The Legislative Assembly of Ontario – the seat of the provincial government, is situated in Queen's Park. The building was built between 1886 and 1892 in the Romanesque Revival style heavily influence by northern Italian architecture. So it is a Victoria building; heavy and brown. Free guided tours were offered. The tour wasn’t very long and not exactly in depth. We had to be escorted all the time for obvious reasons, so we weren’t able to spend any time looking at the exhibits, which was a shame. The original building was built in oak. Unfortunately workmen left the stove burning and fire swept through the west wing in 1909. The restored wing was then built of marble, much less combustible. The highlight of the tour was being able to go into the Chamber. There are public galleries but the general public isn’t allowed in on the ground floor. What’s more, taking photos was permitted. The tour itself was interesting but I did get a bit irritated when the guide kept saying "England" when she really should be saying “United Kingdom”. She also kept calling the Queen “Queen of England” until I said that she was also the Queen of Canada. You would have thought that someone working there would know better !
A bit of retail therapy in Chinatown afterwards
. There are many shops there selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Some I know what it was but there were a lot of things I didn’t have a clue in. It was very exciting.
A change of pace and we went exploring the PATH system a bit more. I mentioned earlier that I had wanted to buy some Ontario wine. Well, I have been looking and could not find any in supermarkets nor were there wine shops anywhere. The reason is that the Canadian government would like to control sales of alcohol and it could only be bought in specific shops. In Toronto, they are called LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). So you won’t be able to just nip down to the local shop and get four cans of beer. No, you have to traipse around town to find such stores. The is left over from prohibition and the corporation was set up in 1927. Anyway, there is such a store in the PATH system and we found it. Didn’t buy any because I had not idea what was what. But at least I got an idea of the prices; a bit higher than in the UK – generally about £8 - £9 a bottle.
When we travel, we always like to try local food. Canadian cooking is very varied and has in its basis a lot of different ethnic groups. But there is one thing that is uniquely Canadian, or more precisely, Quebecois – Poutine. It’s not exactly haute cuisine but it’s very filling – that’s not necessarily a good thing. Now that we have eaten it once, we don’t have to eat it again!
Government and a bit of retail therapy
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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2025-02-10
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Chinese foodie
2012-03-19
No wonder you didn't include a pic of poutine - looks disgusting on Wiki!