My brother and his family are moving from Ontario to Calgary, Alberta in less than a week and I am looking for some ideas for a parting gift. I wanted to include a few items that are available here in Ontario and that he would not easily be able to get in Calgary. I can’t come up with anything at this point.
Any suggestions?
You could look for a souvenir with a trillium on it.
Or you could go to Hamilton, open a jar for a moment, and close it. They don’t have any polluted air in Calgary!
Programs from the Stratford Theatre or the Shaw Festival?
Mennonite furniture is probably a bit much for a gift. And he’d have to come back to Ontario to use season’s Jays tickets…yeah, this is a toughy.
Wait, I’ve got it…ice wine!
there are many micro/craft -brewed beers that sre only available in ontario.
Smog alerts every day for over a week now!
How about the Ontario sense of superiority over the rest of Canada?
The beer is better in Calgary than in Ontario. Makes up for the lousier roads.
But there’s always something. Wait until they’ve been there a month or two and they call up saying “We can’t find xxx”
Hmm? What sense of superiority?? 
[sub]Come to think of it, what ‘rest of Canada’?[/sub]
j/k
This is a bit odd, but might be a worthwhile souvenir: the big mining area in northern Ontario is the only place in the world where ferrous ores are rich enough in nickel that it is worth mining nickel as a “standalone” product-from-ore, as opposed to producing nickel as a byproduct of iron/steel mining and smelting. Supposedly, you can get souvenirs made of nickel up in that area.
Well stop whining and make history.
Declan
Zut alors!
Anyhoo, try to pick up some CANDU merchandise. Ontario is (relatively) unique in that nuclear power doesn’t get them freaked out more than absolutely necessary.
CN Tower - the view is fantastic, and it’s a nice spot to have dinner.
Niagera Falls -What can be said about the falls? It’s unique and awesome.
Canada’s Wonderland - A great way to spend a day (if you have the energy)
Metro Toronto Zoo - Another great way to spend a day.
Sandbanks Provincial Park (Picton) - If camping is your thing, this is a beautiful place to do it.
I’m sure there’s many more, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.
How about a genuine Maple Leaf jersey?
Byran Ekers? Perhaps they have little statues.
The OP asks for things you can take with you though. The CN Tower is a wonder of engineering but you’d have a hell of a time getting FedEx to ship it to Calgary.
Thanks folks…a number of great ideas. I love the icewine, jersey and microbrewery beer ideas!
Maybe he works for Carmen Sandiego?
small hijack…
My husband is from out west (his family is now in Calgary) and I have lived in Ontario all my life and I am trying to help him understand that the geography of Canada is all based on Toronto. That is to say … western Ontario and Canada are West of Toronto, Eastern Ontario and Canada are east of Toronto, etc.
He just refuses to learn!
But he really misses ‘Trad’ ale from Big Rock (not available in Ontario but abundant in Calgary!