An American magazine is out with its list of Canada's top five gay-friendly tourist destinations.
In its summer 2007 issue, Out Traveler magazine says the most beautiful, most exciting, and most gay-friendly cities in Canada are Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal.
The magazine says that while Vancouver "might be lacking in big-city bustle,'' it makes up for it in its natural wonders and attractions for outdoors enthusiasts.
It notes that gays and lesbians are spread throughout the multicultural city of 2 million, but the gay nightlife is concentrated on a three-block section of Davie Street, "where around a dozen queer bars, clubs, and restaurants thrive."
Winnipeg is called the "once-shy, quirky loner of the Prairies,'' whose downtown is now "the centre of one of Canada's most vibrant arts scenes.''
The magazine notes that Winnipeg can boast "some serious gay credentials," including being the home base for filmmaker Guy Maddin whose epics are imbued with homoerotica; becoming the first major North American city to elect an out gay mayor, Glen Murray, back in 1998; and the The Forks, a former trading post that is currently a shopping hot spot, is the future site of the Human Rights Museum, opening in 2010.
Montreal is lauded as "a city passionate about enjoying itself,'' with "an urgent pulse," a thriving gay village, multi-storey, rainbow-decked superclubs on Rue St. Catherine, and DiversCit锟�, Montreal's pride celebration.
"Other cities can only come close," the magazine gushes.
"Debonair" Toronto boasts Canada's largest gay population, who congregate in the Church-Wellesley area, a gay village that traces its roots to 1826, notes the magazine. It also proudly hosts one of the largest pride festivals on earth, attracting more than 800,000 revellers.
"Unlike Vancouver or even Edmonton -- cities with geography in their favor -- pancake-flat Toronto wins admirers on sheer force of personality alone," says the mag.
Finally, Edmonton, the "laid-back capital of oil-rich Alberta,'' makes the cut for its friendly down-to-earth charm, gay-friendly atmosphere, and its fresh crop of smoke-free gay and lesbian bars and clubs in the burgeoning gay village of Jasper Avenue.
"Let the herds kick up a ruckus about Calgary," says the mag, "Bold, assured Edmonton gallops way ahead, leaving the rest of Alberta in the dust."
