Go to Toronto

One of the annual winter rituals for my wife and I is skiing. The GTA is relatively flat and downward ski slopes are not easy to find. Fortunately, reasonably interesting slopes are not difficult to find within driving distance. For our first Canadian ski trip, we went to Mount St. Louis Moonstone.

Located in Coldwater, Ontario (how cool is the name!), Mt. St. Louis is just a little more than an hour away from Toronto. Take Hightway 400 North and get off at Exit 131, you have arrived the ski resort. The resort has 2 base camps but they both have acces to the same hills. The Mount St. Louis camp has easier access to bunny slopes whereas the Moonstone camp covers larger area of blue and black diamonds. Interestingly though, I personally feel the blue diamonds on the Moonstone side are less as steep as the ones over on the Mt. St. Louis side.

Take the Summit Six Express lift from the Mt. St. Louis camp to the hilltop and you can snap a very nice picture of the surrounding area before you descend downhill.

From the other camp, the Promenade Six Express lift takes you to he Big Lonely trail, which is one of the most romantic trail of the hill.

I’m not a very avid skiier, so I started my day with a warm up of Sundance, then Holiday and the Big Lonely before doing a few more blue diamond trails on both hills. The day was a great fun and the trip was a reasonable one-day getaway although the lack of equipment rentals near the resort by locals practically gives the resort a monopoly.

Moving from Boston to Toronto, all-you-can-eat sushi is quite an oasis in a dessert. There are sushi buffet, but all-you-can-eat style saves you the hassle of constantly going out to the buffet carts, avoiding interruption of conversations - which is what eating out with friends really about. So for my birthday, my friends suggested Ten-Ichi Japanese Cuisine in Scarborough.

Located quite conveniently on Sheppard Avenue East between McCowan Road and Markham Road, Ten-Ichi is a full-house every weekend. Be sure to call ahead for reservation, or you are most likely out of luck. They only have 2 time slots for all-you-can-eat reservation (6 pm & 8 pm on weekends). If you make reservation for 6 pm, you have to leave by 8 pm. So for gatherings, I suggest you go for the 8 pm option so that you are not choosing between food or conversation.

Their all-you-can-eat dinner is just slightly less than $23 per adult on weekends. Considering their quality of service and food, it is well worth the money. We had a small party but even so, the sushi chefs have 2 sushi boats ready for us before we were seated. Did I say we didn’t even order?! This is amazingly thoughtful! After an hour long wait watching all kinds of food passing by you, the first thing you want after you are seated is just eat! Their menu boasts all kinds of sushi, maki, sashimi, and even teppan. There are dessert, too! The beauty of their desserts is that they come in small portion just right for sampling all of them!

Personal favorites: Spider Maki and Mango Shooters

Ten-Ichi Japanese Cuisine
4810 Sheppard Ave. East, Scarborough
416-297-5787

Ontario is famous for its Icewine. I have visited 3 wineries this half year and they all produce Vinters Quality Alliance (VQA) quality Icewine. The tours themselves are all unique, but who cares about the tour, we all just want the tasting!

When you get off the QEW onto Niagara Stone Road, your are in the wine region of Ontario. After about 11 km, you’ll see a very modern boxy structure on your right. That’s Jackson Triggs, our first winery. They are a mid-size operation but with very fine Icewine. Their tour is an affordable $5. The tour guide is very informative. While they may not take you to the field, they take you to the production facility (fermentation sticks…) and their cellar. You get to taste 3 of their wines - a white, a red, and an Icewine. Personal favorite: Gewurztraminer (Proprietors’ Grand Reserve).

After you get back on Niagara Stone Road, continue to Niagara-on-the-lake and you’ll meet John Street less than a kilometer away. Take a right for slightly less than 2 km, you’ll arrive our next destination, the Peller Estate. They are one of the largest in the region that can consistently produce Icewine year after year. Their tasting tour is also an affordable $5. They take you to the field as well as their showcase cellar, where you’ll have your tasting of three wines - a white, a red, and an Icewine. If you ask, the tour guide will even take you through, step by step, how to taste wine so that you look like an expert next time you go to a restaurant. Oh! Don’t forget to try all of their Icewines at the tasting bar. Personal favorites: Vidal and their Icewine jam.

Continue southeast on John Street. At about half a kilometer, there you’ll meet Niagara River Boulevard. Take a right and cruise along. Take the time to stop by and take some photos or walk along the river. This is the best Sunday afternoon drive according to Sir Winston Churchill - Yes! That Winston Churchill during World War II. After slightly less than 3 km on the boulevard, you’ll arrive our final winery, the Reif Estate. This is a large production. I only visited their tasting bar and shop and bought a bottle of Icewine Carbenet Franc.

In tonight’s English debate, Jack Layton said something that really showed his lack of economic understanding. And it goes something like this, “I can’t think of anything you make with wood you couldn’t make here.” on the issue of job loss.

Ask any economist, he or she will tell you that just because we can make furnitures doesn’t mean that we should make furnitures. One country’s specialization in international trade is based on comparative advantage. In other words, we do it not just because we can, but because we can do it better (and in today’s economy, that usually means cheaper) than others. This is what will attract investment. This is what will help us compete in the world. Look at what happen to our automotive industry, an industry that we totally can do it, but we can’t because we don’t have comparative advantage anymore.

Jack Layton and the NDPs are clueless on the economy. They don’t understand economics. Even the idea of them being the official opposition sends a chill down my back!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20080920.wsarkozy20/BNStory/National/home

Quebec will soon sign an agreement with France that provides labor mobility to their citizens. This will set a tone for the upcoming Canada-EU free trade negotiation, and if succeed, will provide citizens of the two jurisdictions free labor mobility. This is both exciting and visionary. As I study the more on the topic of trade, I become an advocate of free labor mobility as a solution for changing economies.

This is an especially good news for people in the knowledge-based economy. As jobs demand more and more highly-specialized skills like science, technology, and finance, and shift in the economy will make it particularly painful for highly-skilled workers to adjust. Not all Ph.D. in biology can be retrained into a CFA. And you’ll be scared to have an i-banker retrained to work in the lab likewise. By giving labor the ability to move to other regions or countries where their skills are needed, the knowledge and experience will not be lost.

Certainly, how well this works out depends on what the two countries have to offer each other. But this certainly is a good first step towards a broader labor mobility agreement between EU and Canada.