December 2000 - Nr. 12
Fairs and Affairs
Urban Renewal
The Central Ontario Export Club had a meeting on November 22 in the Albany Club Toronto. The President Mr. Janthur of DEPAG was proud to introduce as the guest speaker Marlene J. Coffey, the coordinator for Hamilton Downtown Revitalisation Community Corporation, a Hamilton Downtown Partnership, inviting all sorts of people to take another look at Hamilton for business and development purposes. All sorts of innovative incentives are available to make this an interesting proposition, which include a Convert/Renovate to Rent Loan Program, a Commercial Property Improvement Loan Program, A Community Heritage Trust Fund and several other Heritage Programs. There also is a very attractive Tax Incentive Program for historic sites and a ten-year rebate for property owners from the city of Hamilton. A summer initiative has created much interest already in this urban renewal program with an award winning advertising program.
As the third largest urban centre in Canada, and with the
already low prices for even prime footage, Hamilton could be the best
solution for business and industry looking for new premises outside of the
GTA. Why not call Marlene J. Coffey at (905) 546-0003 to find out more about
this exciting new way to revitalize downtown Hamilton and the initiative to
reduce excessive commercial taxes; important words indeed for an investment
in the future!
Royal Winter Fair
If you like horses you were no doubt at the Royal Canadian
Winter Fair, which had like every year some great highlights that have
become a tradition with Canadians. Some people will go to visit the petting
zoo and do some shopping. Others go to give their children a chance to see
all sorts of farm animals close up or to goggle the huge pumpkins. Some go
just to be seen at one or the other black tie gala, and others yet truly
enjoy sitting in a box and watch some fine riders do a jumping event that is
by no means an easy course. In the best of traditions a bunch of ladies met
in a ring front box and soaked up the adventure of seeing Canada’s
greatest horseman close up. Ian Millar came through with a fine effort, as
did his son, but at the end of the day they had to give top honours to
another country, or was it just the usual polite Canadian way that caused
them to abdicate?!
But none of this disturbed our 4 ladies who put in some
shopping time and reportedly went home with some real treasure from the
antique dealers. I instead admired once more the garden exhibits, which are
each year my prime reason for visiting the Royal Winter Fair. This year I
liked "Dune" the best, a huge sand sculpture of three Wales on a
bed of stone that spelled water in almost every language known to man. The
designer was artist Stephen Cruise, no relation to Tom, who thought very
long about how to represent water, this years show theme, in his
presentation. He actually had something quite different planned, but there
was not enough sponsorship available for it. So he had to rethink his
approach to the theme. With only a few weeks to go before the fair he was
surfing the net and looking at sites showing sand castles, who builds the
best and how it is done. This intrigued him enough and he came up with a
technique to create this incredible installation. Unfortunately it will not
survive the fair. It just cannot be moved. While it was there it proved to
be a favourite place for many people who were observed leaving their
footprints or hand marks on the mounds of sand surrounding these great Blue
Wales. And of course this concept with the strong communication won the
artist top honours!
Another award winning garden exhibit showed a Lily pond with
a romantic and very organic looking sculpture of maidens and fish, which
delicately spouted water. Yet another garden display sported two fountains
ejecting water like an arch over a walkway bridging a pond.
From the
beautifully landscaped escarpment a huge turtle crawled out of its shell, or
so it looked. In fact it was a sculpture nearly come to life!
Another garden was of a more adventures and wild jungle type. We see a section of a very exotic jungle, parts of an airplane, a pond and other paraphernalia like a Para shoot to shade the stranded but unseen pilot from the tropical sun. This scene was produced imaginatively by a company, which also creates backdrops, scenes and whole environments for the film and television industry.
In between the exploration of the royal Winter Fair our four
ladies were seen refreshing themselves in front of the beautiful Toronto
Trade Centre, soaking up the last rays of sun, testing the hot chestnuts,
all against a background of the reflected Canadian flag.
next >>>
Concert Season
Book Find
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Remembrance
Comments to: sfr@echoworld.com
Sybille reports:
- Christmas Fair
- Queen's Park Visit
- Remembrance
- Urban Renewal
- Royal Winter Fair
- Concert Season
- Book Find
