Hollywood North in Canada

14 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  18 minutes

Bridge Studios in Vancouver © flickr.com - Jeff Hitchcock/cc-by-2.0

Bridge Studios in Vancouver © flickr.com – Jeff Hitchcock/cc-by-2.0

Hollywood North is a colloquialism used to describe film production industries and/or film locations north of its namesake, Hollywood, California. The term has been applied principally to the film industry in Canada, specifically to the cities Toronto and Vancouver. The title has been claimed for both Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia.   read more…

Toronto in Ontario

18 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  28 minutes

Toronto skyline from Snake Island © Jchmrt/cc-by-sa-4.0

Toronto skyline from Snake Island © Jchmrt/cc-by-sa-4.0

Toronto is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.   read more…

University of Toronto

6 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  5 minutes

Hart House and Soldier's Tower © Taxiarchos228/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hart House and Soldier’s Tower © Taxiarchos228/cc-by-sa-3.0

The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen’s Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King’s College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The St. George campus is the main campus of the University of Toronto tri-campus system, the other two being satellite campuses located in Scarborough and Mississauga.   read more…

Kitchener in Ontario

13 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Water Street © flickr.com - Allie_Caulfield/cc-by-2.0

Water Street © flickr.com – Allie_Caulfield/cc-by-2.0

Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about 100 km (62 mi) west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a 1916 referendum changed its name. The city covers an area of 136.86 km², and had a population of 256,885 at the time of the 2021 Canadian census. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo has 575,847 people, making it the 10th-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada and the fourth-largest CMA in Ontario. Kitchener and Waterloo are considered “twin cities”, which are often referred to jointly as “Kitchener–Waterloo” (K–W), although they have separate municipal governments.   read more…

Distillery District in Toronto

1 April 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Living, Working, Building Reading Time:  12 minutes

© flickr.com - mark.watmough/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – mark.watmough/cc-by-2.0

The Distillery District is a commercial and residential district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located east of downtown, it contains numerous cafés, restaurants, and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The 13 acres (5.3 ha) district comprises more than forty heritage buildings and ten streets, and is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America. The district was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988. The Toronto Christmas Market has been an annual outdoor tradition run within the Distillery District since 2010. The market includes “Santa’s house”, an Indigo pop-up shop, pet photos with Santa, a Ferris wheel and themed entertainment each day. There are food vendors and dining locations that are popular tourist attractions. The 2020 edition of the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. The event returned for its 2021 edition from November 19 to December 31 2021 under the new moniker “The Distillery Winter Village”.   read more…

Downtown Ottawa

30 October 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Confederation Square, with National War Memorial in its centre © Skeezix1000/cc-by-sa-3.0

Confederation Square, with National War Memorial in its centre © Skeezix1000/cc-by-sa-3.0

Downtown Ottawa (French: Centre-Ville d’Ottawa) is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Like other downtowns it is the commercial and economic centre of the city. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa’s financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the east, Gloucester Street to the south and Bronson Avenue to the west. This area and the residential neighbourhood to the south are also known locally as ‘Centretown’. The total population of the area is 5,000.   read more…

Parliament Hill in Ottawa

2 October 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

© Coolcaesar/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Coolcaesar/cc-by-sa-3.0

Parliament Hill (French: Colline du Parlement), colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings is the home of the Parliament of Canada and has architectural elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year. Law enforcement on Parliament Hill and in the parliamentary precinct is the responsibility of the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS).   read more…

Downtown Toronto

24 September 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  15 minutes

Downtown Toronto seen from Toronto Islands © Arild Vågen/cc-by-sa-4.0

Downtown Toronto seen from Toronto Islands © Arild Vågen/cc-by-sa-4.0

Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto (neighbourhoods in Toronto), it is approximately 17 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the northwest, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don Valley to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west. It is also the location of the municipal government of Toronto and the Government of Ontario. The area is made up of Canada’s largest concentration of skyscrapers and businesses that form Toronto’s skyline. Downtown Toronto has the third most skyscrapers in North America exceeding 200 metres (656 ft) in height, behind New York City and Chicago.   read more…

Hudson Bay in Canada

20 July 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Polar bear walking © flickr.com - Emma/cc-by-2.0

Polar bear walking © flickr.com – Emma/cc-by-2.0

Hudson Bay (sometimes called Hudson’s Bay, usually historically) is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 km² (470,000 sq mi). Although not geographically apparent, it is for climatic reasons considered to be a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It drains a very large area, about 3,861,400 km² (1,490,900 sq mi), that includes parts of southeastern Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, all of Manitoba and indirectly through smaller passages of water parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Hudson Bay’s southern arm is called James Bay. The Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw (Southern dialect) or Wînipâkw (Northern dialect), meaning muddy or brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree, as is the location for the city of Winnipeg.   read more…

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