Best Canadian City: my awards

Quick! What's the best Canadian city? The subject has led to a lively discussion on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, something so prickly that Toronto-based author Andrew Potter suggested could actually bring about a civil war.

Most people equate Canada with its natural beauty, or hockey, or Mounties, or beaver nickels. Last year I visited Canada six times, mostly to focus on Canadian cities (resulting in this string of videos on Canadian cities). I like Canadian cities. So thought I'd put together my awards.

(Note: I've not been to Halifax, among others.)

Canadian city most want to live in: MONTREAL. Montreal is ridiculous. A top-five city in the world to me. I love a place that takes bikes seriously (public-use bikes clean-up canal rides), and the city truly beats NYC with bagels. Plus all sorts of playful architecture, like a orange-shaped food stand (that serves as my Twitter photo) and the unreal Habitat '67 (above).

Canadian city with most interesting neighborhood: TORONTO's post-hippie Toronto Islands. You get there by ferry, it has super views looking back on TO (above), a fun community of locals that have survived development, a hokey amusement park, nude beaches and the spot where Babe Ruth hit his first homerun.

Canadian city that's best in winter: QUEBEC CITY. Its winter carnival has dog-sled races and a huggable snow man, and there's free open-air skating rinks, minor league hockey with NHL buzz, ferry rides over the icy St Lawrence. Plus curling.

Canadian city with most energy: right now, WINNIPEG. I enjoy having French food across the river in St Boniface (and seeing the atmospheric cathedral ruin), but I've never seen more energy than at the Winnipeg Jets' first win (above). (If you don't think Peg is a hockey town, watch Guy Maddin's hilarious 'My Winnipeg' documentary.)

Canadian city with them most tunefully suggestive name: SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN. Pronounced as SASKaTOON by locals. It's the place I zeroed in on during back-seat atlas-scavenger-hunts on long roadtrips as a kid. Plus the saskatoon berry makes for a nice pie.

Canadian city that’s most beautiful: Easy, VANCOUVER. Views from False Creek ferries are worthy, as is a revolving meal up Landmark hotel (above).

Canadian city that most surprised me: EDMONTON. Expected a flat oil town, and immediately struck by the deep river valley linked with shady trails and crossed by a historic bridge to Strathcona's theaters and bookshops. (I bought a used copy of the full transcript of Louis Riel's trial. Yet to read, must say.) And I was surprised when 12-year-olds agreed to teach me hockey in the second-biggest mall in North America.

Canadian city most want to return to: ST JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. It's not just the apostrophe, seafood, rugged coast, local kids with Bieber haircuts and the voice of 70-year-old pirates, but its friendly vibe of a place that really sees itself as its own nation.

Full Mounthe: My Days as a RCMP Cadet

A few months ago the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Depot Division (Regina, Saskatchewan) invited me to spend a couple nights and a (full) day training as a "mountie." It's a rare opportunity. Apparently only five civilians before me had had the chance -- and I was apparently the only one to get a regulation moustache.

This Lonely Planet video sums up the misunderstood Canadian icon. It's no longer just blokes in red serge jackets, Stetson hats atop horses. The red serge, in face, is rarely worn -- only for occasions like graduation -- and horses were phased out of training in 1966.

At first glimpse, in the mess hall with Troop 5 (the most junior of the troops there), I had to ask one cadet, 'Do you ever look around and say, wow, I'm here with a bunch of COPS?' He admitted he did.

I certainly felt that way waking up at 4am to prep for the morning parade.

Going to Canada

Tomorrow I head on a three-city visit to Canada: Toronto, Montreal and St John's in Newfoundland. It's part of a series of seven videos of seven Canadian cities and how one can 'experience a place like a local.'

It's far from my first time there (that would be age nine to Alberta; above). But to prep, I've been reading books like mad. Canadian books. Getting distracted on tangents like, hey, 'what is Canada?'

A lot of people think of Canada as just this:


But it's not the subject most Canadian authors seem to dwell on. 'Canada' -- as a nation, an identity, a concept -- is much more confusing. The question has a history.

The country's relationship with the US and Europe weighs heavy. In the 1943 book Unknown Country, Bruce Hutchinson tries to explain his nation for an American audience. He calls it a 'dual personality - not fully formed' but touts its name -- an Iroquoian word for 'village' (that for the world's second-largest country!) -- as 'wondrous and sweet': Canada!

He writes, 'The very word is like a boy's shout in the springtime!' I love that.

Karen Connelly, meanwhile, says of Canada in her book Touch the Dragon, that much remains unanswered. 'Even the name is a question.' (Can a da? Get it?)

Some define Canada by its niceness. Apparently a woman found with amnesia in California was taken for a Canadian simply by how incredibly nice she was (turns out she was from Edmonton). And in Moose Jaw Beauty Secrets, Albertan author Will Ferguson notes how the Trans-Canadian Highway marks each end as 'Mile Zero': 'two separate (but equal!) Mile Zeros.' Negotiation is nice.

Most of these books seem to begin their survey with Quebec. Canada seems ever fascinated with its relationship with, what some call, the ROC ('Rest of Canada') -- something made fun of by Why I Hate Canadians author Will Ferguson.

The Great Canada Novel -- Hugh MacLennan's wonderful Two Solitudes from 1945 -- takes on both sides of English/French-Canadian Montreal. In it, he calls Canada 'a large red splash on the map... still raw' and proclaims, 'if this sprawling half-continent has a heart, here it is.' In Quebec.

It's perhaps interesting to note that the Great Canada Novel is not currently in print in the USA.

Rather than join the discussion, yet, maybe I'll just shout that next spring.

Photo of the Day: Regina's RCMP Depot

Every mountie in Canada comes through Regina, Saskatchewan -- home to the RCMP Depot, a training facility in place since 1885. Last week I served as a 'cadet for a day.' Marched for 6:30am inspection, learned how to remove people from cars (using ears, pain points) or putting them in (with a memorable groin toss). I got a regulation Mountie haircut & moustache, drove an advanced track, learned I have 14% body fat in fitness class ('that's better than average'), ate light meals at the mess hall, and met people from all over Canada.

In one troop, they joked I was the 'token moustache.' Proud to be.

It was exhausting. But an unreal experience. More on it soon.

What is a Mountie?

Follow my mountie exploits this week at #MountieLand

I don't remember when I first heard of mounties, or wanted one of their red serge tunics and carefully pressed, flat-brim Stetson hats. It was definitely before Canada Day when I was 9. That's when my gerbil Steve bit my finger, I bled, I fainted, then flew to Calgary for a family vacation to Banff and Jasper. I never got the hat.

Today I'm off to Regina, Saskatchewan to make a Lonely Planet video on how one becomes a mountie. From the inside. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police "Depot" has trained mounties there since the late 1800s. Recently I asked about joining as a cadet for a '24-hour immersion.' And they surprisingly agreed. One official told me, 'They WON'T go easy on you.'

Uh-oh.

Meanwhile, a few things to consider about mounties:

1. They may be mounties, but they don't mount horses in Regina. Horse riding hasn't been part of the six-month training since 1966.
2. Women are mounties too. Since 1974.
3. Americans were once mounties. In the early 20th century, most mounties were recruited from elsewhere -- chiefly England but also the US. Canadians took over after the Depression. And now you have to be a Canadian citizen to qualify.
4. Mounties aren't for show. They're Canada's full municipal and federal police, akin to 'Canada's equivalent to the FBI,' per the New York Times.
5. Mounties still wear the red serge tunic and Stetson (yay!), but only in special occasions, like the daily 'Noon Parade' in Regina, at graduation.
6. Dudley Do-Right was invented by a couple blokes from Berkeley, California, and animated in Mexico. And, yes, it IS the same voice behind Bullwinkle, George of the Jungle and Dudley (Bill Scott).
   

So I go. Very scared. Stayed tuned for more.

Random Photo: Me & a Mountie

The first time I went to Canada was at age nine on Canada Day. In the morning my gerbil Steve bit my finger, and I fainted waiting for a band aid. After a plane change in Denver, and a drive from Calgary, I found myself in Banff. The mountains were superb -- I still gauge all mountains in how they compare with Canada's Rockies -- but I was looking for something else: a mountie.

Last week, at a Canadian Tourism Conference in New York, I finally met one from Saskatchewan, and he had a spare outfit.

Forgive the crappy quality of the photo. Sometimes the biggest hearts are a little fuzzy.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Does Saying No Make You a Travel Wimp?'

Episode #048

F E A T U R I N G * 7 1 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

I've jumped from Soviet aircraft, thrown lead weights at dynamite in Bogota, and even been on a horse in upstate New York. But in Quebec City, I found something I just couldn't do: a night at the Ice Hotel.

Does saying 'no' make you a travel wimp?

Rush's Toronto (Under Construction)

Just back from GoMedia, a Canadian tourism conference in Toronto. I squeaked out a little free time to follow Rush -- the bronze medal winner in total gold and platinum records (after the Beatles and Stones), though completely snubbed by the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, which found a place for the Hollies.

More to come, but meanwhile, please enjoy a still of my serious conversation with Dave Glover, aka 'the kid in the Subdivisions video,' along with the 'high school halls' of L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute, where the video was shot in 1982.

I am delighted by travel.

76-Second Travel Show: 'What is a Travel Animal?'

Episode #041
F E A T U R I N G * 7 9 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Animals are going berserk of late: whales jumping, like Simon Le Bon, aboard private yachts in South Africa; bears hijacking Toyotas and ramming them into trees. Are they protesting our travel? Or just trying to tag along?

I've tried to promote 'travel animals' before -- such as the walrus, the pig and the prairie dog. But the notion has changed for me. It's time to refocus toward animals who travel, not just animals to look at.

Some will liken the best 'travel animal' to those who travel the longest distances, like the arctic tern which travels the equivalent of three trips to the moon over its life. But distances, just like ticked-box countries visited, doesn't equate to travel value. Instead, I'm looking for are animals that combine relaxation, fun with curiosity and escape.

We have one suggestion. Do you have any candidates?

If bored, visit the full 76-Second Travel Show archive.