The D&O Diary was on travel last week in Canada, with the first stop in the Toronto, the country’s business and financial capital. Although the main purpose of my visit to Canada was to participate in business meetings and events, I did have a chance to look around while I was there.

The primary purpose of my Toronto visit was to participate as a panelist at a PLUS Canadian Chapter event, held in the Toronto Region Board of Trade building in the city’s financial district. It was a honor to be on the panel with two distinguished speakers, Wendy Berman of the McCarthy Tetrault law firm and Brian Rosenbaum of Aon Reed Stenhouse. It was also a great pleasure to be a part of this well-organized and well-attended event. I would like to thank the event planning committee — Nicole McAuley of the Forbes, Chochla, and Leon law firm; Alexis Rivait of AON; and Dounia Khalit of AON — for inviting to be a part of this very successful event. It was also great having the opportunity to meet and talk to so many members of the local professional liability insurance community. A really great bunch of people!

With my fellow panelists, Brian Rosenbaum and Wendy Berman
With the members of the event planning committee. From left to right, Dounia Khalia; Nicole McAuley; and Alexis Rivait.
Here’s a group shot of the team from Intact Insurance. From left to right: Hailey Kranics; Sarah Orford; Hunter Moxam; and Emily De Melo.
With Alexandra Biss of AIG.
With Kathy Fong of Marsh and Sarah Levine of AIG
With Samantha Rodrigues of HUB International
With the team from Travelers. From left to right: Ben Hall; Chris de Sousa Costa; Warren Patrick Cooney; Patrick Bellissimo; Celine Bain; and Maya Mitry.
With Jessica Cvetkovic and Jerusha Figlarz, both of AON.
Out to dinner after the event. From left to right: Nicole McAuley; Alexis Rivait; PLUS CEO Robbie Thompson; and Brian Rosenbaum.

Toronto is such a big, booming, prosperous city. At times during our visit, the city felt like one big construction site. The city is amazingly diverse as well. Prior to my visit, I saw a statistic that I almost couldn’t believe: more than half of the Toronto’s residents were born outside of Canada. The combination of prosperity and diversity makes the city interesting, textured, and, well, just different.

The first thing we did upon arrival in Toronto was to take the ferry (pictured above) to the Toronto Islands, a chain of 15 islands located just offshore of the city’s downtown area. (The preceding picture of the city skyline was taken from the ferry.) The interconnected islands include gardens, beaches, hiking trails, and bicycle paths.
An autumnal flower bed on Centre Island.
Although the city’s gleaming skyline tends to grab the attention, what makes the city so interesting is its numerous interesting neighborhoods and districts. One of these areas is the Distillery District, a pedestrianized and renovated area centered around a restored distillery. The district features beautifully restored Victorian-era industrial buildings, cobblestone streets, a variety of restaurants, art galleries, boutiques, and cafes.
One of the city’s great landmarks is the St. Lawrence Market, which is located in Toronto’s Old Town.
The market features a delightful array of meats, cheeses, vegetables, prepared foods, and artisanal crafts. An enjoyable place to see the local scene, and to pick up ingredients for a pleasant meal.
Not far from the city’s central business district and just beyond Chinatown is the eclectic and interesting district known as the Kensington Market. The district covers several square blocks and is inhabited by students, artists, and immigrants. Along the neighborhood’s streets is a wide variety of restaurants, cafes, vintage clothing stores, and specialty food shops. The area also has a lot of interesting street art.
This work of street art in the Kensington Market area is known, for obvious reasons, as the Garden Car. It is the most Toronto thing we encountered.
We also visited Fort York, a well-preserved historical site that commemorates a battle during the War of 1812 between British troops and American soldiers. The exhibits do a good job explaining the context as well as the details of a series of incidents that might otherwise be overlooked or even forgotten.
The last rose of summer? In St. James’s park.

After our visit to Toronto, we traveled next to Québec City, the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec, for a weekend visit. As it turned out, we were in Québec City for Canadian Thanksgiving, celebrated on Monday, which meant that the city was crowded with locals taking advantage of the three-day holiday weekend, further swelling the crowds from the several cruise ships that were docked in town during our visit.

The attraction of Québec City, and the reason we chose to spend the weekend there, is the city’s well-preserved historic district, known as Vieux-Québec, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stayed in the atmospheric Basse-Ville (lower city), which features pedestrianized streets, shops, restaurants, and cafés. There are also great views of the Chateau Frontenac, as shown above.
Street scene in the Basse-Ville.
A street of decorative umbrellas in the beautiful Basse-Ville.
From the bluffs at the top of the Haute-Ville (upper city), there are great views of the St. Lawrence river as well as of the Laurentian Mountains beyond. It was actually a bit of a challenge getting a picture of the view without one of the big ugly cruise ships in the picture.
On a beautiful fall day, it was a pleasure to walk in the Plains of Abraham, the site of the famous 1759 battle in which the British troops captured the city from the French. The fall colors were much further along than they were back home. The changing colors somehow seemed particularly important in a country that features a tree leaf on its national flag.
More fall colors. Here’s a tip for anyone traveling to Québec City anytime soon. In the middle of the Plains of Abraham, there is a very pleasant outdoor café with a terrace overlooking the rolling hills. We had a very nice lunch there.
One of the city’s interesting features it its well-preserved city walls. Québec City is the only walled city in North America north of Mexico. Visitors from the U.S. will be interested to learn that the defensive wall was built to keep out feared invading Americans. As the Toronto fort I described above testifies, the possibility of invading Americans was not a merely theoretical possibility. Though it was a real wall built for real defensive purposes, the gates, like the one depicted above, were built later for purely decorative purposes.
We were fortunate that on Saturday while we were visiting, there was a street art festival, with displays and performances throughout the old city.
This group of strolling musicians dressed as cats was particularly entertaining.
This group of performers did a sort of mime dance on stilts. It was kind of surreal but entertaining nonetheless.
This acrobat and juggler was the star of the show as far as we were concerned. It addition to being talented, she was also very funny, and managed to crack a series of jokes in two languages as she performed.
Here’s another note for anyone planning a visit to Québec City in the near future. In the Haute-Ville near the Chateau Frontenac is a Québécois restaurant named La Bouche, serving hearty food in a pleasant, comfortable atmosphere.
Another view of the Chateau from above.

We really enjoyed our brief visit to Quebec City. We have in fact visited the city before, but this trip was a reminder that there is this great place with a real European vibe, located right in the Eastern time zone. I highly recommend spending a weekend there. It is a beautiful and interesting place, and just a lot of fun.