Sault Ste. Marie is known for its role in marine navigation with its canal and locks, which were a feat of engineering in 1895. It is also only an hour away from Fort St. Joseph on St. Joseph Island that started military action in the War of 1812. Of its Read more
Visitors go to Prescott not for its 19th century homes, but for its 19th century blockhouse in Fort Wellington National Historic Site. The fort was built in 1812 to slow the American advance but was abandoned after the War of 1812. The blockhouse was rebuilt in 1838 during the rebellion Read more
Brampton is a suburb of Toronto. Its historic centre is around Garden Square, where the Rose Theatre is also located. A little ways from the city centre, the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives is a local cultural centre. The regional airport also serves as a hub for the Brampton Read more
Stratford is most well-known for hosting the annual Stratford Festival, Justin Bieber was also born in Stratford. It’s on the Avon River so it’s obvious to visitors from the old country that the combination was named after Stratford-upon-Avon in England. I’m not much of a nut for music, but I Read more
Alton village is the cultural heart of Caledon. In 2020, a process was launched to study the potential of making half the village into a historical conservation district. The are already has a lot going for it, over a dozen buildings are designated heritage buildings under the Ontario Heritage Act. Read more
Imagine a Toronto suburb, now imagine the most boring Toronto suburb – that’s Mississauga. Commuter trains, highways, and unworkably wide streets thread across Mississauga to get residents to work in downtown Toronto. Mississauga isn’t a destination in itself, it’s a means to spend time in Toronto. For locals, the real Read more
The history of Chambly’s fort is as storied as the one at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. After all, they were part of the same defence system built by the French in the 17th century. A wooden fort was first built in 1665, the remnants of which can still be seen in the ground. Read more
A member of staff at the Boréalis museum told me that Trois-Rivières used to be the “paper capital of the world” with their world’s largest paper factory in the 1950s. The factory was razed about a decade ago to make way for new apartment buildings and only the water filtration Read more
I’m stretching the Magog region to include Saint-Benoît-du-Lac where a Benedictine abbey lies. The monastery was founded in 1912 and the construction of the present stone structure began in 1939. The cheese factory was actually built a year before but didn’t serve its cheese to the public until 1943. The Read more
Mostly known for its military history, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is the site of the first French fort in Canada. First built in 1666, Fort Saint-Jean has been continuously occupied from 1748 to the present day, albeit changing hands several times. The second fort was built in 1748 and destroyed by the French Read more