I grew up in New Delhi, so take it from me: This is how to deal with Toronto's worsening air quality
In recent years, I have started planning my trips back to the city I grew up in around its air quality. Most people visit around October or November. The weather isn't too cold, it's the festive season of Dusshera and Diwali; and if you're lucky you can extend the escape from Canadian winters into Christmas vacations.
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Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
I left my heart in the Maritimes
I am back from one of the most cup-filling trips in recent memory. I celebrated a dear friend's 40th birthday, I saw the sights, I made new friends and, at multiple points, laughed so hard I thought I was going to throw up. Here is a not-at-all comprehensive list of observations and highlights from my first-timer tour around Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island. Advertisement Why this ad? The Best Thing I Ate Hand's down, it was the oft-recommended lobster roll at Richard's in Victoria-by-the-Sea, P.E.I. The much-recommended lobster roll at Richard's in Victoria-by-the-Sea, PEI You will have to wait in line. It will cost $33.50. It will be worth it. (Also, Victoria-by-the-Sea is the prettiest little seaside town I ever did see.) You Should Go In The Ocean We spent an afternoon on Summerville Beach, N.S., which is known for its turquoise water and soft sand. And, while I had put on my swimsuit, I really had no intention of going into the ocean. But I'm so glad I decided to splash around in the only sort-of-bracing waters of the North Atlantic. It was so fun and I felt so free. Highly recommend. The Confederation Bridge Is An Engineering Marvel It really is. Driving on the 12.9-kilometre bridge spanning the Northumberland Strait between P.E.I. and New Brunswick was very cool to this Prairie gal. And this will interest Winnipeggers: like Portage and Main, the Confederation Bridge was the subject of a plebiscite. Some Islanders were opposed to its construction, worried it would change their way of life. Ultimately, at the polls, 59.4 per cent of Islanders voted 'Yes' to a fixed link between the two provinces. It has been open since 1997. And if you're headed there soon, the bridge toll has dropped to $20. Elbows up, etc. A Peek Into Anne Shirley's Bedroom I had an emotional moment at Green Gables, visiting Anne Shirley's bedroom. Anne Shirley's bedroom Of course, it's not her actual bedroom as she is the fictional redhaired protagonist imagined by author Lucy Maud Montgomery. But the level of detail in her room — her carpet bag, her coveted puffed-sleeved dress, her books — was really moving. I thought about the story I recently did on the costumed interpreters at Lower Fort Garry, which is also a Parks Canada site, when I met 'Anne' and 'Diana.' What they do really is a bit of magic. Also Anne of Green Gables is deeply embedded in the iconography of the island, as you can imagine — so much so that we drove past a business whose logo was, I'm not kidding, a cartoon lobster wearing the Anne hat and braids. Home Decorating with Maud Lewis The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax has a permanent exhibit dedicated to the art of Maud Lewis, the celebrated Canadian folk artist (and Nova Scotia native) known for her whimsical story-book paintings of landscapes, animals and tulips. Maud Lewis's window The coolest part of this exhibit, which has been on view since 1998, is her actual house, restored for prosperity in the gallery. Everything was her canvas: her front door, her windows, her stove, her bread box — you name it, she painted it. She was a true maximalist who would be horrified by the idea of 'Millennial Grey.' Seeing Maud's cheery, art-filled house was an excellent reminder that we have free will. If you want to paint tulips on your stuff, you should. Don't Die For An Instagram Photo A small rant, if you'll permit: people are absolute menaces at Peggy's Cove. Peggy's Cove is stunning. I understand why it is one of the most photographed places in Canada. I understand why throngs of tourists visit it. What I don't understand is how willing people are to risk life and limb to get a photo. Peggy's Cove (from a respectful distance!!!!) I, personally, was scared straight by the plaques everywhere that read: 'WARNING: Injury and death have rewarded careless sight-seers here. The ocean and rocks are treacherous, savour the sea from a distance.' People were not savouring the sea from a distance. People were posing in ways that would absolutely result in injury if someone were to slip. People were fully letting their kids run (!!!) on the rocks. The local wisdom is to avoid the black rocks; now, they have a security person who aggressively blows a whistle at you if you get too far out. But honestly, that terrain is tough. And yes, people have died there, swept away by rogue waves. The warnings at Peggy's Cove Even in the safer places, I felt a bit nervous. As I said to my pal who was crouched down on an incline trying to get me in front of the iconic Peggy's Cove Lighthouse: 'Please do not roll down a hill for a photo that I will almost certainly delete.' An Underappreciated Gift of Being 40 We almost stayed at a place in PEI that shall remain unnamed and its location undisclosed because I don't want to drag them too hard on a public forum, but let's just say they were playing fast and loose with the term 'glamping' which is supposed to be a portmanteau of 'glam' and 'camping,' not a word for 'somehow worse than camping.' We immediately fired up Nexties, when I tell you there is no limit to the dollar amount I would've thrown at this problem, I'm not kidding. Even if the only room available in the entire region cost $800 and was also in Sackville, New Brunswick, I would say, 'Yes, perfect, here is my credit card.' This is the gift of being grown. As another BFF put it after I recounted this story to her: 'You have clarity of your standards and the means to achieve them.' Amen. We ended up staying in a Days Inn motel that felt like the Ritz and was somehow cheaper than our original accommodations. And you know what? I had the best sleep of the trip that night.
Toronto Sun
5 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Canadians applying for a Nexus card can no longer choose an 'X' gender marker
Published Aug 06, 2025 • 1 minute read Nexus signage for U.S. and Canadian customs and immigration is seen at the Calgary International Airport, Jan. 30, 2017. Photo by GAVIN YOUNG / FILES / POSTMEDIA NETWORK OTTAWA — Canadians renewing or applying for Nexus travel cards can no longer choose an X gender marker, following an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump that says the American government will only recognize the male and female sexes. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The change took effect in February 2025. New applicants and people renewing their membership can apply using a Canadian passport with the 'X' gender identifier but will have to select 'male' or 'female' for their Nexus membership, says a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency. Nexus cards identifying current members by a gender other than 'male' or 'female' will remain valid, the spokesperson says. Nexus memberships are valid for five years and are meant to speed up border crossings between Canada and the United States. The spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency says that while Canada and the U.S. share management of the Nexus program, the application process is housed on a U.S system operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Television Basketball Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto & GTA
Vancouver Sun
13 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
'Giving young girls the opportunity to dream': Canadian Olympian finds gold in street hockey
Heartbroken from Team Canada's loss to the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Laura Stacey found solace in a pickup game of street hockey. And then she found purpose. That pickup game sparked an annual road hockey tournament fundraiser that not incidentally celebrates the growing success of professional women's hockey. 'I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special,' said Stacey, the great-granddaughter of hockey Hall of Famer King Clancy . She joined the Montréal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) in 2024. (She also brought home gold with Team Canada in Beijing.) On July 5, Stacey held her sixth annual road hockey tournament in Toronto, and raised over $60,000 for Canadian charities encouraging youth sport and fitness. Another event is scheduled to be held in Montreal on Aug. 23. She spoke to the National Post: A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Can you tell me more about the Toronto event? No rain at all. Blue skies. It was literally a perfect day. We had 20 teams, over 140 players playing. We had 22 pros and some special guests. Kate Beirness did our whole introduction, which was absolutely amazing. Basically, how it worked is once the kids in the community and all the players showed up, they threw their sticks in the middle and all the pros were given a team. We tossed the sticks around early in the morning, made the teams and all the different players got to play with different people. There was a little 10-year-old French girl who came up to me so nervous in the morning that she wanted to play with her friends and they were split up because their sticks were thrown different ways. And by the end of the day, she came up to me and her mom said, 'This was the most amazing thing.' By the end of the day, the little girl – who was so shy that she wasn't gonna be able to talk to anybody — was high-fiving and hugging and saying goodbye to her new teammates. So, pretty cool to hear. It was by far our biggest one yet. I have no idea how many people showed up, but it was packed until the very end. We ended up raising over $60,000. So it's been amazing to be honest with you. What does the money go to? It's our mission as a foundation, we've just become a foundation this year — we're waiting for our CRA number to come in the next little bit as well, because we wanna become a registered charity as well. Because we are now a foundation, we actually partnered with four different charities this year: KidSport Ontario, Fitspirit-Fillactive, a small chapter in Montreal for Jumpstart, and then Laureus (Sport for Good Foundation). Those are the four charities we partnered with and it's all kind of around our mission of helping kids and individuals find their passion in sport or just live a healthy, active lifestyle. What has life been like since the Olympics? What drew you to work with young kids? It all started after 2018. It was my first Olympics, and we had lost. We came home with a silver, and honestly, I was pretty lost. I had no idea what to do. I felt like it was the pinnacle of my life. Like I had been to the Olympics, but I was also so disappointed that we had lost. So I was kind like, what do I do now? What's next? In that short kind of period where I didn't know what to do, my sister and her husband were in town in Toronto and the two of them and my parents and myself kind of just went outside on our birthday one day and we were shooting the puck on one of the nets that we had. Eventually, a bunch of people in our neighbourhood kind of came out, and were like, 'Hey, can I play, too?' and it turned into this really fun road hockey game. My sister's husband looked at me and he said, 'Laura, why don't you do this? Why don't we run a charity road hockey tournament right here in this neighbourhood?' And I was like, 'Oh, OK. Let's see how it goes.' I basically just messaged all my teammates from 2018 and my Markham Thunder teammates at the time, and yeah, a couple other pro athlete friends that I was training with. I was like, 'Let's just see if we can pull this off.' If worst comes to worst, we just have a fun day with my friends and family, and my neighbourhood playing outside. It ended up blowing up. We ended up raising money, which we thought we were just gonna be able to cover our costs but we ended up raising, I think, $5,000 our first year, just out of the blue kind of. Then we were like, 'OK, well now, now we need to figure out what to do with these funds now that we've raised them.' So the first year we contacted two underprivileged schools and we gave sports equipment and sports supplies to the schools; those two schools that couldn't really afford the supplies. I went there for half a day to the schools and we had a little activity day and got to use the new equipment all together and play sports. It was amazing. I think from then on it was like, 'Wow, this can have so much more of an impact than I even know.' Ever since that moment, ever since that kind of initial spark of the tournament, it's just been something I'm very proud of, something that I want to keep pushing further and further and that's exactly what it's done. Can you say more about the mission of promoting women's sports? I think, honestly, my foundation's growth and the fact that it's become what it is is a huge part due to women's sports thriving in Canada. People, kids, young girls, are having the opportunity to see us play on a consistent basis with the PWHL and this league that we get to play in is completely taking off. Now all the fans are wanting to come to my event in Toronto and Montreal, and honestly, it is due, in large part, to the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League), to the WNBA (Women's National Basketball League), who've kind of pushed those boundaries before. When we arrived as female hockey players, we had that basis to push for, to ask for more. To see what Caitlin Clark has done in terms of ticket sales, I think, for women's sports in general, it's just gonna continue to move the needle forward because people are realizing that when it is available, when you can see it, people fall in love with it. I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special. Even at my tournament, to have the parents come up to me and say, 'My daughter has always wanted to be an Olympian, but now she also wants to play in the PWHL. She wants to be like you guys.' It's pretty amazing to see, and it's just opening our eyes to how big of an impact that really is. This conversation was edited lightly for length and clarity. Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis.
