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5 Stunning Places in Canada You Must Visit

Canada is a country blessed with incredible natural beauty. From its rugged mountains to its serene lakes, there’s something for every nature lover. Whether you’re a tourist or a local, exploring Canada’s breathtaking landscapes is a must. Well, if you want to experience Canada from the comfort of your home, then check out Playamo casino in Canada. Here are the five most beautiful places in Canada that you should add to your travel list.

1.Banff National Park, Alberta

For fans of nature, Alberta’s Banff National Park looks like a dream that has come to life. Situated in the center of the Rockies, the park boasts of arrays of snow clutching mountaintops, crystal clear water bodies and forests.Especially known and obligatory for visitors, the waters of Lake Louise are bright turquoise.

If you are an enthusiast of hiking or skiing or just want to enjoy the views of the stunning wild, Banff has this and much more to offer. The sulfur water of the Banff Hot Springs would be ideal for a bath and the Banff Gondola for a bird’s eye view of the country. If one has the chance to visit the park in summer, Banff is surely an unforgettable one.

2. Niagara Falls, Ontario

Niagara Falls as one of the unique natural sights of Canada deserves special attention and admiration. The forces of the waterfalls ‘amaze’ the visitors by falling whereas others remain motionless. The area can be viewed from several observation points or you can have a closer look by taking a boat tour in one of the most spectacular attractions known as the “Maid of the Mist”.

For the other tourists who would desire more fun, the Clifton Hill neighborhood provides food, shops, and fun. That is why people interested in adventures or just a relaxing time will always find something to do in Niagara Falls.

3. Quebec City, Quebec

Quebec City is one of the most fascinating destinations, and it looks like a European city in Canada. Lively with its winding cobbled streets, architectural beauty, and year-round entertainment, it’s a city you don’t want to miss out on. The magnificent Château Frontenac is easy on the eye t as are other structures in Old Quebec which presents the appearance of a town that has been preserved in time.

You will also get good meals here, French and other Quebec cuisine, and even poutine. On the other hand, it has been described as great in winter for the Quebec Winter Carnival, or in the summer for wonderful garden strolls and café. Quebec City is an ideal place that combines historical experience and contemporary lifestyle.

4. Jasper National Park, Alberta

Another spectacular showpiece in the Canadian Rockies is Jasper National Park. There are a lot less tourists than in Banff but I have to say the scenery of Jasper is just as stunning. This park echoes some of the most beautiful glaciers, the Alps greenish-blue lakes, and a wealth of wildlife. For something a little more unusual, Jasper is a Dark Sky Preserve outlook so perfect if you’re into your star gazing.

5. Prince Edward Island

Hence the shores of Prince Edward Island (PEI) is the best destination for those in search of a quiet time on the island. Famous for the rolling green hills, red sandy beaches and beautiful little lighthouses, PEI looks like it has come straight out of a postcard. The bicycles can be used to tour the island which offers spectacular views of the coast via car.

For those who have a passion for literature we recommend that you should pay a visit to Green Gables, the home of Anne of Green Gables. Guernsey ‘s seafood is also amazing and people should not miss the lobster and mussels that are normally harvested from the sea. PEI is indeed a small and beautiful island, the kind of which we need to run away from the growing hustle and bustle of life.

Conclusion

As much as Canada is known for its scenic view; it has many beautiful sights that can suit anyone’s interest including;nature, and history among others. This scrumptious list of tourist attractions includes but is not limited to Banff National Park, Niagara Falls, Quebec City, Jasper National Park, and Prince Edward Island. Regardless of whether you are an international tourist or a citizen who has decided to pay attention to the picturesque places in your country, these must-see places deserve attention.

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“Sharing Shalom” – new children’s book explores how children deal with antisemitism

"Sharing Shalom" cover/author Danielle Sharkan

While her peers dance, swim, or practice martial arts outside of class, Leila attends Hebrew school twice a week, an act that makes her feel “connected to her grandparents, her aunts and uncles,” writes debut author Danielle Sharkan.

Illustrator Selina Alko (Stars of the Night), working in collage and thick swathes of jewel-tone acrylic paint, shows faces of relatives past and present, layered with texts of liturgical music and prayers.

When Leila arrives at the synagogue one day and finds it vandalized, she’s told that “Some people think we’re different, and they don’t like that.” She worries about how she’s perceived by others, not wanting “anyone to see she was Jewish”- In her anxious state, even her bagel lunch feels like a giveaway. But the more Leila tries to blend in, “the more she noticed the way her friends stood out,” and when she sees community members helping to repair the damaged synagogue, she embraces her identity once again.

The creators address an act of antisemitism with candor and sensitivity, reassuring readers that one can belong to multiple communities without hiding one’s beliefs or identity. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones.

An author’s note and glossary conclude. Recommended for ages 4-8.

About the author: Originally from Chicago, Danielle Sharkan now lives by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. When she’s not eggsploring the area with her two kids, she enjoys yoga, hiking, chai tea lattes and eggsperimenting in the kitchen. She’s eggstatic to introduce the world to Ellie the Eggspert, next March.

Sharing Shalom
By Danielle Sharkan, illus. by Selina Alko.
Holiday House, $18.99 *32p) ISBN. 978-0-8234-5556-0

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“No Jews Live Here” – new book tells poignant story of Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust

Review by JULIE KIRSH (former Sun Media News Research Director)
In 1950 my parents made the decision to leave Hungary, the country of their birth and ancestors. Both were Holocaust survivors. My father survived Auschwitz and was liberated from Buchenwald. My mother hid with false Christian papers in Budapest during the war. Most of their families perished. Coming to Canada without language, money or family support took courage. I am the lucky recipient of their strength, optimism and resilience.
In journalist John Lorinc’s book, No Jews Live Here, his parents and maternal grandmother, Ilona, arrived in Canada in 1956, the second and larger wave of Hungarian refugees. Many were Jewish Holocaust survivors.
Hungary was unique in the east European countries. Lorinc provides an excellent historical overview of Jewish life in Hungary before World War Two.
However the author emphasizes that freedom to succeed in Hungary came at a cost. Lorinc explains why many Jews became Christian converts. In Budapest, an enclave for a thriving Jewish population, Jews constituted 5% of Hungary’s total population. By 1941, over 17% of Budapest’s Jews had converted.
Lorinc’s grandparents who came from wealthy Jewish families converted in the 1920s. However it is important to note that the converts were not saved from the mass deportations in Hungary in 1944. Jews and converts died together in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Over the course of less than 3 months, with the complete cooperation and enthusiasm of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie, 440,000 Jews were murdered. Lorinc’s grandfather was ordered to join a forced labour unit. He marched off wearing a white armband signifying that he was a converted Jew.
One of Lorinc’s poignant stories is his own father’s history as a slave labourer in the copper mines of Bor in Serbia. Often the labourers, of which many were middle class Jewish Hungarians who had never held a tool other than a writing pen in their hands, were starved, tortured and killed. The Hungarian overseers were especially cruel, according to Lorinc’s father.
Chapter 10 is titled Aftermath and although the Russian army liberated the surviving Hungarian Jews, the horrors of the Red Army soldiers are described relentlessly. Women and girls were raped. Looting was prevalent. Lorinc relates that it was not unusual for a Russian soldier to have 4 or 5 watches on his arm.
Ilona, ever the resilient survivor, along with other survivors in Budapest came up with creative ways to feed her family and at the same time, wrangled with legal authorities and her in-laws for the return of their farm and property. The feud between Ilona and her mother-in-law became much more than logistical. It was tangled with betrayal, grief and financial desperation, a classic family conspiracy theory.
In 1956 after the revolution in Hungary, Lorinc’s parents along with many other Hungarian refugees found themselves in Vienna. Choices to leave Europe were dependent on how easy it was to get an exit visa. The entry gates to Canada had been opened and the lineup at the Canadian embassy permitted applicants to stand in a foyer instead of waiting outside.
Toronto in the mid-50s was a “closed” city on Sundays. Even the swings in playgrounds were chained up to discourage children’s use. Italian men were hounded by police to prevent gathering on the sidewalks of Little Italy.
Like many other immigrants, Lorinc’s parents found jobs and gained a foothold in the security of Canadian life.
The author explains that as a child, he and his sister were baptized at a United Church, a classic “just in case” move for the still traumatized survivors.
Then at age 10, Lorinc’s father told him that he was Jewish but didn’t explain why this was a secret. The need to understand Jewish history in Hungary was planted at an early age.
The author goes on to describe his family’s life in the Toronto suburbs of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
A frequent visitor at the family home was his grandmother Ilona, colourful, dramatic and stubborn. She was consumed with “vanities and accusations” and insisted on wearing high heels and fashionable clothing well into old age. Ilona deeply harboured old family disagreements over ownership of the farm in Hungary.
Ilona’s obsession with her fading looks and the family history of betrayal never left her. Hungarian “Jewish Christmas” with Ilona became a battlefield of wounds and grievances.
After she died, Lorinc reflects that her stubborn character still influences his own world perspective, blurring the line between the life of the author and his grandmother’s story.
Lorinc recounts in detail the need for conversion and hiding one’s Jewishness in an historical context. Before the war, Hungary’s Jews looked the same and had the same freedoms as non-Jews. Seeing themselves first as loyal Hungarians didn’t save converted Jews from persecution and the gas chambers. In fact Lorinc argues that conversion contributed to anti-Semitic theories.
Finally Lorinc and his wife make a trip to Bor, the mine and labour camp where his father was interred. The author’s dedication to telling the story of his family’s tragedy and survival is admirable. Readers will find themselves savouring every word, looking within their own family history as part of the saga of human survival.
No Jews Live Here
by John Lorinc
(Coach House Books), 2024

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Former Winnipegger Solly Dreman looks back on his life growing up in Winnipeg and living in Israel since 1964

Orly & Solly Dreman (The trophy Orly is holding is for Solly's having won the Glendale Junior Golf Championship when he was 18.)

Introduction: Over the years we’ve had many articles about Solly Dreman. Solly comes from a well-known Winnipeg family and, as he explains in the following article, he could have emulated his father Joe and his brother David by fashioning a career as an investment dealer had he stayed in Canada.
Instead, Solly chose to make aliyah to Israel in 1964.
Solly still has a very close connection to the city where he was born – often having returned here – to lecture and to help raise money for various causes, including an organization known as “Ezer Mizion,” for which he organized a very successful dinner here in 2019.
From time to time Solly and his wife Orly have contributed very thoughtful pieces to The Jewish Post & News. What follows is a speech that Solly gave recently on the occasion of Simchat Torah when he was honoured as “Chatan Torah” (the person who recites the last chapter of the Torah):

I was born in Winnipeg Canada to a Zionist family. My parents visited Israel dozens of times before I made Aliyah to Israel. Winnipeg was called the “Jerusalem of Canada” and during the Six Day War in 1967  contributed more per capita than any other city in North America even though the Jewish community was not a wealthy community. My father Joe was a very successful businessman. He was a grain and investment broker and when he passed away at age 90 there was a minute of silence in commodity exchanges all over Canada in commemoration of his life achievements. I was  an athlete and was my  club Junior golf champion. I also played tennis, hockey, football and, like my father who was city and provincial chess champion, I played chess.
 
Academically, my  first degree was in business administration and I received an Honors Degree in Commerce in 1960. I subsequently worked with my father for a year but the competition was too tough since I was competing not only with my father but with my brother David, who also studied Commerce and today is rated as one of the five most successful investment dealers in  the world. For years he wrote a successful column for Forbes as well as several books on the psychology of the stock market.
I realized that the world of finance was not for me and that my major love was people and caring for others, so in 1964 I made Aliyah to Israel to pursue a degree in Clinical Psychology. My doctoral  thesis, in fact, was on the subject of altruism and giving to others – something that has characterized much of my personal and professional life.
Today I am the proud father of four children, thirteen grandchildren and married to Orly, who you know has contributed much to our local community. The ten years from 1965 to 1975  were the most productive of my life. I completed my Masters and Doctoral Degrees by 1975 and when the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 I was recruited to the Jerusalem Brigade, which was deployed to the Suez Canal.

A clipping from a 1973 Jewish Post showing Solly Dreman on guard duty during the 1973 Yom Kippur war


When it was discovered that I was a doctoral student at the Hebrew University I was appointed as the brigade psychologist of the Jerusalem Brigade, which numbered over 2500 soldiers. I was bestowed officer status and lectured and treated many soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress, depression and other difficulties. I also treated their families on the home front who were suffering, amongst other things, from the “Missing Parent Syndrome,” which many families are suffering from today in our current prolonged and horrific war.
 
In my professional life as a full  professor specializing in clinical psychologiy I have dealt with many of the problems that characterize mainstream life in Israel, such as war and terrorism, post traumatic stress, immigration of Russian and Ethiopian Jews, violence in  the family, divorce, and other family crises, including death and dying.
In 1977 I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for academic excellence, which allowed me to engage in  a post doctorate internship at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, where I lectured and treated patients. Over the years I have written several books and articles on my clinical work and have also lectured abroad extensively, in Europe and North America.
 
As for philanthropic endeavours, Orly and I have been extensively involved with two major organizations and have contributed significantly to their efforts to help others. We have supported several golf tournaments for Ezer Mizion, a non profit medical organization in Israel which has saved over 5000 cancer patients internationally through its stem cell registry, which is the largest Jewish stem cell registry in the world.
Ezer Mizion  offers both physical and psychological care on both the civilian and military fronts. In addition to its stem cell registry, it has a hotel called Oranit in Petach Tikvah, which hosts – free of charge, cancer patients and their families who live far from treatment facilities in central Israel and who cannot afford to travel on a daily basis for treatment. Ezer Mizion is also intensively involved in the present war effort, caring for and transporting wounded soldiers and their families, and providing meals for them when they are hospitalized.
The Zaka organization identifies bodies of  people killed in unnatural deaths caused by terrorism, war, earthquakes and similar incidents. They were intimately involved in identifying corpses following the horrific massacre of October 7th last year in southern Israel.
 
In closing, I would like to refer to our current war and the prevailing national trauma. My father once said that there were two major principles for life he learned from chess:

  1. There are no positions so bad that you can’t eventually win.
  2. There are also no positions so good that you can’t eventually lose.
     
    The first principle is relevant to our present national trauma and so I bring today a message of hope. In spite of the present difficult situation and imminent threats we face, we as a people and nation have survived millenia in the face of overwhelming threats and we shall  continue to persist and survive!

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