A new campaign to promote Montreal travel is employing some strange creatures. The menagerie of marvelous beasts were created from mash-ups of real animals. They include a "bullguin", which is a bulldog/penguin, and "deerus", which is a deer/walrus, and "foxutan", which is a fox/orangutan, and a "squirrog", which, you guessed it, is a cross between a squirrel and a frog.

These fanciful creatures are meant to be ambassadors to the city, welcoming tourists to the season of 106 eclectic festivals that take place there over the summer. These include the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Just For Laughs comedy festival, and the Les FrancoFolies de Montreal, which is a festival of Francophone music. Other attractions featured in the campaign include exhibitions and events like Indian Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology at the Montreal Science Center, the Grand Prix du Canada, and "Totem", a new Cirque du Soleil show.

Whether you choose to visit one of Toronto's many attractions or pack up the car for a day-trip outside of the city, there are many Toronto tourism ideas perfect for families to enjoy together.

For example, the Guildwood Sculpture Garden has wonderful bits and pieces of architecture that are sitting in the middle of a large garden on the edge of Lake Ontario. Other fun city attractions are the Costa Rican Cloud Forest on the corner of Bay &Richmond, and the Butterfly Conservancy in Niagara Falls. It is always exciting for kids to visit the majestic gorillas and other animals at the Metro Zoo as well. There are close to 3,000 parks in and around the city, and many of them are open to visitors all year, including the icon of them all Algonquin. You can go winter camping in a yurt at some of these parks for around $20 a night.

The Juno Awards celebrated their 40th anniversary with a bang, and simultaneously gave a big boost to Toronto tourism with a week-long celebration of music by Juno nominated artists. A special anniversary concert series was held at the Horseshoe Tavern and the awards also partnered with several of Toronto's major cultural institutions, like the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Bata Shoe Museum, and the Science Centre.

The Junos handed out 44 awards to some of Canada's most outstanding artists in a wide range of categories. As the president and CEO of Tourism Toronto remarked, the diversity of the music was equal to the diversity of the country. Tourism Toronto played an important role in marketing the event. Three of the top prize recipients include rising country star Johnny Reid, blues veteran Jim Byrnes and the classical music group the Gryphon Trio.