Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 176

Neat B and I were on the Bench this past long weekend. Hidden Bench Estate Winery was doing " Raclette on the Bench " and so, naturally, we went to check that out. We're suckers for Savoie-like mountain food. Anthony Bourdain was also right when he said, "you can never have too much cheese, bacon, or starch."

All of the above ingredients were local and we ended up sitting beside a nice lady from Upper Canada Cheese (the source of the raclette). She told us all about the benefits of A2 milk and explained that it's why people often feel better consuming copious amounts of cheese in Europe compared to in North America, even if they're lactose intolerant.

After Hidden Bench, we decided to go down the street to Domaine Le Clos Jordanne . We had never been before but we actually served one of their wines at our wedding last summer. They specialize in chardonnay and pinot noir. As soon as we walked in the door, we were super impressed by the space, and our host Tamara.

The interiors are by Solid Design Creative and they collaborated with Pamela Nelson on a really great 16-foot high art installation. It is meant to represent the "terroir" of the winery -- namely its strata of limestone, clay, sand, and silt -- and that is, of course, what their winemaker is all about. Turning the Bench region into liquid form.

If you haven't been, I would highly recommend a visit to both of these wineries, followed by a stopover at UCC for some A2-milk cheese. Or so I've been told.

Yesterday, the federal government announced that Canada has just awarded a high-speed rail contract to a consortium led by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The plan, at least as it stands right now, is for the service to run between Toronto and Québec City, have a total 7 stations, and operate at 300 km/hour. And since this is the most densely populated part of Canada, this 1,000-km corridor is expected to connect and unify roughly half of the people in this country (~20 million people).

However, many people are rightly reacting to this news with extreme cynicism. Some of the comments: It will never actually happen. It will never happen in my lifetime. The next administration will cancel it as soon as they get into office (and then we'll have to pay hefty cancellation fees). It'll be too expensive. This corridor is already adequately serviced by air travel. 300km/h isn't fast enough and the technology will be outdated by the time it's ever complete. And the list goes on.

These are all valid and expected feelings. It's almost as if we're accustomed to politicians making lofty promises right around election time! And of course, deep down in side, I too share this same cynicism. History has taught us. I mean, look at John Tory's SmartTrack proposal from 2014 . This thing was supposed to be done by now. But instead, we are now in 2025 and not one station has been built and we're down to only three on the books. Maybe this year will be the year for construction to start.

This shouldn't be the case. We shouldn't have zero confidence in our country to be bold, get things done, and make transformational investments for future generations. So I'm putting cynicism and politics aside to say: let's build! This is the right direction and attitude for our country to be taking. It's positive for our economy, the environment, our international prestige, and our political integration, among many other things. Expect to hear more high-speed rail talk on this blog going forward.

Image via Bloomberg

Last week in Japan was the first time I had ever driven a car on the left side of road. I spent a summer working in Dublin many years ago but I never once drove while I was there.

To be honest, I thought it was going to be more awkward than it was. But other than accidentally turning on the wipers a few times (they were on the opposite side to where turn signals typically live), it came to me pretty quickly.

I also noticed that left-hand traffic seems to impact the flow of many other things in Japan. On sidewalks, for example, people walk on the left. And on escalators, everyone stands on the left (and walks on the right), whereas the opposite tends to be true in Toronto.

Japan is also an orderly and rule-abiding place and so these conventions are widely followed. On more than a few occasions, I realized I was swimming upstream and then quickly switched sides.

What’s interesting is how this directional convention permeates so many aspects of everyday life. Which begs the question: where and when did it start? Do the "rules of the road" always influence everything else?

The answer seems to be that nobody really knows . There are many unproven theories. Some suggest that it has to do with how horses were ridden and walked, and that ~90% of people are right-handed.

But I couldn’t find anything definitive. What we do seem to know, at least anecdotally, is that once a side is chosen, it broadly impacts how people generally move around. Pay attention the next time you're on a busy sidewalk.