Canadian passport continues to plummet in power according to new global ranking. How does it compare to other countries?
Canada's passport ties with Estonia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 8th place out of 199 in the world with visa-free access to 184 countries, according to the latest data from Henley Passport Index posted on July 22.
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Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Girl Guides of Canada suspends U.S. trips over restrictions, safety concerns
Girl Guides of Canada says it is pausing all trips to the U.S. starting next month over concerns some members could be impacted by border changes put in place by the Trump administration. In an email to Global News, the organization said it had made the decision to pause U.S.-bound trips as of Sept. 1 'after careful consideration.' 'This decision is rooted in our commitment to inclusivity and the safety of all our members,' Girl Guides wrote. 'At Girl Guides of Canada, we prioritize creating a safe, inclusive and accepting environment for all members. These values extend to the travel experiences we offer.' The organization did not say how long the pause will last, but said it affects both previously approved and future trips. Previously-approved trips are not cancelled, the group said, and will instead travel to alternative destinations. Story continues below advertisement Girl Guides says recent restrictions 'put on equal entry' into the U.S. prompted the change, saying some members who may hold citizenship from non-Canadian countries could be impacted by the Trump administration's new rules. The federal government in April updated its travel advisory for the U.S., advising people to co-operate and be 'forthcoming' when speaking with authorities at the border crossing, adding they could face detention if denied entry. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Canadians were told to 'expect scrutiny' when crossing ports of entry and to expect questioning and potential search of their electronic devices. 'Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities,' the advisory read. 'If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.' President Donald Trump also signed a travel ban in June, which was placed on citizens from 12 predominantly African and Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan and Libya. 0:42 Trump's travel ban on 12 countries takes effect The Girl Guides aren't the first organization to cancel trips as tensions between Canada and the U.S. continue amid Trump's ongoing trade war. Story continues below advertisement In April, some Canadian school districts, including British Columbia's largest in Surrey, put all field trips down south on hold to prevent any 'negative experiences at the border.' Some Canadians have also cancelled business trips to the U.S., with Flight Centre Travel Group Canada reporting business travel by air between the two countries declined by close to 40 per cent year-over-year in February. Academics in Canada have also been advised to avoid non-essential travel to the U.S., with an advocacy group in April cautioning university and college professors about the 'evolving political landscape.' The group said some academics in certain categories should 'exercise particular caution,' including those who are also from a country identified as likely to be subject to a travel ban, and people who have expressed negative opinions about the Trump administration or its policies. There has been a decrease in the number of Canadians heading to the U.S. for much of 2025, with Statistics Canada data showing the number of return trips from the U.S. by car having declined by 33.1 per cent in June compared to a year earlier. Return trips from the U.S. by air also dropped by 22.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2024.
Vancouver Sun
3 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Battle of the bags: Comparing MEC and The North Face travel duffels
Over the last year or so, I've been travelling more frequently. Whether it's a business trip, vacation with my husband or a quick weekend getaway with friends, I've found myself reaching for my luggage again and again. One travel essential that has stood the test of time is my North Face Base Camp Duffel – a versatile duffel-backpack hybrid that's been with me on trips to multiple continents since 2011 or so. When I learned that Canadian outdoor brand MEC recently released the Outpost Duffle as a rival to The North Face's version, I knew I had to see how it fared against the original. To compare the two, I brought both bags with me on a week-long trip to New Brunswick. Read the full review and see which one I'd recommend below. Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. To compare the two bags, it's first worth noting some of their similarities and differences. Both bags are available in a range of different sizes, measured by their capacity in litres. I opted to compare both bags in the medium size, which comes in at 60L for MEC and 71L for The North Face. I was able to fit a full week of summer clothes into the medium-sized MEC bag, plus a few extras like a beach towel, rain jacket and waterproof sandals. My husband did the same with the North Face bag, and since his clothes are larger than mine, the extra bag capacity came in handy. Both duffels can be worn as a backpack or held and are made from durable materials that are designed to stand up to rugged adventures. Both of these bags were able to be used as carry-on luggage and fit comfortably in the overhead cabin on an Air Canada Rouge plane. Other airlines may have slightly different luggage dimension requirements, so be sure to check with your airline before travelling. Price: Between the two brands, the MEC duffels are the more affordable option. At $130, the medium size is significantly cheaper than The North Face's $200 bag. Water resistance: If you plan on taking your duffel bag on plenty of wet outdoor adventures, the MEC Outpost has the edge. It has a waterproof polyurethane coating on the top fabric to keep out moisture, while The North Face's duffel is only rated as water-resistant. It's worth noting that this bag won't give you the same protection as a waterproof dry bag , but for rainy hikes or camping trips, this duffel is a solid choice. Packable: My favourite feature of the Outpost Duffel is that it's foldable for easy storage and packing. It tucks into itself, becoming the size of a small packing cube once you turn the bag inside-out and fold it into its top pocket. This is great for taking up less space in your cupboards at home. You can even throw it into your suitcase on longer trips when you want more luggage to bring back all of your souvenirs. Room for improvement: Unlike the North Face duffel, the MEC bag doesn't have long duffel handles – only backpack straps. This made it a little awkward to hold while I was waiting in line for airport security, since I was already wearing a day pack on my back. Since I didn't have an easy way to grab onto it, I ended up wearing one bag on my front and one bag on my back. Handles and straps: This bag features both padded back and duffel straps, which make it easy to carry as either a duffel bag or a backpack. It also has grab handles at the top and bottom of the bag when you need to push or pull it into place, and plenty of loops to clip carabiners onto. Colour and size options: This bag comes in four sizes and a wide range of colours, making it easy to find the right bag for your travel needs and personal style. If you like variety in your luggage, The North Face is the clear winner between the two. Durability: Given that I've owned a Base Camp Duffel for over a decade, I can confidently say that it stands the test of time despite plenty of use over the years. It hasn't faded, warped or scratched yet, so I anticipate many more years of use. Room for improvement: The only feature that I don't like about this duffel is its storage bag. It isn't attached, and the duffel doesn't fold into one of its own pockets to shrink down when not in use like the one from MEC. Unless you stow it away immediately after unpacking, the storage bag can be easy to lose track of. If I had to choose between these two bags, I'd recommend The North Face over MEC for a couple of reasons. While I appreciate that the MEC Outpost bag is packable, the lack of duffel handles makes it tough to travel with more than just a single bag. The bag is duffel-shaped, but functionally it's more useful as a backpack. I'm also not the biggest fan of the way this duffel bag unzips like the letter U, as the edge that stays attached to the bag is at the top of your back. I haven't had any issues so far, but this configuration worries me because if the zippers come undone, there's a chance that your belongings could fall out of the bottom. If price is your main consideration and you don't mind that the MEC bag is only available in black, it's still a solid choice. However, in terms of versatility, colour and size options, The North Face gets my vote. What: The North Face Base Camp Duffel Price: $180 – $240 Where to buy: The North Face | MEC What: MEC Outpost Duffle Price: $120 – $150 Where to buy: MEC Shopping Essentials , a category written by research-obsessed shopping fanatics, is now on . Explore in-depth product reviews, expert recommendations and exciting collaborations — plus get behind-the-scenes info on your favourite brands and trending products — learn more here or sign up for our newsletter . kmendonca@ Looking for savings? Look no further than our coupons page for discounts on your favourite brands.
Vancouver Sun
5 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Halifax's sleek Queen's Marque development woos visitors
With the Atlantic Ocean at high tide behind him, Fred Dardenne is down on his hands and knees so that we don't have to be. A half-hour's drive southwest of Halifax, the veteran forager is rooting for tasty wild food, kneeling on the grassy fields of Prospect Bay and amid the rocky crevices beside the rolling waves. Those of us taking part in Dardenne's foraging tour are blind to all the deliciousness growing around us. But Dardenne, a Belgian-born lover of the land who moved to Nova Scotia 18 years ago and immediately started his business, sees all. His eagle eyes spot sheep sorrel and wild cranberries, caribou moss, sea asparagus and sea truffle. Soon, he's handing out samples that are as tasty as they are novel. 'It's a little garden,' Dardenne says, of the patch of land that he knows so well, close to where he lives. That mid-May outing with Dardenne was one of several tasty highlights during our visit to Halifax. Our trip focused on the new and transformative Queen's Marque District, a $200-million development along the Halifax waterfront that's been opening in phases since late 2021. The complex is flush with high-end accommodation, appealing restaurants, tempting shops and attractive public spaces that nod to Haligonian culture and history. At Queen's Marque, they know Dardenne too. His just-found wares bolster dishes at several of its restaurants and above all at Mystic, a fine-dining destination that opened in the fall of 2024 but has already been celebrated as the 71st best restaurant in the country, according to the latest Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list. Before this spring, it had been more than a dozen years since I'd visited Halifax on a family vacation. Returning this year, I didn't recognize the striking waterfront that Queen's Marque had helped revitalize, or the crowded boardwalk adjacent to the district that is lined with more restaurants, bars, craft shops, bike rental shops, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and more. Between the boardwalk and Queen's Marque, Halifax has a new hub for tourism, in addition to its long-standing attractions, museums and festivals. Nova Scotia's capital should appeal to vacationing Canadians seeking to visit more of their own country, especially with direct flights that connect Halifax to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, in addition to other Canadian Maritime cities. My three days in Halifax were focused on the culinary appeal of Queen's Marque, the luxurious accommodations at Muir , the district's luxurious boutique hotel that opened in December 2021, and the pleasures of two day trips including the outing with Dardenne. Muir, a 109-room property whose name means 'sea' in Gaelic, is at once sleek and dramatically modern, yet also tied to the heritage and history of both Halifax and Nova Scotia. Built primarily of Nova Scotia sandstone and featuring Muntz metal, an alloy of zinc and copper that's used in building ships, Muir lives up to its tagline, 'Born of this Place.' I was comfortable and even pampered in a spacious, harbour-facing room decorated with landscape paintings, photographs and ceramics by Nova Scotia artists. Everything about the room's ambience felt artful and local, down to a cosy wool throw blanket on the king-sized bed displaying an original Muir tartan. The room's visual centrepiece was a striking, well-stocked bar in a lighted, porthole-shaped display case. But the granite and marble bathroom with twin sinks, a heated floor and a rain shower vied for attention too. Guests at Muir wanting to stay active can rent kayaks or paddleboards or make use of a large fitness centre with state-of-the-art equipment and a swimming pool. The centre and pool are part of Muir's Windward Wellness spa, which also includes an infrared sauna, a eucalyptus steam room and a halotherapy salt room. I confess that we professional food lovers spent less time exercising and more time at the restaurants and bars of Queen's Marque. For fine-dining fans, the district's must-visit highlight is Mystic, where the main draw is an evening's culinary journey through a $165 multi-course tasting menu filled with exquisite, delicious creations. Dishes such as smoked egg yolk with wild sea flora, sea mustard and Acadian caviar, and lobster ravioli with Nova Scotia saffron, trumpet mushrooms and seaweed brioche were standouts. I've had significantly more expensive meals in other Canadian and American cities that fell short of what Mystic offered in terms of taste, sophistication and surprises. Other Queen's Marque restaurants, all classy and eye-catchingly appointed, offered dining options at different price points as well as a range of cuisines and concepts. Muir's ground-floor restaurant Drift, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, modernized Atlantic Canadian cuisine with dishes such as Hodge Podge (butter-braised cod filet, salt cod croquette, green beans, new potatoes, carrots, buttered leeks), sunflower-crusted salmon filet with land and sea asparagus fregola and Nova Scotia lamb shoulder with Lunenburg lamb sausage. Nearby, Daryâ, which translates to 'sea' or 'ocean' in Persian, specializes in elevated Eastern Mediterranean fare, reflecting influences from multiple countries in that region. Mezzes and dips hit the spot here but still left room for appetizers such as tuna carpaccio with charred eggplant and beef tartare with merguez spices, as well as mains like charred octopus with black garlic harissa and lamb tagine. The most popular restaurant at Queen's Marque is Salt + Ash Beach House, a relaxed spot that can boast about its live-fire cooking while turning out approachable fare including sandwiches, a variety of pizzas, jerk cod and clams and haddock tacos. The only lobster roll that I managed to snag while I was in Halifax was served at Sal + Ash, and that iconic sandwich, along with some impeccably crisp fries, did not disappoint. We also enjoyed the intimate setting, small plates and wines by the glass at Peacock Wine Bar. Some of those glasses, to our pleasant surprise, were sparkling wines and whites made by wineries in the Annapolis Valley, an hour northwest of Halifax. In fact, we made the hour-long trip to Nova Scotia's wine country to visit Lightfoot & Wolfville Vineyards , a veteran winery in the valley that launched in 2009. The setting there was idyllic, with the spacious, inviting, organic- and biodynamic-certified winery backing onto its gorgeous vineyard, with the shores of the Minas Basin in the background. Lightfoot & Wolfville is well worth a visit, given its busy tasting room and shop (some of its wines are also available at the Liquid Assets shop at the Halifax Airport), as well as its restaurant that turns out wood-fired pizzas and refined salads. We wound down our stay in Halifax at BKS, a speakeasy inside Muir that is open only for hotel guests and locals who buy memberships. Forward-thinking but whimsical cocktails here were top-notch — especially those that we ourselves made at a 'Maritime mixology' class led by beverage director Elise Sergerie. She, like many of the Queen's Marque District staff we met, had 'come from away' to bring hospitality skills honed in Montreal, Toronto or Fogo Island to Halifax. After our nightcap at BKS, we ventured out one last time into the district's public space. Earlier in our trip, we had walked one sunny afternoon up the two-storey set of wooden steps called Rise Again to take in the view from its pinnacle. Then, we stood beside a 60-foot-tall art installation called Tidal Beacon. On our last night, Tidal Beacon was transformed into a 12-minute light show, as its directional spotlights shone into the sky and across the harbour. It was a prolonged, lovely sight that sent us home with one more bright, pleasant memory. phum@ The writer visited Halifax as a guest of Queen's Marque, which did not read or approve this article prior to publication.
