Canada '99 : The Complete Guide to Its Great Cities, Coastal Towns, Mountains and Wilderness Adventures

Pleasures and Pastimes


Dining

Canadian fine dining really began in Québec, where eating out in a good restaurant with a good bottle of wine has long been a traditional part of life. Eating out was slower to catch on in other parts of the country, however, and right up until the early 1970s, Toronto was notorious for its poor food and barbarous drinking laws. But immigrants from places like Italy, Greece, Portugal, Japan, China, and India changed all that. They liked to eat and found the drinking laws incomprehensible. Soon, even the stuffiest Torontonians were eschewing the traditional overdone beef and learning how to pronounce things like velouté, forestióre, tagliolini, manicotti, and tzatziki. In Vancouver there's plenty of West Coast flair, a kind of modified California fusion that makes fine use of local specialties from salmon to Pacific halibut and Dungeness crab. The country, of course, is rich in the basic ingredients -- native cheeses from Québec and Ontario; lobster, mussels, salmon, and sole from both
oceans; fine beef from Alberta; and lots of local delicacies like fiddlehead ferns, wild rice, and game meat


The Great Outdoors

Most Canadians live in towns and cities within 325 km (200 mi) of the American border, but the country does have a splendid backyard to play in. Even major cities like Montréal and Vancouver are just a few hours' drive from a wilderness full of rivers, lakes, and mountains. A network of more than 30 national parks, from Kluane in Yukon to Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia, are backed by dozens of provincial and regional parks. All this wilderness provides abundant opportunities for bicycling, camping, canoeing, hiking, boating, horseback riding, mountain climbing, skiing, white-water sporting, and fishing. The coasts of British Columbia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Atlantic provinces are also ideal for whale-watching.


Nightlife and the Arts

Canadians rejoice in their cities, which are clean, safe, and lively. A night on the town still means just that. Dinner, a play or concert, drinks, and maybe even a late show can be squeezed into an evening. And you can walk or take public transport from one event to the next. If you prefer, you can just stroll the brightly lit, crowded streets and do some people-watching. No one will mind. They'll be watching you.

Musically, Canada has managed to hold its own against its giant neighbor to the south. Festivals celebrating everything from fiddles to fugues ornament summer schedules across the country and provide showcases for local talent. Names like Teresa Stratas, Anne Murray, k.d. lang, Joni Mitchell, Céline Dion, and Bryan Adams are already familiar south of the border. Less well-known people to look for are the Tragically Hip, perhaps the country's most popular rock band; Cape Breton's Rankin Family, who blend modern rhythms with traditional Gaelic songs; and Ashley MacIsaac, who has made Scottish fiddle music popular among the urban young. In French there are the heartbreaking lyrics of traditional chansonniers like Gilles Vigneault and Felix Leclerc and the carefully crafted pop rock of Daniel Bélanger. On the classical scene, conductor Charles Dutoît has given the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal international luster, and Toronto's Canadian Opera Company is highly rated.

Toronto has emerged as the third most important center for English-language theater after London and New York. The city has more than four dozen venues staging original plays, musicals, classics, and touring big hits. Montréal is a center of French-language production, with 10 major companies. Shakespeare's classics are honored along with more-modern plays at the Stratford Festival in rural Ontario every summer, and the works of George Bernard Shaw anchor another major festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.


Shopping

Distinctively Canadian items include furs from Montréal, fashions from Montréal and Toronto, wood carvings from rural Québec, woven goods and hooked rugs from the Maritimes, quilts from the Mennonite communities of Ontario, Inuit carvings from the Northwest Territories, native art and prints from the West Coast, native handicrafts from the prairies, and antiques from Montréal, Toronto, and Victoria. Some of the most distinctive Canadian products, of course, come from the maple tree -- sugar, syrup, taffy, candy, and even liqueur. Eastern Canada, in fact, produces more than three-quarters of the world's supplies of such products.


Sports to Watch

Officially, Canada's national sport is lacrosse, but the nation's dominant passion is hockey. There are only six Canadian teams in the NHL -- the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Montréal Canadiens -- but American teams are well stocked with Canadian-born stars. Getting tickets to NHL games is only slightly less difficult than getting a royal audience, so try going to see a Junior A or college game instead. The play is fast, tough, and entertaining.