The Canadian Tourism Commission has come under unwarranted criticism this week. The truth is, any of us would be hard-pressed to find a government agency that manages to do more with less than the CTC. Its budget has been slashed by 20% to $58.5 million from the 2012...

Although Maxime Bernier can quickly name the destinations he would recommend for visitors to Canada, the federal Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism says it is the people of the country who are the tourism industry's greatest asset for attracting travellers.

Bernier kicked off the annual...

The fact that Joe Beef has been voted Canada's best restaurant isn't going to come as a surprise to enthusiasts of the nation's food scene. But many will be shocked that the iconic restaurant's hometown, Montreal, trails Calgary in the number of entries placed in the

When we decided to open the voting up to the public for the Vacay.ca Top 50 Restaurants in Canada Guide I was afraid of two things: 1. We would receive so many votes that we would be up for days and nights counting and recounting them all, and...

Marc Dupont takes 20 minutes to put on his game-face. It's thick black paint that the night would envy.

When complete, the soft-spoken government worker looks like a menacing warrior ready to terrorize. Along with the paint, Dupont wears a gladiator outfit that cost $1,200 on eBay and carries...

When the World Tourism Organization revealed statistics this month that showed China was the new No. 1 in travel, the implications became clear. The world has talked for a decade about how Asia, led by China and India, will dominate this century economically and the fact...

Arlene Stein has tried for three years to line up a date for Rene Redzepi to join Toronto's food industry at the annual Terroir Symposium. This year the schedules aligned and the executive chef of Noma is the marquee name among a list of culinary stars...

Torontonians know the El Mocambo as a venue for wicked fun and historic music performances. Soon, it will also be the site of a multi-tiered restaurant headed by one of Canada's most acclaimed chefs.

Michael Pataran , who has cooked at the esteemed James Beard House...

My friend Mariellen Ward has written on her outstanding blog, Breathedreamgo.com, that the media is guilty of sensationalism in the coverage of rapes in India.

Mariellen's points are brilliantly and thoughtfully articulated. I disagree with her assessment, however. The attention the media is giving to the rape epidemic...

Scott Vivian may have done more for Toronto's culinary rep than anyone else in recent years. And, it was all thanks to a few beers.

The chef and owner of Beast, an inventive restaurant on a dark side street in the city's trendy King and Bathurst neighbourhood, downed...

Mixing drinks has become such an artform around the world that global competitions have popped up to find the world's best bartender.

The eighth Global Cocktail Challenge took place last week at the House of Angostura, a distillery that produces several varieties of rum as well...

THE VILLAGE OF BLUE MOUNTAIN, ONTARIO -- Dave Bader accomplished in an hour what I had felt was impossible for the entirety of my life. With patience and encouragement, Bader not only taught me to ski, he kept me upright with his instructions and invigorated my experience so much I...

"There's something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that's unbearably sad," wrote David Foster Wallace in his essay "Shipping Out." Published in 1996 in Harper's Magazine, Foster Wallace's piece is filled with detail upon detail -- most of them describing banal and saccharine moments -- of life aboard mega-liners,...

Any kid who straps on a pair of skates or picks up a basketball at a neighbourhood playground has dreams of ultimate glory. A very rare few show elite skill level in their early years and even fewer are able to develop their prodigious talent to the maximum, hitting the...

HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO -- Michael Smith told me he has built a career out of reminding Canadians that cooking is about the people you share the meal with rather than the perfection of the recipe. He then went about showing what he meant.

In a wildly entertaining weekend at

CALGARY, ALBERTA -- When Olivier Reynaud moved from Avignon to Calgary in 1999, he didn't anticipate being a pioneer. That seems to be what happens to entrepreneurs in Western Canada, however, and it wasn't long before the co-proprietor of Rouge found himself at the forefront of a local...

With leaders, you get a sense of their true character when you observe them interacting with the people they supervise. Walking into Jonathan Gushue's kitchen, I was struck by the laughter. Restaurant kitchens tend to be cacophonous caverns full of metal clangs and sizzle. Very few chefs, especially in Canada,...

Matt Mays calls Dartmouth the New Jersey of Nova Scotia. If that's the case, you could say he is the Bruce Springsteen of the Maritimes. Songs about life in Mays' unheralded hometown located on the other side of the big city are reminiscent of how Springsteen so often...

No lawyers were allowed in colonial Louisbourg. Louis XIV wanted to build a utopia on this side of the Atlantic and anyone who was out to practice law could only undermine that dream, the Sun King thought. So rules were enforced by the governor of Île-Royale and an appointed council....

Jenna Skinner and Adam Carmichael reminded me of something I've known for a few years now: Travelling the world is great in part because it puts into context Canada and what makes it an amazing country. I met Skinner and Carmichael at Quidi Vidi Brewery, one of those...