How one Torontonian is grappling with rising food prices, inside a clifftop cabin in Quebec, your guide to the Eastern Townships and more |
| Bread Lines in Canada’s Richest City | Like other Torontonians, I’m starting to notice the proliferation of food bank lineups throughout the city. I regularly pass by churches, community centres and little storefronts with massive queues. The lines look like people are waiting outside to snag concert tickets or to enter a pop-up store to buy sought-after merchandise. But the people in line are actually collecting grocery staples, trying to avoid going hungry. Just a few years ago, before inflation skyrocketed and rent was more affordable, the Daily Bread Food Bank serviced roughly 65,000 clients a month through its network of 128 community organizations in Toronto. This spring, that number more than quadrupled to 270,000. Goldie Wallensky, a precariously housed 69-year-old on a fixed income, has become an expert on where to go on which days of the week to pick up Kraft macaroni, eggs and Campbell’s soup. “If I didn’t have access to these programs, I would starve,” she tells Maclean’s in this memoir of her food bank use. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief | | |
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| | HEALTH CARE | | The real cost of “birth tourism” in Canada | There’s been a rise in the number of pregnant women arriving from outside the country to deliver in Canadian hospitals. So-called “birth tourism” is not illegal, but it’s putting pressure on the country’s already taxed health care system. Last year, a research team conducted the country’s first in-depth study on birth tourism in Alberta. Simrit Brar, an OB-GYN at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre, was part of that team. Here, she describes what she and her colleagues are seeing. | |
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| | HABITAT | | A filmmaker built this wood cabin from scratch on a cliff in Quebec | When filmmaker Sacha Roy bought this clifftop, one-acre property near Wakefield, Quebec, in 2016, he couldn’t wait to turn it into a weekend getaway—a place to recuperate from his globe-trotting professional adventures. But a year after building his cabin escape (with no construction background and his very first set of tools) he went against his original plan, deciding instead to live there permanently. “I fell in love with it,” says Roy. “I couldn’t stop trying to make it better.” | |
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| | Where to eat, drink, play and stay in Quebec’s Eastern Townships | | TRAVEL | Nestled along the Canada–U.S. border, the Eastern Townships, or Les Cantons-de-l’Est, blend English and French-Canadian culture with local food, wine, art and music. The Townships have long been a destination for outdoor enthusiasts and wellness seekers—visitors can luxuriate in surreal outdoor spa experiences, thanks to the area’s lakes, rivers and mountain ranges—but hip new wine bars and distilleries have transformed the region into a contemporary all-season haven. Here, a selection of standout spots to savour while exploring the Townships’ natural beauty. | |
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