Ontario, Canada Travel

Ontario has many tourist attractions going on at any time of the year. To me there are a few outstanding ones. Those are the attractions you want to come back to every time and show them to your friends from back home. If you have visited those, you have experienced some of the diversity of Ontario.

1 Doors Open Ontario
From April to October, residents and visitors are invited to discover first-hand Ontario’s hidden heritage treasures. It is a celebration of our cultural and architectural heritage. Some of the attractions have never been open to the public. It might be a chocolate factory in Toronto, a horse breeding farm in Oxford County, a mosque or a cemetary. Whatever attraction you visit, you will get a guided tour and it is all free

2 St Jacob Farmers Market
All year long on Saturdays. This is an attraction favored by many Europeans. The smell, the sites and the activity is unique. You can buy anything and hassle over the price. You’ll see the Mennonites and Amish people with their horse and buggy, offering their fruits and vegetables. You can go inside the buildings and search through the unbelievable amount of stuff for sale, from Elvis pictures and brass statues to handmade wooden furniture. Groceries, antiques, sausages, livestock auctions, puppies, it truly is a unique experience.

3 Toronto Kensington Market
The Toronto Kengsinton Market in a way is the same as the St. Jacob market, yet it is completely different. If St Jacob is rural, then this is a city experience. The Market is a multicultural mix of shops, restaurants, vintage clothing shops, and eclectic cafes. An international feast for the senses, it’s truly a great place to wander and get a sense of Toronto’s rich cultural mosaic.

4 Wolf howling in Algonquin Park
Public Wolf Howls take place on Thursday evenings in August, or in September before Labour Day when weather and accessible wolves permit. Those who have been on a successful expedition unanimously agree that there is no sound which better embodies the wilderness atmosphere in Algonquin than a spine-tingling chorus of wolves, reverberating over the hills and bogs under a cold starry night. Contact Algonquin Park on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to find out if there will be a wolf howl on Thursday, then drive over to the Park and have the experience of a lifetime. Cars will meet along the highway at points determined by the rangers.

5 Native Indian PowWow
One of the most impressive attractions when it comes to color and sound. A perfect place to bring visitors from abroad.
Canada’s largest and most successful Aboriginal attraction in at the end of November in Toronto. The PowWow Grand Entry is the spectacular highlight and the entire family will enjoy the visually stunning display of nearly 1000 native dancers and drum singing groups from across North America. The pageantry and drama of the Grand Entry make it one of the most beautiful traditional Aboriginal attractions and a must see for anyone interested in native culture and customs.

6 Visit Niagara Falls in Winter.
Niagara Falls is a spectacular attraction at any time of the year. Most tourist visit it during the summer months. But nothing compares to the beauty of it during the winter. On a day when the wind is right the mist of the falls covers the area in fresh snow, the streetlights are covered with snow and ice, while the heat of the lights makes for almost sculptures of ice around the lights. If you’ve seen the falls during summer but never during winter, you will see them in a totally new way.

For more information about tourist attractions in Ontario visit www.the-happy-immigrant.com/tourism.html

Francine Gielis immigrated to Canada in 1971. She has been an employer, an employee, an inporter, exporter, entrepreneur and long time volunteer. She considers herself a happy, successful and fully integrated and passionate Canadian citizien. You can subscribe to Francine’s monthly newsletter about life in Canada from her website http://www.the-happy-immigrant.com/

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Cranbrook, BC, is home to the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel and is the largest city and service center in the East Kootenay region. Many parts of the city date from 1898 and self-guided walking tours are available with maps obtainable from the Chamber of Commerce, or from the Museum.

The Canadian Pacific Railway played a major role in the development of Cranbrook. Much of the original railway infrastructure built in Cranbrook still survives, providing a good context for the development of the Railway Museum.

The renowned Canadian Museum of Rail Travel is one of the largest museums of its type in Canada, with a valuable national collection of luxurious trains from the golden age of railway travel. Open all year and located at 57 Van Horne Street South, which is Hwy 3/95 downtown. It is a must-see for any visitor to the region.

The museum contains vintage passenger train sets representing various eras from the 1880s to the 1930s. The cars are luxuriously appointed with exotic inlaid woods, brass fixtures, plush upholstery, wool carpets, period furniture, stained glass and other displays such as railway china and silverware.

The centerpiece of the train’s displays is the only complete surviving 7-car set of the famous 1929 Trans-Canada Limited, a vintage deluxe hotel on wheels. The railway constructed 12 new complete train sets comprising “A” class dining cars, “R” series sleepers (8-sections, 2-compartments, 1-drawing room), combination baggage sleeping cars (for the dining car crews) and the unique “River” class solarium-lounge cars that were at the end of the trains and especially popular. The train staff for the Limited was a little army; besides the driver-known in Canada as the “engineer”-and the fireman, the Limited had a conductor, trainman, sleeping-car conductor, one porter to each sleeping-car, a parlour-car attendant and the dining-car staff comprising of the chef, stewards and waiters. The Trans-Canada Limited, reserved for First Class passengers only, traveled from Montreal and Toronto to Vancouver, a distance of 2,886 miles. Other trains on display include the 1907 ultra-luxurious Soo-Spokane Train Deluxe. There are also cars in the museum that were used by various visiting royalty over the years and interpretive cars.

Another highlight of the building complex is the spectacular Royal Alexandra Hall, the restored 3,000 sq. ft. and three storey high “Grand Caf

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Fort Macleod is a vibrant community of 3,000, located within easy sight of the Canadian Rockies. This town is a magnet for those who are seeking a relaxed rural life style, proximity to the Rocky Mountains, a strong sense of community, access to high speed internet and a short drive to Western Canada’s corporate capital, Calgary. And of course, it’s only an hour’s drive to the scenic wonders of the Rocky Mountains!

The town boasts the best weather of the Prairie Provinces, including the highest number of sunlight hours in Canada. The Chinook conditions provide mild winters and cooling breezes in the summer.

Few places can transport visitors back in time like Fort Macleod. It’s not difficult to see why while strolling through downtown, with attractions like the Empress, Alberta’s oldest operating theatre and the Fort Museum, a former outpost of the NWMP, forerunners of the modern day Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Fort Macleod provides access to the famous Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Golfers can also play the oldest golf course in Western Canada, situated amidst a landscape of foothills and grasslands.

From a distance, Fort Macleod looks like any other town. It is at a crossroads that once hosted Indian encampments, wagon trails and buffalo grazing grounds, in view of the Porcupine Hills that front the ancient and majestic Rocky Mountains. Its location, 102 miles south of Calgary and 32 miles west of Lethbridge, makes Fort Macleod an easily reached oasis from the urban bustle of the cities.

The last frontier in the west is home to Alberta’s only Provincial Historic Area. As you get closer, there is a definite feeling of being in two very different eras. Here, past and present co-exist. The place, known 150 years ago as Blackfoot Crossing, became a North West Mounted Police barracks and trading post in 1874. The town gradually took shape alongside the Oldman River, named for the “Grandfather” of Blackfoot mythology and within easy view of the majestic Rocky Mountains.

Fort Macleod’s historic area draws you into the past to a time when the North West Mounted Police, Blackfoot Indians and pioneer settlers were the only inhabitants. Main Street is dotted with gift shops, antique stores, motels and restaurants. Right in the middle of the Historic Block is the “Jewel of the West”, the Empress theatre, which is the oldest continually-operating theatre in Western Canada.

Continue your downtown stroll over to the Fort Museum of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), a replica of the original fort where historical re-enactments are the order of the day. You’ll also find intriguing exhibits showcasing North West Mounted Police and Blackfoot Indian history. From July 1st to the Labour Day Weekend you can enjoy the Fort’s own NWMP Musical Ride four times daily, 10:00 am, 11:30 am, 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm, weather permitting.

From the Fort, you can wander down to the Oldman River, the river that is always changing. A Wilderness Park on the other side of the bridge is a nature preserve, filled with wildlife and native plants. Or take “A Walking Tour of Fort Macleod” and learn about the early life and history of the town. Tour guides and locals can provide those extra tidbits that add flavour to history. You might ask about the bullet holes in the giant art nouveau mirror over the bar in the Silver Grill or about Eddy, the ghost of the Empress Theatre.

Located 18 km north and west of Fort Macleod, at a place where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the great plains, is one of the world’s oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jump’s known to exist, Head-Smashed-In. The site has been used continuously by aboriginal peoples of the plains for more than 5,500 years.

Head-Smashed-In is known around the world as a remarkable testimony of prehistoric life. The Buffalo Jump bears witness to a custom practiced by native people of the North American plains for over 5,500 years. Thanks to their excellent understanding of topography and of bison behavior, the Blackfoot tribe killed bison by chasing them over a precipice and subsequently carving up the carcasses in the camp below. In 1981, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the jump as a World Heritage Site placing it among other world attractions such as the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and the Galapagos Islands.

The Blackfoot, fiercely independent and very successful warriors, controlled a vast region stretching from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta to Yellowstone River of Montana and from the Rocky Mountains to the Cypress Hills on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. It was not until the coming of the North West Mounted Police in 1874, over 130 years ago, that Euro-Canadian settlement in the region began. Indeed, until the near extinction of the buffalo in 1881, the Blackfoot pursued their traditional lifeways. Only with the loss of their food supply were they obliged to adapt to the new era.

A short drive southwest of Fort Macleod is Waterton National Park, with a reputation as one of the most stunningly beautiful parks in North America. On the way is the town of Cardston with its monolithic Mormon Tabernacle, the largest outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. And straight west of Fort Macleod is the highway through the Crowsnest Pass that accesses the Kootenay Region of southeastern British Columbia.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Canada Vacation.

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