After crossing the country from Montreal and visiting 150 communities, the CP Holiday Train will finish its journey in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows (December 18th), ending in Port Coquitlam and Port Moody (December 19th). View the impressive train-long light displays and enjoy a free concert at each stop.

CP Holiday Train Comes to the Tri-Cities

This event has the beautiful light display on the train, a free concert, and it serves as a donation drive local causes in each community it visits.

Local Schedule

The musical guests for this final stretch are Jim Cuddy, Devin Cuddy and Kelly Prescott.

When the train arrives it will pull to a safe stop in front of the crowd in attendance. The stage door lowers and the band opens with its first song. After that, a brief presentation takes place with local food bank officials and other dignitaries. Once complete, the band resumes performing a mix of traditional and modern holiday-themed songs. The whole event lasts about 30 minutes, and once the band plays its farewell show, the boxcar door closes, and the train slips off into the night on its way to the next stop.

Follow the CP Holiday Train on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see its full schedule as the cross-country journey comes to an end out west.

» Read about more free events this Christmas.

What’s better than a FREE hockey game? One that also gives back to fans to thank them for attending! The Langley Rivermen are hosting their annual RIVMAS celebration for three home games: December 18-20, 2015.

• December 18, 2015 vs. Powell River: Free admission plus $5 merchandise voucher. Each fan that attends the game will receive one $5 voucher valid towards the purchase of a merchandise item at that game.
• December 19, 2015 vs. Coquitlam Express: Free admission plus $5 food voucher. Each fan that attends the game will receive one $5 voucher valid towards the purchase of a food or non-alcoholic beverage purchase item at that game.
• December 20, 2015 vs. Prince George: Free admission plus $5 merchandise or food voucher. Each fan that attends the game will receive their choice of either one $5 voucher valid towards the purchase of a food or non-alcoholic beverage OR merchandise item at that game.

For great local hockey and family fun, you can’t beat that deal! The Langley Rivermen play at the Langley Events Centre and you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook for more team, game, and event information.

The Langley Rivermen play in the BCHL and enjoyed their bet season to date in 2013-2014 when they won the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy, awarded to the team who finishes the BCHL regular season with the best record. The team hopes to build on achievements such as that, and is proud to continue the great tradition and heritage of junior hockey in Langley.

Britannia Mine Museum, just under 1 hour from Vancouver up the scenic Sea to Sky Highway, is hosting a Victorian-themed Dickens Christmas. This national historic site will feature a whimsical miniature village display for the holidays, visits with Santa, and more!

Dickens Christmas at Britannia Mine Museum

The Victorian-themed Dickens Christmas’ miniature ceramic village window displays from Canada’s Department 56 will be on display throughout the historic Machine Shop. Inspired by the nostalgic “A Christmas Carol”, the miniature village displays are reminiscent of Victorian England during Charles Dickens’ time.

Inside the Machine Shop, visitors can explore the beautiful Christmas village centerpiece, and Santa’s North Pole Toy Shop window displays decked out with Victorian-themed décor, Christmas trees, wreaths, filled with the cheerful sounds of miniature church bells, horses, and carolers.

Every Saturday and Sunday from December 5-20, visitors can sit with Santa and take their own photos for a memorable keepsake, and create some cheerful crafts at the holiday activity tables to take home.

Special event pricing for adults and seniors is $15, children (ages 5-18) is $10 and children under 4 years of age get free admission. Event pricing does not include underground tour. Tours are available during the day for regular admission price.

The Britannia Mine Museum provides unique and memorable experiences that engage visitors of all ages. Visitors can enjoy fun exhibits and crowd favourites like the underground mine train, the historic 20-storey concentrator mill and gold panning, and learn about Britannia’s history as one of the largest copper mines in the British Commonwealth in the 1930s.

The museum will be open on Christmas Eve (10:00am to 3:00pm) and Boxing Day (regular hours, 9:00am to 5:00pm), but will be closed on Christmas Day. Call 1-800-896-4044 for more information and follow the museum on Twitter and Facebook.

The Vancouver Giants are known for their hockey with heart and nothing can make any Grinch’s heart grow 3 sizes like the Teddy Bear Toss. This holiday tradition (presented by TELUS) will take place on Friday, December 18, 2015 when the Giants take on the Everett Silvertips.

Vancouver Giants Teddy Bear Toss

Fans are encouraged to bring a new stuffed toy to the game, or you can buy one on the concourse with proceeds benefitting The Province Empty Stocking Fund and the CKNW Orphans’ Fund.

Then, when the Giants score, throw your donations onto the ice. The team will collect all of the bears and the good folks at the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau with make sure they find a warm, loving home in time for the holidays.

For tickets to this game and others, purchase online or call 604-4-GIANTS (604-444-2687). Can you guess how many teddy bears will fly through the air to be donated this year? Tell the Giants, on Twitter or Facebook, for a chance to win tickets to an upcoming game.

Win a White Spot Family Pak

Thanks to the Vancouver Giants, I have a White Spot Family Pak to give away for Teddy Bear Toss night on December 18th.

This includes 4 tickets to the game (gold section), 2 White Spot Legendary Platters, 2 White Spot Pirate Paks, 1 game night parking voucher, and a $10 gas coupon for Chevron!

Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner from all entries at 9:00am on Wednesday, December 16, 2015.

UPDATE: The winner is @rgwoolmer!

This post has been contributed by Samuel Cousins, Stewardship Coordinator Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End a decade ago and I have been a member for three years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.

Sweeping Away the Broom

By Samuel Cousins, SPES Stewardship Coordinator

Last week, the Vancouver Park Board and the Stanley Park Ecology Society celebrated a milestone of sorts: the last patch of Scotch broom in Stanley Park, located on the inaccessible west facing cliffs above the sea wall, was removed. Tom McIllfaterick, SPES board member and long time volunteer on SPES’ Special Invasives Removal Team, had said, “…to get that down we would need a cherry picker, harnesses and rope. Each year it gets bigger and bigger, like it’s taunting us from its place of safety.”

A worker removes Scotch broom from the cliffs above the Stanley Park seawall

Scotch broom piles up on the seawall during eradication efforts last week

However, in partnership with the Vancouver Park Board’s annual scaling operations on the cliffs, the work team was able to use a cherry picker crane to successfully remove the last of this tenacious invasive plant. The area, though, will still have to be monitored for many years to come. Scotch broom is one of the most hardy and invasive of any invasive plants to hit our shores… and we can thank one person for that.

In 1850 a Scottish captain by the name of Walter Grant landed on the shores of Vancouver Island in the area now known as Sooke. Upon landing, Grant proceeded to shoot and kill a “buffalo”, only for it to be a dairy cow. He also introduced the sport of cricket, though it didn’t really catch on. Nevertheless, in the three short years Grant lived on the Island he managed to leave behind a legacy that can be seen across Canada and the US, though not in sport or bovine identification.

Scotch broom along a highway
(Photo by USGS via Wikimedia Commons)

Captain Grant’s infamous legacy is the introduction of the invasive species Scotch broom and its impacts on the environment we see today. Grant planted Scotch broom to remind him of his Scottish homeland. The weed was then also used as a highway stabilization plant, which only helped it spread further. Well-intended acts like these are the groundwork upon which an invasive species is able to quickly spread, and then with its competitive advantages, outcompete native species.

Scotch broom is a woody weed that has a number of competitive advantages. A mature broom plant can produce around 20,000 seeds a year, which remain viable in the soil for 30 years. It has a large taproot, small leaf area and waxy stems that photosynthesize, making it a very drought tolerant species. Its greatest advantage is that it increases the acidity of its surrounding soil deterring other native species from settling in.

Scotch broom in bloom (Photo by By Danny S.)
via Wikimedia Commons)

The problem with all invasive species is that that they reduce bio-diversity and create mono-cultures as they out-compete the native species. They also impact agricultural production, increase fire hazards and pose a risk to infrastructure. The only good thing about Scotch broom is its bright yellow, snapdragon-like flowers.

Here in Stanley Park, the Stanley Park Ecology Society is actively involved in the management of invasive species through community stewardship. At the last count, there were 109 invasive species identified, the main ones being English ivy and Himalayan blackberry. SPES’ volunteer-driven Special Invasives Response Team (“SIRT”) has been monitoring and removing invasive species for a number of years, and the task can often become daunting with the amount of work to be done.

With millions of people going through the park each year, seeds from other areas will be carried into the park unintentionally. There will always be the potential for different invasive species to be introduced and threaten the biodiversity of Stanley Park. Even though here at SPES we are proud to say that Scotch broom has been completely removed from the Park, we want to be proven wrong.

SPES’ Special Invasives Removal Team in action (Photo by SPES)

If you see Scotch broom, please report it to the SPES stewardship coordinator ([email protected]) and a team will be dispatched to investigate. You can also do your part and join one of the SIRT volunteer events by registering with the stewardship coordinator. Together we can work to remove invasive species from the Park.

In the meantime let us raise a glass of scotch, not to Captain Grant, but to the efforts of the invasive species removal teams, societies and organizations that are still dealing with the management of invasive species in their regions. Sometimes the small victories are worth celebrating.