British Columbia Magazine

Visitors to the Vancouver Aquarium over the coming weeks will see a tower of canned salmon and tuna to rival any grocery-aisle display. The massive Ocean Wise Canstruction Inukshuk, on display through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, was devised to show Olympic spirit while highlighting Canada’s Ocean Wise sustainable seafood program.

[photo: Meighan Makarchuk/Vancouver Aquarium]

Twenty aquarium staff members and 25 volunteers put in more than 400 person hours to construct the sculpture. It’s roughly three metres tall and about half that wide, made entirely of Ocean Wise-recommended tinned fish donated by Vancouver-based Raincoast Trading. The inukshuk symbol, a traditional marker for the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic, inspired the official logo of the 2010 Winter Games.

How many cans did it take to make the inukshuk? Stay tuned. The Vancouver Aquarium’s CAN You Guess Contest runs until February 13. Guess the correct number of cans and you could win two tickets to an Olympic speed-skating event at the Richmond Olympic Oval, courtesy of BC Hydro. Enter in person at the Vancouver Aquarium, or online at www.visitvanaqua.org.

When the installation is dismantled, the cans of fish will be donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society for distribution in the community. The sculpture was created in cooperation with Canstruction Vancouver, the local chapter of a design/build competition that encourages creation of giant canned-food sculptures to help fight world hunger.

Here is a contest our ski-loving readers shouldn’t miss.

Enter the Great Mountain Giveaway today for a chance to win a five-day ski vacation in British Columbia for you and 19 friends.

The lucky winner will get to choose his or her destination from a selection of 13 B.C. ski resorts, and will receive one day of exclusive access to the mountain’s ski runs: no lift lines! The prize package, which includes free accommodation, lift tickets, rentals, and return airfare for 20, is being billed as “the most exclusive ski experience ever.”

The contest, sponsored by Tourism British Columbia, closes March 1, 2010.

To celebrate British Columbia Magazine’s 50th anniversary this summer, we invited readers to share their top recommended things to do in B.C.—for a chance to win some amazing travel prizes.  To our absolute delight, thousands of you took the time to reflect, dream, and write about your favourite B.C. experiences.  Today, with great pleasure, we announce the lucky winners of our special 50th anniversary Share Your B.C. contest.

Grand prize: A luxurious three-night getaway for two at Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, a premier “eco safari” retreat on Vancouver Island’s west coast.

Winner: Frederick Donnelly of Rothesay, NB

2nd Prize: A unique three-night experience for two with Spirit Bear Adventures in B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest, sanctuary of white bears and authentic Kitasoo culture.

Winner: Garrett Baker of Victoria, BC

3rd Prize: A four-day Rocky Mountaineer Classic Rail Vacation for two in award-winning GoldLeaf Service.

Winner: Tony Berry of Surrey, BC

4th prize: A four-day B.C. Ferries North Coast vacation package for two by land, sea, and air, including BC Ferries’ Inside Passage Cruise.

Winner:  Jerry Fazakas of Regina, SK

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to our contest sponsors for making our 50th contest so exciting.

Most of all, thank you to all who took the time to enter our contest.  Close to 1,000 of your submissions are now a part of our permanent online Share Your B.C. adventure database, which can be searched by activity or location. More are being processed and uploaded each week, creating a wonderful, free online resource of insiders’ travel tips about the very best of British Columbia.

We continue to invite new entries at www.shareyourbc.com. All eligible submissions will be entered into our monthly draw for a chance to win a free one-year subscription to British Columbia Magazine. Visit today, and start planning your next B.C. adventure. 

Karen Davies of Victoria, winner of our Saltspring Island Getaway Contest, recently travelled to the southern Gulf Island with husband, Dai, to claim her prize. Karen and Dai met with resident artist/author Nick Bantock, creator of the bestselling Griffin & Sabine series of books, and subject of our Spring 2009 “Nick Bantock’s Saltspring” feature article. At Bantock’s airy Ganges studio, the threesome quickly fell into conversation about life, art, and politics.

“We were really surprised at Nick’s down-to-earth nature and lack of ego,” said Karen. “He’s very stimulating to be with.”

The gallery has a “happy feel” that invites discovery, Karen observed. “We loved the texture of Nick’s work,” she added. ”He creates the sort of pictures you want to be involved with, rather than just look at. . . . Nick was also very generous in the way he told us about how he works.”

The winner’s prize also included a stay at the Harbour House Hotel and $50 in Saltspring currency. Karen used the colourful bills to buy herself two of Bantock’s out-of-print Griffin & Sabine books, which, of course, Bantock personally inscribed.

The next morning, the couple visited Saltspring’s famous Saturday market, then kayaked to nearby Chocolate Beach.  All in all, it was, Karen sighed, a “wonderful getaway.”

The fall months are a wonderful time to travel in British Columbia. With summer holidays over and children back in school, traffic is lighter on the highways, and many accommodation properties are offering enticing shoulder-season rates.

Need some travel ideas? British Columbia Magazine’s Share Your B.C. adventure database is a great online resource. Hundreds of travellers just like you have entered their favourite experiences around the province.

You can search the database in several ways. Choose a region, such  as the Okanagan, to review all activities entered for that area, or focus in on activities closest to a particular town. Or, you can search by activity—say, paddling—and see recommended canoeing and kayaking destinations all over B.C.

We launched our B.C. adventure database to mark the 50th anniversary of British Columbia Magazine in June 2009, in conjunction with an exciting Share Your B.C. Contest. We’ve now drawn four names from all entries submitted and will announce the lucky winners of our travel-adventure prizes as soon as their eligibility (and all that legal-schmegal) has been confirmed. Stay tuned!

It’s time to say goodbye to summer. It’s always a sad farewell, as we fold up our patio umbrellas and relegate our flip-flops and shorts to the back of the closet. But for readers of British Columbia Magazine, there is reason to embrace the change of seasons . . .

A new issue!

A new contest!

SNEAK PEAK: OUR LANDMARK 200TH ISSUE

The Fall 2009 edition has just come off the press. It’s a great package of stories and photographs to rev your engine for fall adventure, beginning with a small-town tour up the Sea-to-Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler—literally, the road to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Associate Editor Jenny Manzer profiles Horseshoe Bay, Porteau Cove, Britiannia Beach, and more! Plus, this issue’s featured travel destination is sporty Squamish, a Sea-to-Sky hot spot for climbing, paddling, hiking, biking, and kiteboarding.

Other highlights of the Fall 2009 issue:

* Biologists working deep in grizzly country.

* Gerry Bracewell, our Annie Oakley of the Chilcotin.

* A visit to Klemtu, land of the “spirit bear.”

* And a paddling trip through the lush Columbia wetlands.

YOU COULD WIN!

Coinciding with the launch of our new Fall 2009 issue, we also launch a new Share Your B.C. monthly prize draw. Visit www.ShareYourBC.com to search our online database of hundreds of B.C. travel recommendations, submitted by travellers just like you.

Contribute your own “Top Thing to Do in B.C.” and you’ll have a chance to win a FREE one-year subscription to British Columbia Magazine. We’ll be giving away one every month for a year.

Later this month, we’ll announce the lucky winners of our 50th-anniversary Share Your B.C. summer sweepstakes draw, which closed September 8, 2009. Stay tuned!

Editorial staff never know what they’ll be asked to do—it’s part of the fun of working on a magazine. For our two new billboards in downtown Vancouver and a video spot now running on BC Ferries’ customer-information monitors, Associate Editor Jenny Manzer contributed . . . her legs.

Art Director Ken Seabrook designed the delightful ad, and Assistant Editor Shanna Baker photographed Manzer’s gams.

Manzer, better known for her editing and writing skills than her work as a leg model, notes wryly, “When Shanna pulled me into Ken’s office, where the rest of the staff had gathered, I knew something ominous was about to happen.”

Manzer may have been a tad reluctant to pose for the ad, but as rockers ZZ Top famously crooned, “She’s got legs . . . she knows how to use them.”

Thanks for being such a good sport, Jenny!

Click here to learn more about that exciting contest.

I had a chance to chat recently with the always-entertaining Nick Bantock at his Saltspring studio/gallery, The Forgetting Room. The creator of the best-selling Griffin & Sabine series of books, whom I profiled in our Spring 2009 “Nick Bantock’s Saltspring” article, was hosting an opening reception for an exhibition of his drawings for a new Penguin edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 

While talking to Bantock about our Summer 2009 50th-anniversary editorial, “50 things to do before you die,” I couldn’t resist asking him to share one of his own top B.C. experiences. Here’s his colourful reply:

“I love the island I live on, so it’s hard to choose a favourite B.C. place outside of Saltspring, but I’m going to try. A few years ago, I had my birthday dinner on the restaurant balcony overlooking the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C. At sunset, the shadows chased across the landscape like blue-clad Cossack horsemen. The sky glowed orange and the honeysuckle released its evening scent. With a belly full of fine food, a glass of great wine in hand, and kind love by my side, I knew I had been made Tsar.”

Click here to view the 10 drawings and cover artwork Bantock created for the re-release of The Canterbury Tales.

Visit ShareYourBC.com and tell us your favourite thing to do in B.C. for a chance to win–more than $23,000 in travel adventure prizes! Entry deadline: Sept. 8, 2009.

“I never win anything!”

That’s what Karen Davies told Promotions Coordinator Jane Nahirny when the Victoria resident learned she’d won our Saltspring getaway prize package. Thanks to her newfound good luck, Davies will get to meet artist and illustrator Nick Bantock during her upcoming getaway to the southern Gulf Island.

Known worldwide for his Griffin & Sabine books, Bantock collaborated with Nahirny to produce “Nick Bantock’s Saltspring” for British Columbia Magazine’s Spring 2009 issue. You can read the whole article here, and view the original art Bantock created for the story in our online photo gallery.

Davies and her husband will enjoy a one-night stay at the Harbour House Hotel overlooking Ganges Harbour, and will meet the artist for a personal tour of Bantock’s Saltspring gallery, the Forgetting Room. And, no doubt, they’ll devise some enjoyable ways to spend the $200 in Saltspring currency that was part of their prize. Perhaps a few treasures at the famous Saturday market in Ganges.

For Davies and her husband, the win was sweet for another reason: they’re both celebrating their 50th birthdays this year. How appropriate, as we at British Columbia Magazine mark the publication’s 50th anniversary this year as well.

Congratulations to our winner!

I had an amusing thought this morning. British Columbia Magazine has been in publication longer than I’ve been alive. ☺

It is an honour to be the editor in 2009, the magazine’s 50th year of publication. And I have never been more excited about an upcoming issue than I am about the Summer 2009 edition.

Our editorial team has put together a true collector’s issue for this landmark occasion. I believe that our “50 Things to Do in B.C. Before You Die” editorial package will surprise and delight even those most dedicated subscribers who have been with us since the first issue in Summer 1959. Look for it on newsstands in mid-June.

This 50th anniversary isn’t just about the magazine; it’s also about you, our loyal and enthusiastic readers—the people who know this province, love it, and take every opportunity to explore it. And we want to hear from YOU in our anniversary year, about the places you’ve been and amazing things you’ve done.

That’s why we’ve created our new Share Your B.C. adventure database, a place for readers and travellers to post their favourite B.C. experiences. Visit www.ShareYourBC.com to search the many entries by specific activity or location. Enter your own “Top Thing to Do in B.C.” and you could be eligible to win one of four incredible B.C. travel packages, each ranging in value from $2,300 to $9,500. Don’t miss out!

See the full prize list and complete contest details at www.ShareYourBC.com/contest