What is it to be Canadian? That’s probably impossible to define, and we’ve twisted ourselves in knots trying to figure that out. This Canada Day, we revisit a favourite essay on the subject.

Todd Saunders has built an impressive repertoire of pioneering projects and continues to find new angles in natural environments.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Whenever and wherever there is music playing, if you look down, you’ll find people tapping their toes. In rock-and-roll retail stores or jazz-fancy restaurants, people move their feet.

There are architectural boat tours, and then there’s the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s River Cruise, the best of them all. Not just because it passes through some of the richest architectural landscape in the world, but also because each of the docents is a passionate expert on their city,

Visitors who travel by foot will be rewarded with the discovery of delightful little neighbourhoods tucked within the Chicago’s bustling whole.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:Urbanites do odd things; one of them is eat brunch. Brunch itself is a portmanteau word, jamming two fine and noble concerns, breakfast and lunch, into one Frankenstein event.

My dog and I enjoy going for walks through the city at midnight. We don’t have any particular attraction to the witching hour, but rather we have an anti-social streak. It’s specific, not widely misanthropic: we want to avoid other dog people.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Jack Diamond has designed buildings throughout the world, but the front parlour of his home in Toronto’s Moore Park neighbourhood isn’t lined with pictures of his opera houses, city halls, or university buildings; instead, there’s a collection of watercolours he has painted over the course of his long career.