the Montreal Pool Room‘s hotdogs. Don’t ask me why but they taste better here than anywhere else. Van Houtte coffee is Montreal’s answer to Starbucks. But Montreal cafés don’t need a brand name to be popular, they just need an outdoor patio. People-watching is, after all, a main activity in this town.

Two Canadian musicians waxed poetic about their hometown of Montreal in hit tunes- Gino Vannelli couldn’t forget “those nights in Montreal” in  “I Just Wanna Stop” and for Sass Jordan, it was St. Laurent Boulevard in “Going Back Again”. The one way street has played such an important role in this city that in 1996, it was designated a national historic site. The boulevard crosses Le Plateau, a popular neighbourhood just east of Mont Royal, which dominates Montréal’s landscape.

The Casa Bianca B&B in Le Plateau, a Montreal neighbourhood

We stayed in the Plateau in an affordable place I found online called the Casa Bianca B&B. Its interior was a bit sparse and I got tired of the fresh danishes for breakfast. They were delicious on our first morning but not six mornings in a row!! Our room was large enough although it lacked some of the nice touches that I’ve come to appreciate in B&Bs, like bed-side tables and good lighting. Still, the place served us well and the price was right. The Casa Bianca is on a quiet street across from a city park which was a good thing because the park separated us from avenue Parc, a busy Montreal thoroughfare. Luckily, there were traffic lights on Parc that allowed us to cross it easily to the lower part of Mont Royal Park which is dominated by a massive monument dedicated to Sir George Etienne Cartier (coincidentally sculpted by a great-great uncle of mine). This park access point is good to know about since Mont Royal Park extends to the top of the mountain and it is a favourite gathering place for Montrealers. Downtown was also easy to get to on foot. If you prefer cycling though, check out Bixi, Montreal’s new public bicycle system.

My husband went to high school in Westmount and he was keen to check out his former ‘hood, so we took the Metro, Montreal’s subway, to the Decarie stop and walked back over the mountain through Mont Royal Park, and down the other side to our B&B. Several lookout points along the way gave us spectacular city views and we saw lots of Montrealers enjoying the park and Beaver Lake.

Indoors at Marché Jean-Talon

We’re big fans of city markets which save us a ton of money on food when we’re traveling.  Montreal’s Atwater Market is in the southwestern corner of the city while Jean-Talon Market is in Little Italy, in the city’s north end.  Both are well worth visiting.

Joggers enjoy spring conditions on the roads and paths near Beaver Lake on Mont-Royal

Le Massif overlooking the St. Lawrence River - photo: Benjamin Gagnon

Late January update: Le Massif has a 330cm base, powder and groomed ski conditions is the latest report. If you are headed to Quebec for Bonhomme Carnivale, this is a great side trip!

What do Le Massif (french for “The Massive”) and the Cirque du Soleil have in common? Le Massif, a ski hill east of Quebec City is owned by Cirque du Soleil co-founder, Daniel Gauthier. Through my volunteer work with a large Canadian travel media association, I had the pleasure of meeting Dany Gauthier in Quebec City earlier this year. He’s good looking and fit as a fiddle and I couldn’t resist asking him if he had once been an acrobat (thinking Cirque du Soleil). He chuckled and told me that no, his role with Cirque had been more as a bean counter.

Helicopter ride over the St. Lawrence River

Later, my colleagues and I flew in Dany’s private helicopter. Flying just above the icy St. Lawrence, the pilot hugged the mountainous shoreline all the way to Le Massif. It’s popular with Quebec City area skiers, but few outside of Quebec have ever heard of the place. That’s about to change. Le Massif and nearby Baie St. Paul, a picturesque town on the St. Lawrence, are about to become Canada’s next big ski destination. But not just any ski destination. With Gauthier at the helm, this one is expected to have a creative flair not seen in the ski world before. Baie St. Paul is, after all, the birthplace of the Cirque du Soleil. Gauthier and his busker buddies hatched the Cirque idea in a youth hostel here while performing at a local buskerfest. If Dany Gauthier has his way, Le Massif and Baie St. Paul will not only deliver great skiing but will be a feast for all the senses.

Town of Baie St. Paul, Quebec

93 kilometers (58 miles) from Quebec City may seem like a crazy distance to get to in the height of winter (this region gets a ton of snow) but Gauthier has negotiated a deal with a railway. A new tour train will run along a stretch of existing track that hugs that same shoreline we flew over from Quebec City to Baie St. Paul. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous and I’m willing to bet the train will become an instant hit. Other forms of transportation planned for the project include dogsleds and electric cars. The Farm, a unique resort complex being built in Baie St. Paul is lean in terms of size and that’s for a reason. Gauthier is committed to sustainable development so, the resort is slated to be low density and energy efficient with spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River and the Farm’s working fields. There will also be a spa, a Farmer’s Market selling locals’ fare year round and of course, a new, spectacular train station. The Farm opens in summer 2011 and the entire operation is expected to be fully operational by 2013.

But the Cirque du Soleil and Dany Gauthier’s connection to Baie St Paul are not the town’s only claims to fame. This was a favourite destination of Canada’s famous Group of Seven painters too. Le Massif and Baie St. Paul sit on the doorstep of Charlevoix, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The 6000 square kilometre region is Canadian Shield, the oldest rock formation on earth. 350 million years ago a 15 billion ton meteor slammed into the earth here creating a crater 56 kilometres wide. Besides its beauty, Charlevoix’s reputation as  a foodie destination was around long before everyone in the tourism business starting pitching destinations as such. The Quebecois are like their cousins across the Atlantic. Their ability to prepare great food comes naturally.