Sean Marshall

Tag: Thunder Bay

  • North by northwest: a short winter jaunt

    North by northwest: a short winter jaunt

    VIA Train #1 at Hornepayne, Ontario. Normally this stop would be made overnight.

    In late January, I went on a short vacation. Many people, given the short days and cold weather, opt for warmer climes. I, on the other hand, decided to travel to the infamously cold city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Back in November, VIA Rail offered great deals on winter travel as part of its “Black Friday” sale; a berth in a sleeping car from Toronto to Winnipeg cost $271, with meals included. Winter travel by train can be beautiful, and I had fond memories of my February 2014 trip aboard the Algoma Central Railway between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst.

    I planned to spend two nights in Winnipeg, including taking in my first NHL game since the pandemic. The Jets were playing on Friday night against the original Winnipeg Jets, the Utah Hockey Club (which moved to Salt Lake City from Phoenix in 2024). I would then travel back east by bus, with a stopover in Kenora, flying home from Thunder Bay.

    Unfortunately, my train from Toronto was delayed by eleven hours, a new record in my rail travel setbacks. The train from Vancouver faced several setbacks due to extreme cold conditions in the Prairies and Northern Ontario, arriving in Toronto over 15 hours late, around 8AM on Wednesday morning. (VIA Rail’s communications were subpar, and though I got two emails advising of a 5:00 PM departure on Wednesday, we did not actually leave until 8:00 PM, about 10 hours late from Toronto.)

    Despite the delays, it was a very pleasant train ride across Northern Ontario in the snow. The cooked-to-order meals served aboard the Canadian, as always, were very good, and service was friendly. The lights in the dome car for our section were turned off, allowing passengers to gaze into the wilderness, even at night.

    As it turned out, I was able to cancel my first night’s stay in Winnipeg without penalty, which was fortunate as the train arrived at 7AM Friday, nearly 12 hours late. But for me, it was fortunate, as by then, coffee shops were opening up in Downtown Winnipeg. An earlier arrival, had the train made up time, would have forced me to find a 24-hour restaurant to wait at, and there aren’t any in the downtown area.

    The monument to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike; a Corten steel replica of a toppled streetcar, covered in snow
    The monument to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike; a Corten steel replica of a toppled streetcar across the street from Winnipeg City Hall. It was especially compelling partially buried in snow.

    Though I have been to Winnipeg several times before, this was my first time visiting the city in winter. I was pleased to see how the city embraced the short, dark, cold days. Out at The Forks, where the Assiniboine River joins the Red River, there is a lively marketplace located in former railway maintenance and freight buildings behind Union Station. The complex includes a branch of the local McNally-Robinson bookstore chain, restaurants, cafes, art shops, and other local businesses. There are plenty of tables and seating, with water dispensers and plenty of public washrooms. It is one of Canada’s great public spaces.

    An old two-story brick industrial building with a great skylight, with tables and seating below
    Inside one of the market buildings in the Forks, a former railway maintenance building

    Outside, there were Warming Huts art stations, many of which were very compelling. Ice skaters have a choice of an artificial ice rink, covered by a tent-like canopy, or getting out on to a cleared natural path along the Assiniboine River.

    Skaters on the Assiniboine River; warming huts along the ice give skaters a place to sit
    One of the Warming Huts, titled “Wrong Turn,” representing a car sinking into an icy river

    After 24 hours in Winnipeg, capped by a great hockey game in a lively arena, I made my way west towards Kenora and Thunder Bay. Kasper, which I last rode in 2019, has an early morning departure from Downtown Winnipeg, at the Balmoral bus terminal, stopping at Kenora, Dryden, and Sioux Lookout. Among the six passengers were a First Nations woman and her companion, returning home from a medical visit. Intercity buses are a lifeline. The Kasper bus was a 12-passenger van, and despite the poor winter weather conditions, it was a safe, comfortable, and friendly service.

    View out the front window of the Kasper minibus to a snow-covered highway
    Snowy conditions on the Trans-Canada Highway headed east from Winnipeg

    Taking the morning Kasper trip allowed me to spend a few hours in Kenora, population 15,000. The community on the Lake of the Woods is a popular summer vacation spot; this was my first time visiting Ontario’s most westerly city. Kasper’s Kenora stop is at a McDonalds just east of downtown; this gives passengers a chance to stretch, use the washroom, and grab food.

    Kasper minibus - a white van with the side door slid open - in a parking lot
    Kasper Minibus at the Kenora McDonald’s

    The walk from the McDonald’s back towards downtown was pleasant. I was greeted by several deer, in their winter coats, comfortable wandering in a residential neighbourhood.

    Three deer standing in the snow adjacent to a house in Kenora
    Northern white-tailed deer in their heavy winter coats

    Kenora’s downtown is small, but blessed with a solid collection of historic buildings, including the old post office (now city hall), the district courthouse, a two-storey Canadian Pacific railway station (which served VIA until 1990), and the five-story Kenrica Hotel. The hotel has seen better days — the ground floor defaced by an unfortunate 1950s-era streetfront — but it still has good bones.

    Kenrica Hotel, on the main corner in Downtown Kenora

    South of Downtown Kenora, on the lakefront, a cylindrical hotel, ten storeys high, overlooks Lake of the Woods, with a marina at its base. The hotel’s mid-century modernist form is unusual for Ontario, which makes it stand out even more.

    The Clarion Inn on Lake of the Woods

    Many towns and cities in Northern Ontario feature a roadside attraction. Sudbury has the Big Nickel, Wawa has a giant goose, and White River has Winnie-the-Pooh. Kenora’s is a giant sculpture of a muskie fish, called “Husky.”

    “Husky the Muskie” – Kenora’s roadside attraction

    Ontario Northland operates a bus six days a week between Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Sudbury, with operator changes at Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. Between Kenora and Thunder Bay, the route alternates, with service to Fort Frances and Atikokan three days a week and to Dryden and Ignace the other three days. Passing through Fort Frances (where the bus stopped at a McDonald’s there for a rest break), I finally visited every county, district, and region in Ontario, with Rainy River District being the final one.

    Ontario Northland coach bus in a snow-covered McDonald's in Fort Frances, Ontario
    Ontario Northland bus in a snow-covered McDonald’s in Fort Frances, Ontario

    The Ontario Northland bus driver that day was exceptional; because of a winter storm, Highway 17 was closed near Batchewana Bay; as such, the bus would not continue past Thunder Bay. Though we were nearly an hour late arriving into Thunder Bay due to road conditions, the operator was willing to continue past the Thunder Bay Ontario Northland depot to drop anyone off continuing to the hospital campus. I was also able to get off the bus by my hotel.

    The Ontario Northland depot at Thunder Bay is not in a very good location, in an industrial area off Highway 61 near the Thunder Bay airport, without direct local transit connections or adjacent amenities. At least a stop at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (which has local transit and is near Lakehead University) is also provided.

    Google Streetview capture of a small bus station in an industrial area
    Ontario Northland Thunder Bay depot, located in an industrial area on a road without sidewalks (Google Streetview)

    Difficult winter road conditions make travel across the North a challenge; this is why professional and safe bus and train operators are so important for getting around.

  • Some love for Ontario’s municipal flags

    Some love for Ontario’s municipal flags

    Flag of TorontoThe flag of the City of Toronto, designed by Renato De Santis, is an example of a very good civic flag

    I was in Orillia last week, mainly to check out the new Simcoe County Lynx bus system. While there, the flag flying from the Opera House (formerly the city hall) caught my attention. Most municipal flags are boring, usually consisting of the town or city’s coat of arms, shield, or logo on a plain background.

    Orillia municipal flag, with a yellow sun in the middle

    But Orillia’s flag is different. It has waving blue and white waves, with two green triangles facing the centre, and a bright yellow sun in the middle. The symbolism wasn’t difficult to figure out: the city’s position on the narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, with the sun being a nod to Orillia author Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, a light, humourous collection of short stories about the denizens of Mariposa, a thinly-veiled fictionalization of Orillia.

    Yet Canadian cities that boast populations twenty or thirty times that of Orillia can’t boast having such a fine flag.

    For the most part, we don’t think about state, provincial, and municipal flags, and that’s a pity. In the few cities that have an unique and powerful flag, they have become part of that city’s iconography. Unfortunately, though Toronto does have a very good civic flag, we don’t fly it like it should.

    According to the North American Vexillological Association, there are five principles for creating a good flag:

    • Keep it simple — so simple, it can be drawn by a child from memory
    • Use meaningful symbolism
    • Use two or three basic colours
    • Never use lettering or seals
    • Be distinctive or be related

    Canada’s flag, adopted in 1965, adheres to these principles perfectly. It uses just two basic colours: red and white. With a large red maple leaf in the middle, it’s easily recognizable around the world. While a child might not get the eleven-point maple leaf exactly right, it’s otherwise easy to draw from memory.

    There are, of course, exceptions to these principles.

    Maryland’s complicated state flag, based on the coat of arms of colony founder Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, is distinctive and popular, nearly as common as the US flag. California’s state flag is emblazoned with the words “California Republic” but it has significant historical meaning. The flag of South Africa, adopted in 1994, has six colours, but by merging the Pan-African colours of the African National Congress with the red white and blue of Britain and the Netherlands, it represents unity in the post-apartheid era.

    Flags of Maryland, California, and South Africa, notable exceptions to the rules

    For the most part, famous and great civic flags adhere to these principles. The flags of Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo all stand out. In Chicago and Amsterdam, these flags are proudly flown from private homes and watercraft, found on t-shirts and souvenirs, and well known around the world. The bear from Berlin’s flag is almost as popular as the Ampelmännchen. Though Amsterdam’s flag’s origins go back centuries (the “x”s are actually St. Andrew’s crosses), it looks bad-ass, and on-brand for a city famous for its tolerance.

    Great civic flags: Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo

    Compared to the great examples above, Ontario’s provincial flag is just bad. Compare the provincial red ensign with the flag of Manitoba, and then compare it to the Franco-Ontarien flag.

    The Ontario and Manitoba flags, British red ensigns defaced with the provincial shields, were only adopted in 1965 and 1966 as conservative reactions to the new flag of Canada. The two flags are difficult to tell apart from a distance, and they both contain the St. George’s cross (representing England) twice: once in the union flag in the canton, and again in the shield. There’s very little Ontario to be found. (At least the Manitoba flag contains a bison, a recognizable symbol of that province.)

    Meanwhile, the Franco-Ontarien flag is immediately recognizable, with the fleur-de-lis and a stylized trillium, the provincial flower, representing the French-Canadian presence in Ontario.

    Like Orillia, there are a few other civic flags in Ontario that get it right.

    Flags of Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Toronto

    Thunder Bay’s flag depicts a rising sun above Lake Superior and the Sleeping Giant, a prominent natural landmark across the water. The flag of Hamilton includes a yellow cinquefoil, the badge of the Clan of Hamilton, with a steel chain with six large links representing the steel industry and the six municipalities amalgamated into the modern city. The flag of Ottawa contains the civic logo, with the points representing waterways and the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. Finally, the flag of Toronto has an abstract depiction of Toronto’s city hall, with a maple leaf where the council chamber sits. The two towers also make a “T.”

    It’s a shame that Toronto doesn’t make more of its simple, yet great flag.

    Unfortunately, most flags look like those used by Ontario’s third and fourth largest cities.

    Mississauga’s flag violates most of the principles listed above by including the name of the place it represents, with the addition of “incorporated 1974” at the bottom. In the middle is the civic shield, with the typical trappings: a cog representing industry, a lighthouse representing a port (Port Credit), a waterwheel, a stalk of wheat, and wings, possibly representing Pearson Airport. Though Mississauga is a proud city with its own identity, this flag doesn’t appear except in front of civic buildings.

    Brampton’s flag is just the civic shield on a white background, again with similar trappings: a bushel of wheat, a plow, a steam locomotive, and a beaver. According to the city’s website, the gold colour and castle top signify the city’s relation with the small Cumbrian town of Brampton, England. The shield dates from the small rural town before post-war growth, with only a pine tree in the middle to represent the old township of Chinguacousy it merged with. There’s no recognition of Brampton’s modern identity as a multicultural city.

    But at least they’re not as bad as the worst city flag identified by the North American Vexillological Association, that of the city of Pocatello, Idaho, which manages to include the city slogan, a trademark, and a copyright notice. After some embarrassment, the city came up with a new, much better flag.

    Old Flag of PocatelloThe former flag of Pocatello, Idaho

    It would be wonderful to see Brampton and Mississauga come up with better designs. Brampton’s new logo and slogan, Flower City, better represents the city’s history and ambitions. A pretty good flag could be made out of that.

    As for Toronto, let’s embrace our flag more. It’s a fine one and far better than the province’s. As Torontonians generally think of themselves as Canadian first, Torontonian second, and Ontarian third, perhaps we should give our municipal banner more love.

  • Ontario’s failed downtown malls

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    Bayside Mall, formerly the Sarnia Eaton Centre, on a Saturday morning in 2013. Most stores are vacant or occupied by non-profits or independent businesses.

    The Toronto Eaton Centre, large, famous, and vital, is only one of many malls built in the downtown cores of Ontario cities between the 1960s and 1990s. From Thunder Bay to Cornwall, the construction of new enclosed shopping centres were seen as a necessary tool to keep the old city centres vibrant and relevant in the face of competition from new suburban malls. But only in the province’s two largest cities did the concept work. Elsewhere, these urban shopping complexes were left largely vacant within ten years of opening, when leases expired. When the Eaton’s department chain went bankrupt in 1997, huge voids were left behind that developers and municipalities struggled to fill.

    The Toronto Eaton Centre was opened in two phases between 1977 and 1979. It added hundreds of shops and new office space to Downtown Toronto, anchored by a new Eaton’s flagship and was connected to the Simpson’s store across Queen Street. Today, the Eaton Centre is Canada’s second largest mall (including the Hudson’s Bay/Saks Fifth Avenue building) and the Toronto region’s second most productive shopping centre in terms of sales per square metre. In Ottawa, the downtown Rideau Centre, opened in 1983, is the busiest and most productive mall in that region (Retail Council of Canada, 2016).

    But elsewhere in Ontario, downtown malls — mostly built with municipal and/or provincial government support — have been, without exception, commercial and urban development failures. Not only did they suffer from high vacancy rates, they helped to wreck the downtown cores they are located in rather than foster the economic revitalization they once promised.

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