PROFILE City Take the middle ground in... WINNIPEG Suggest a tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building


The Canadian Museum of Human Rights (left of pic) T


his is a big year for Winnipeg’s capital, with the unveiling of two new major tourism


attractions, writes Steve Hartridge. Canada’s eighth-largest city – situated in the geographic centre of North America – is best known as a starting point for those heading up to Churchill to see polar bears and the Northern Lights but visitors will be encouraged to stay longer when the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (humanrights.ca) welcomes its first visitors on September 20 and the city's zoo (assiniboineparkzoo. ca) opens a major new exhibit on July 3.


A journey from dark to light Many years in the making, the only museum in the world devoted to the concept of human rights promises to ‘take visitors on a journey from dark to light’. The Guggenheim-style building is a kilometre high from bottom to top and consists of 10 galleries – but unusually it will feature just 250 static artefacts and


“Unlock the 'symbols and secrets' of Winnipeg's capitol building by joining the Hermetic Code tour”


exhibits. Instead, the visitor experience will be mainly ‘technology driven’ and includes a 360-degree theatre. Visitors will experience stories based around 'equality', 'freedom' and 'democracy' – looked at from a Canadian perspective. The interactive galleries will focus on themes such as ‘Women’s Rights’, 'Labour Rights’, ‘Holocaust’, ‘Genocides’ and ‘Legal Frameworks’, although the largest space will be given over to the ‘History of Canadian Civil Rights’. The museum is located at The Forks, Winnipeg’s ‘meeting place’, close to the city’s train station, so suggest it to those clients taking Via Rail’s transcontinental The Canadian service, which stops in Winnipeg for several hours. Once a 'gathering site' for Aboriginal


groups, European fur traders, Metis buffalo hunters and thousands of immigrants, today The Forks is a place of family-focused activities, such as the Variety Heritage Adventure Park. Or look for a piece of prairie art at the Forks Market.


Wonders of the North Across town the city’s zoo, located in the attractive Assiniboine Park, introduced Wonders of the North: Journey


Join a Hermetic Code tour for Da Vinci Code-style revelations


to Churchill this summer. Stars of the show are four polar bears – Hudson, Storm, Kaska and Aurora – along with seals, caribou, muskoxen, Arctic foxes and snowy owls in a habitat designed to mirror their natural surroundings. As they walk through a 'Sea Ice Passage' visitors see the polar bears swimming above them; they can learn about polar bear research being conducted at the Polar Bear Conservation Centre. Elsewhere in the city the impressive Manitoba Legislative Building is shrouded in intrigue. Winnipeg has its own version of the Da Vinci Code and visitors can ‘unlock the symbols and secrets’ of the legislative building by joining a Hermetic Code Tour.


Activities and festivals Other popular activities include The Loop, a 9.5 km walking trail that takes visitors past nearly 50 of Winnipeg’s historic, cultural, architectural and modern-day attractions; experiencing Winnipeg’s French Quarter on an Old Boniface tour; and enjoying sweeping views of the city’s skyline from Prairie 260, a revolving restaurant atop Fort Garry Place.


The Esplanade Riel, a bridge connecting Winnipeg with St. Boniface, is the only bridge in North America to have a restaurant located on it – the French-themed Chez Sophie. Winnipeg doesn’t fall short when it comes to major annual festivals. The first Winnipeg Folk Festival was held in 1974 to mark the city's 100th anniversary. Today, the five-day festival (July 9-13) is one of the largest folk festivals in North America, with over 70 acts and more than 80,000 visitors. Expect Indian curries, Belgian beer, Argentinian tango, Cuban mojitos and much more at Folklorama (August 3-16). Canada’s longest-running festival of multiculturalism is staged at various sites across the city.


STAR DEAL frontier-canada.co.uk


020 8776 8709 Three nights at the Delta Winnipeg, included as part of a tour that feaures The Canadian train (economy class) from Toronto, starts from £435. The deal includes the Hermetic Code tour in Winnipeg, but not international flights.


SELLING CANADA • SUMMER 2014 09


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