U.S. travel agents chose Vancouver as the top Canadian travel destination for the ninth year in a row.

American travellers are “critically important” to Vancouver’s $4-billion a year tourism industry, representing about 20 per cent of hotel visits and one-quarter of the city’s 8 million overnight visitors, said Stephen Pearce, vice-president of leisure travel and digital marketing at Tourism Vancouver.

“It’s a nearby market with a great potential for repeat visitation,” Pearce said. “They become great fans of Vancouver and ambassadors for us.”

In a sluggish market, we need all the influences we can get, Pearce added.

“If we get travel agents who are fans of Vancouver, they’re playing a very important role for Americans doing travel planning,” Pearce said.

Travel trade publication Travel Weekly announced its Readers Choice Awards — selected by accredited U.S. travel agents — on Dec. 15. The awards are widely recognized as reflecting the professional opinion of travel agents who are not only avid travellers themselves, but also hear feedback every day from thousands of American consumers.

This accolade is a great way for Vancouver to end its 125th birthday celebrations this year, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a news release.

“The city is already renowned for its natural beauty and vibrant culture, and this award shows that we also have some of the best hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions in Canada,” Robinson said. “We will continue to build on our world-class reputation in the years to come and ensure that Vancouver remains a favoured destination among travellers worldwide.”

Dayna Miller, Tourism Vancouver’s director of sales, accepted the award in New York.

“These front-line agents can be extremely influential in their clients’ buying decision, and it’s gratifying to know they hold our city in such high esteem,” Miller said when accepting the award.

The Best in Destinations: Canada award is the latest in a list of honours that Vancouver has received over the years; other recent awards include being named one of the world’s most livable cities (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011) and top city in the Americas (Mercer’s annual Quality of Living survey, 2011), Tourism Vancouver said in a news release.

By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA — Whale enthusiasts are celebrating the arrival of a colourful Christmas baby for the endangered southern resident killer whales.

The calf, with characteristic pinky-orange patches, was spotted Saturday in Puget Sound by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and the birth was confirmed Wednesday.

As the calf had fetal folds when the first photos were taken, it is likely it had been born only hours earlier.

"We are really pleased to have another calf in the population," said administration wildlife biologist Brad Hanson.

"The numbers are slowly creeping up, but they're still a concern. They can drop back down just by losing a couple of animals."

The new calf is the third born in 2011 and brings the population in the three pods, which cruise the coast of southern Vancouver Island and Washington State, to 89 animals.

However, mortality rates for calves can be up to 50 per cent, so everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that the J-Pod calf, known as J-48, will make it through the winter.

Odds should be stacked on the side of J-48, said Susan Berta of Orca Network.

Mother is 39-year-old J-16, known as Slick. Her previous four calves have survived.

"The first calf always gets the biggest off-loading of toxic chemicals so this one should be getting pretty clean milk," Berta said.

The reason that later calves do not get so many contaminants is that there is less time for the mother to accumulate toxins from food, Hanson said.

Chinook salmon, the primary food for resident killer whales, are heavily contaminated with pollutants such as PCBs and flame retardants.

Other populations of fish-eating killer whales, such as the northern residents and Alaska populations, are recovering faster than the southern residents and researchers are comparing notes and looking for reasons, Hanson said.

"We're continuing to work on all fronts to figure out what factors contribute to that," he said.

Canada's killer whale recovery plans have pointed to lack of chinook salmon, pollution and noise as major factors.

The historic population of southern resident killer whales is believed to have been about 120 animals. The low was in 1973, when, after decades of hunting and captures, the number fell to 71.

Canada's living standards are improving faster compared to the United States, according to report that analyzes 15 years of economic data.

The report, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, evaluates labour productivity, real gross domestic product per capita and real gross national income per capita from the first quarter of 1997 to the first quarter of 2011.

While comparisons of labour productivity show that Canada has lagged 17 per cent behind the U.S., the two other measures show that Canada's living standards improved.

It's the other two measures — real GDP and GNI per capita — that paint a more comprehensive picture, argues analyst Ryan Macdonald, the author of the report.

Based on real GDP per capita, Canada's living standards improved 5 per cent relative to the U.S.

"A large part of the difference in the trajectories of labour productivity and GDP per capita between Canada and the United States has been because of better job growth in Canada," Macdonald said in the report.

"A larger proportion of the population that is working raises real GDP per capita. However, it also raises the number of hours worked, and therefore lowers labour productivity."

Based on real GNI per capita, Canada's living standards improved 12 per cent compared to south of the border.

Real GNI is a a measure of real income that focuses on what Canadians can buy with their income.

"Of the three measures considered for this study, real GNI offers the most comprehensive picture of a country's economic performance and changes in living standards," the report said.

If you’re looking to impress at Christmas time, nothing will do that better than a really expensive bottle. So if you have a spare $17,500 laying around, why not consider purchasing a bottle of Highland Park 50 Year Old, whisky that holds the distinction of being the most expensive bottle sold in B.C.

If it's wine you crave, think about a bottle of Taylor Fladgate Scion, a “magical” port that's the most expensive wine right now on BC Liquor Stores shelves. Just $3,500!

Still think that’s too much? Perhaps one of these other bottles, from a list of the most expensive wine and spirits in B.C., will do the trick. Information and availability are provided by the BC Liquor Distribution Branch.

When the school bells ring today signalling the start of Christmas holidays, it will be a joyful time for many kids.

Not so for students who are going home to places where there is not enough food to stretch through the holidays, let alone money for extras like a visit from Santa.

This week, London Drugs stepped in to play Santa for some of these kids, loading up a little convoy of vans and trucks to drop off toys for children who otherwise would have little cheer at Christmas.

“That week before Christmas is a tough one,” Margaret Jorgensen, principal at Strathcona elementary in Vancouver, told representatives from London Drugs who arrived at her school with huge bags of toys.

It was a refrain echoed by educators from Surrey to North Vancouver as the convoy stopped by schools that have shared their stories and their students’ needs with The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Adopt-a-School program.

“In the past, teachers have just noticed need in their classes and referred families,” said Carol Davison, principal at Surrey’s Forsyth Road elementary school. “This year we decided to send out a form because we were afraid we were missing people who could use the help and we were just overwhelmed by the stories.

“We’ve got a single mother with seven children; she’s a refugee and she’s unemployed. How is she going to provide Christmas for them?

“There are people who do seasonal work, dads who have been laid off ... people who are on disability, grandparents raising grandchildren. We don’t recognize sometimes that they really could use the help, so it’s great that the community is stepping up and being able to provide all this.”

While the Christmas season invariably stirs people to give, this year some of the educators on the London Drugs toy tour noted donations are down.

“It is getting tougher all over,” said Davison.

And the needs are year-round. Some of them are not so obvious — like the children who slip off their shoes to sit down and listen to stories at carpet time and it is only then their teachers realize they have walked to school in freezing temperatures with no socks.

Mary Higgins, merchandise manager at London Drugs, has been dropping off toys for needy children every year for the past 25 years. But this week marked the first time she has come face to face with the children she is helping and heard their stories that go far beyond simply needing a present for Christmas.

“This has been eye-opening for me,” said Higgins. “We have to protect these children.

“These children are the generations of our future.”

One of the stops was at CABE, Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education, where volunteers, including well-known Vancouver blogger Miss 604 — Rebecca Bollwitt — handed out toys for babies of teen moms in the program that is geared to vulnerable students.

“We appreciate everything that we get,” Vanessa Ellingson, mom and sole breadwinner for three-year-old Pablo and seven-month-old Marley said.“Everything that we get is something that we don’t have to buy.

“It puts more food on our tables.”

The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund has pledged to match dollar-for-dollar donations made to Adopt-a-School, up to $100,000.

gshaw@vancouversun.com

It’s pretty hard to imagine what Vancouver would look like without the North Shore mountains. Could you imagine Paris sans le Tour Eiffel, London without Buckingham Palace, or San Francisco disconnected from the Golden Gate?

Actually, it would be worse than that. For who, exactly, peers out the window of a downtown highrise on a gleaming winter’s day and marvels, “Gee, that Wall Tower sure is something!” The snow-clad mountain backdrop makes the creations of even the best-intentioned architect pale in comparison.

And to think that 175,000 lucky souls live there; spread between two districts (West Vancouver, North Vancouver), one city (North Vancouver), and Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations land. The Capilano River and watershed forms a natural boundary between West Vancouver and North Vancouver, but there are distinct neighbourhoods and commercial districts worthy of exploration.

“Every day a new adventure” might be the perfect phrase to describe what living on the North Shore is all about. (How many local newspapers hired an ‘adventure writer’ like North Van’s “Super Dave” Norona?)

The natural attractions are many – skiing, snowboarding, and hiking on Grouse, Cypress, and Mount Seymour, boating, kayaking, and canoeing on Indian Arm near Deep Cove, walking over the jiggling Lynn Canyon and Capilano Suspension bridges, fishing, golfing, mountain biking – it’s all here. From all of the ‘lifestyle’ advertising and imagery that North Van real estate marketers use, you might think you’re in Whistler.

Unlike most resort towns, the cultural and commercial vibrancy of the city of Vancouver is only a twelve-minute Sea Bus ride away. Indeed, to call North or West Vancouver a ‘suburb’ of Vancouver is like calling Berkeley a suburb of San Francisco. Like most of Vancouver’s suburbs, the communities of the North Shore are responding to worldwide demand for a kind of safe, easy, family-friendly housing that puts Canada so highly on city livability indexes.

From a jurisdictional point of view, there’s the City of North Vancouver, which starts on the shore of Burrard Inlet and runs all the way up Lonsdale, extending for a few streets west to Mackay Creek and east towards Park and Tilford Gardens.

Celebrating its shipyard heritage, Lower Lonsdale is very much North Van’s lifestyle and cultural anchor; with a revitalized pier, Lonsdale Quay, SeaBus terminal, and boutique hotels. Highrise and condo development is taking place up and down Lonsdale – all the way from water’s edge to near the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s easy to see why – the neighbourhood truly retains a pedestrian friendly charm that favours small, independently owned stores and businesses.

Encircling the city, the larger District of North Vancouver is primarily zoned for single family homes. Notable neighbourhoods include family friendly Edgemont Village, tucked away on a flat plateau between Mosquito and Mackay Creeks, and Upper Lynn Valley with its perfect mixture of parkland, community centre, and commercial district. The waterfront community of Deep Cove is another favourite; with nearby Cates Park and Raven Woods — a successful housing partnership with the Tsleil-Waututh First Nations band.

Farther west, the stretch along Marine Drive was once a gauntlet of new and used auto lots and destination shopping malls. That’s starting to change, with several developers and municipal planners re-imagining this car-choked stretch to transform it into a bike and pedestrian friendly neighbourhood similar in nature to West Vancouver’s Dundarave. And while power centres with tenants like Future Shop and Save-On Foods (as well as Walmart and Sears, in Capilano Mall) still rule Marine, specialty shops similar to those found on Lonsdale have taken up residency as well.

While many North Shore residents either use transit or commute by car to workplaces throughout the Lower Mainland, all three communities will reap tremendous economic benefit from the recent shipbuilding contracts awarded to Seaspan Marine. The creation of 4,000 new manufacturing jobs is pretty much unprecedented.

For decades, buying a home in West Vancouver has been a lot like purchasing a DeBeers diamond necklace or a Bentley. “if you have to ask how much it costs, you probably shouldn’t be looking.” Geographically spread out from Taylor Way all the way out to Horseshoe Bay, its 46,000 residents — many of whom decamp to sunnier climes for winter — live a charmed life. With no manufacturing to speak of — it’s officially banned by municipal bylaw — West Vancouver’s defining elements are its highrise condo-lined waterfront and mountainside homes hewn from the coastal rainforest.

Park Royal was Canada’s first shopping mall and its sequel — the newer Park Royal Village — is one of Canada’s most successful in terms of sales per square foot as the parking lots filled with BMWs and Range Rovers will attest. However, traditional shops in Ambleside and Dundarave have a loyal clientele that goes back decades.

This is a neighbourhood where every morning, school buses shuttle students to private schools. Where long, winding streets leading to even steeper driveways, ending in palatial homes that are truly out of the pages of Western Living or Canadian House and Home. Though you’ll find more than one starter castle priced in the eight-figure range up in the British Properties, some of Canada’s most respected architects — Arthur Erickson, Bertram Binning, and Downs/Archambault, have taken advantage of the natural elements to create a West Coast Modern design ethic that is internationally celebrated.

As its genteel British heritage would suggest, urban renewal is coming to West Vancouver in a generally measured, thoughtful manner. West Vancouver is an aging community — with the second highest number of seniors in British Columbia — and services and neighbourhood planning must adapt to meet their needs.

The district is going through a comprehensive planning process that will enhance the quality of life and add to the number of services in the Ambleside Village Centre on Marine Drive. New towers, including seniors’ housing and rentals, will be added to the mix and help ensure that retirees can stay in the neighbourhood.

Above the Trans-Canada, British Properties owns the most desirable developable land left on the North Shore, if not all of British Columbia. The Rodgers Creek subdivision and Cypress Village shopping centre will add over 700 new homes on a 200-acre site located between the Upper Levels highway and Cypress Bowl Road.

With many of the Lower Mainland’s most loved parks and attractions and an increasing number of housing options, there is little doubt that North Shore residents will continue to enjoy perhaps the highest quality of life anywhere in Canada, if not the world.