Efforts in Thompson, Man., to rebrand the northern Manitoba city as the "wolf capital" of Canada has some debating whether the new title would actually work.

There is a push to find a new identity for Thompson, which has been known as a violent crime capital.

Last week, Thompson hosted the first International Wolf and Carnivore Conference, attracting about 100 scientists and other delegates from five countries.

"We found a world fascinated in wolves, and we began to realize there's an opportunity here we didn't recognize before," said Volker Bechmann, the conference's organizer.

Bechmann said he thinks Thompson's wolves could get tourists flocking to the city, in the same way Churchill attracts people with polar bears and beluga whales.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/10/30/mb-thompson-wolf-capital-debate.html

In Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s recurring complaints about a cash-strapped city hall, a new potential source to tap emerged Tuesday: tourism.

At a Chamber of Commerce luncheon speech Tuesday, Nenshi grumbled about how visitors don’t directly contribute to city coffers, even though city coffers contribute to tourism promotion.

“When you think of it from a pure selfish City of Calgary municipal government perspective, we actually get nothing from tourism,” he told the crowd after delivering his city status update.

“Isn’t that a terrible thing to say? When the tourists come into the city, we don’t get sales tax from them — that’s the federal government — we don’t get a hotel tax from them — that’s the hotel industry. Yet we fund tourism.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Mayor+covets+tourist+dollars/7473011/story.html

OTTAWA - The iconic images on Canada's new passports, unveiled with fanfare last week, short-change women and multicultural communities, says a report ordered by Passport Canada.

The passport agency hired a survey firm to "disaster check" more than a dozen of the watermark images on the pages of new passports being introduced next year, to ensure nothing offensive would be released.

Eight focus groups assembled in four cities last April found nothing "inappropriate or disturbing," but almost all said the choice of images failed to reflect Canada's diversity.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/newly-unveiled-epassport-images-lack-women-diversity-focus-groups-176480571.html

Ontario tourism operators, gathering for a meeting in Thunder Bay this week, say government cuts are hurting the industry in the north.

The owner of a fishing lodge on Red Lake said the province’s decision earlier this year to close tourism information centres may seem like a harmless way to cut costs but, she said, it’s not.

"We just would like it if people wouldn't kick us in the shins, you know," Brenda Baughman said during the annual Nature and Outdoor Tourism Conference.

"When you're a person coming in and you see ... those big signs that say 'closed', it makes it look like nobody wants you," she said.

Doug Reynolds, the executive director of Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario agrees.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/10/31/tby-tourism-noto.html

The final 6,200 kilometres of the Trans Canada Trail are targeted to be open for Canada’s 150th birthday on July 1, 2017, the project’s national director told delegates at the recent Transportation Association of Canada annual conference.

“When complete, the Trans Canada Trail will stretch 23,000 kilometres from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans, linking 1,000 communities and all Canadians,” said Jane Murphy, national director for the Trans Canada Trail. “It will be the longest and grandest recreational trail in the world.”

In 1992, the idea was formulated to take the historic routes, paths, waterways, rail lines and roads which wind across Canada and join them to form a national recreational trail. Today, the trail is 73 per cent complete and is accessible to 80 per cent of Canadians.

“The trail is attracting growing national and international attention as a must-visit recreation and tourism destination,” Murphy said.

http://dcnonl.com/article/id52573/--trans-canada-trail-completion-by-2017-will-require-major-construction-and-engineering

Atlantic City's 12 waterfront casinos came through the superstorm largely unharmed, and many say they could reopen within hours, if need be.

But that's not going to happen; New Jersey casino regulators plan to visit each of the gambling halls on Wednesday before deciding when they can all reopen.

"Even though we could all re-open within 24 hours if we wanted to, the bigger question is the infrastructure: access roads, power and the situation in the local communities where our employees and our customers live," said Tony Rodio, president of the Tropicana Casino and Resort, and head of the Casino Association of New Jersey. "There's no sense opening if we can't get people in here."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/atlantic-city-casinos-emerge-from-superstorm-largely-unscathed-await-reopening-date-from-nj-176519491.html

AMSTERDAM - The incoming Dutch government has ditched plans for a national "weed pass" that would have been available only to residents and that would have effectively banned tourists from Amsterdam's marijuana cafes.

However, under a provisional governing pact unveiled this week, cities can bar foreigners from weed shops if they choose.

The pact says that it wants only Dutch residents to have access to marijuana cafes, but leaves enforcement up to cities. Amsterdam opposes a ban, which would hurt tourism.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/dutch-nix-weed-pass-plan-leave-it-up-to-cities-to-bar-foreigners-from-buying-marijuana-176454311.html

Complete: NEW YORK, N.Y. - Booooo! Not even the ghosts and goblins are safe from Sandy.

The annual Village Halloween Parade scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled, its website says. That's the first time in its four-decade history. The parade usually draws 50,000 to 60,000 wildly dressed residents and tourists for a spirited march through the lower part of Manhattan. But large parts of lower Manhattan are without power following the superstorm. This year's parade theme was "Tick tock" and the final year of the Mayan calendar, with "visions apocalyptic."

A call to the parade's producing director, Jeanne Fleming, went unanswered.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/in-wake-of-storm-nycs-village-halloween-parade-cancelled-1st-time-in-39-year-history-176519561.html

Superstorm Sandy grounded more than 18,000 flights across the Northeast and the globe, and it will take days before travel gets back to normal.

According to the flight-tracking service FlightAware, more than 7,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday alone. Delays rippled across the U.S., affecting travellers in cities from San Francisco to Atlanta. Some passengers attempting to fly out of Europe and Asia also were stuck.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/sandy-shuts-down-northeast-airports-travellers-could-be-stuck-for-days-176544031.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Oct.  '47)

"St. Boniface council is 100 per cent, behind the proposed new highway from Emerson to Winnipeg if it is to pass through our municipality," Mayor George Mac- Lean said Friday. A letter to this effect was mailed Oct. 17 to Hon. Errick F. Willis, minister of public works, but no 'reply had yet been received, he added. The letter in part reads: "In regard to the road leading from our limits to Norwood bridge, it is all paved with the exception of a small portion of roadway which the Winnipeg Electric company use for operating their cars. We have their promise that they will be putting their buses over this route during 1948 and therefore would be right in saying that the whole of the roadway, if not now, will be paved." The mayor pointed out the council's scheme to straighten out the roadway leading into Winnipeg from the St. Boniface end of the Norwood bridge had been completed "making a wonderful improvement at the entrance from St. Boniface to Winnipeg via Norwood bridge." Mayor MacLean felt this route was the most logical one "as it directly into Winnipeg, particularly to the heart of the business district through south Main street which at the moment has less traffic than any portions of Winnipeg.”