A Personal Canadian Snapshot

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be invited a keynote speaker at Canada’s first Tourism Crisis Management conference which was held in Toronto [pictured right]. 

The conference was a joint venture between the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and the University of Guelph and was the best conference of its type I have ever attended anywhere in the world.

The reason it was so successful is that the organisers carefully managed the quality control and timing of all presentations and there was a high level of participation aided by the fact that the last three hours comprised of a simulation game in which all participants contributed and applied the lessons learned from speaker presentations.

Air Canada provides a very enjoyable introduction to Canada, with in-flight service that is friendly and professional and the good news for Air Canada travellers is that from December this year the Sydney-Vancouver service will be non-stop.

For passengers flying beyond Honolulu the transit stopover involves undergoing US immigration procedures for a journey break of less than two hours.

On the plus side, current joint immigration relations between the US and Canada undergoing US formalities simultaneously incorporates Canadian entry requirements.

My visit to Canada was a working trip and there was little time for touring but I made sure I went to Niagara Falls Tour prior to the conference, with the tour I went on run by operator York Tours and was excellent.

Be a little careful about the pricing, because the listed price was CAD $79 + tax which includes the full tour inclusive of brief Maid of Mist boat trip to the base of the falls – an absolute highlight [pictured left].

However, lunch is extra – clearly stated and there is a little matter of the CAD$15 tip, not compulsory but insisted.

The tour was excellent though and the tip well justified. 

The tour includes pick-up and drop-off at any hotel in the Toronto region, a whistle-stop glimpse of Toronto’s impressive CBD and a visit to a winery with a free tasting of excellent Niagara wines.

The Niagara region produces 80% of the world’s ice wine which is a delightful fruity appellation, the product of grapes  picked in temperatures of around -8 degrees Celsius.  A taste of ice wine is an extra CAD$4 but worth every cent.

The tour takes you to the old town of Niagara which is full of charming 18^th century houses and shops and the highlight of the tour is a brief trip on the Maid of The Mist boat, which has taken awe-struck tourists to the base of Niagara Falls for over 100 years.

All passengers are issued with handy recyclable raincoats which are needed when the Maid takes its passengers to the base of the thundering Horseshoe Falls amidst the incredible spray mist and rainbows, with part of the pleasure of this trip is sharing the awe and wonder of fellow passengers from all corners of the world.

The magnificence and power of the Falls contrast with the side show alley kitsch of the town of Niagara with its casinos, rides and “scary” experiences such a Dracula’s Castle beloved by visiting children.

The Niagara experience should be compulsory for any first-time visitor to Toronto.

After the conference finished, I was invited to conduct some lectures at the University of Guelph, the focal point of a clean, pleasant and friendly university town 80 kms west of Toronto, with The University of  Guelph’s student and academic community representing almost one quarter of the city’s 108,000 people.

In between lectures my host took me on a visit to Mennonite Country which is located about 100 kms from Toronto, with the Mennonites or Anabaptists (of which the Amish are one sect) having a strong presence in Canada with over 145,000 adherents.

Most live on family-owned farms some of which are tended without machinery.

Shopping centres have buggy parking areas for traditional Mennonites who eschew motor vehicles and still dress in the traditional garb of 18^th century central Europe.

In the small towns of Elmira and St Jacobs one gets a real taste of Mennonite food. Bakeries are filled with freshly baked pastries filled with fruit picked that day from the trees.

The apple pies must be a foretaste of heaven for the Mennonites and in St Jacobs there is an excellent centre called the Mennonite Story which relates the history and explains the religion and culture of the Mennonite communities which came to Canada and the US to escape religious persecution in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, France and Belgium during the 18^th century.

St Jacobs is also home to a Maple Syrup museum in which the secrets of tapping and producing Canada’s native nectar are revealed.

The countryside in October is green and its trees are a riot of fall colours.

The region is centred on the city of Stratford Ontario and hosts a popular German Oktoberfest which attracts 600,000 people annually, also an annual Shakespeare festival which many critics believe is a match for similar festivals held in the UK.

Prospective travellers who labour under the false impression that Canada is some pale northern imitation of the USA will quickly realise that Canada is country of immense largely untouched natural beauty, a cultural diversity and character which is not alien to, but very different from its southern neighbour.

A Special Canada Report by David Beirman