Trump hotel opens in Toronto

The Trump tower is in Toronto's financial district.

PopGoesTheNews.com With today's opening of the Trump International Hotel and Tower at the corner of Bay and Adelaide St, one of the world's most recognizable surnames is gracing the side of a Toronto building for the first time.

Donald Trump lent his name to the development (he doesn't own it) and is expected to grace its black granite lobby with some of his offspring in March when the hotel throws an opening bash.

Toronto's Trump joins similarly branded hotels in New York, Chicago, Waikiki, Las Vegas and Panama.

Boasting 261 hotel rooms and more than 100 condos, the Trump International Hotel and Tower is the second of four new luxury hotel-condo projects on the Toronto skyline — it follows the Ritz-Carlton and precedes the new Four Seasons and Shangri-la. (Anyone who suggests the city can't support a little more than 980 luxury hotel rooms has never been to Chicago, Miami or Paris.)

Officially, the Trump stands 257 metres—  making it the fourth tallest building in Canada behind neighbors First Canadian Place, Scotia Plaza and Brookfield Place — but when you add in the height of its distinctive spire, the Trump jumps to second place. With fewer than 60 floors, though, it's not even in the top 12 if you're strictly counting floors.

Guests are greeted by doormen in a covered driveway featuring a mosaic entitled "A Smaller Piece of Something Larger" made of porcelain, stone, glass and gold by Canadian artist Stephen Andrews. Inside the elegant lobby is a 1,300-pound cherry blossom sculpture of Swarovski crystals and SUITS Lobby Lounge, which is targeted at the neighborhood's financial workers.

The sitting area, bathroom and bed of a typical room at the Trump hotel.

The hotel rooms are spacious (the smallest is 550 square feet) and decorated in neutral black and white with touch-control lighting and drapes, docks for mobile devices and 40-inch TVs that are laptop compatible. The bathrooms are equipped with double sinks, soaker tubs and rainfall showers. Rooms have Nespresso machines and are stocked with regional beers and plenty of locally-sourced snacks.

The Trump has made sure that beds are not visible from doorways and that all desks face out windows — two touches designed to make guests forget they're in a hotel room.

Among the hotel's amenities are a 60-foot indoor salt-water pool, fitness centre, a two-level Quartz Crystal Spa as well as The Stock Restaurant on the 31st floor. Services include 24-hour in-room dining, overnight laundry and dry cleaning, nanny services and personal shoppers.

Of course, Trump style doesn't come cheap. The hotel is offering special rates for the month of February — a Valentine's stay can be had for as little as $375 — but rooms during the busy summer months start at $425. (Planning to stay there during TIFF? Rooms start at $850 a night or you can bed down in the 4,000 square-foot presidential suite for $20,000 a night.)

Will Arnett and Jerry Seinfeld coming to T.O. gala

Will Arnett

PopGoesTheNews.com Two of the funniest guys on television are coming to Toronto to lend their support to the Toronto East General Hospital.

Jerry Seinfeld and Will Arnett are the special guests at Laughter is the Best Medicine, a gala fundraiser on April 12 at the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place. Proceeds from the night of comedy will support the new Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre.

The evening kicks off with a cocktail reception and dinner followed by a show hosted by Arnett, a native of Toronto. The 41-year-old Arrested Development vet currently stars in the comedy series Up All Night and has a recurring role on 30 Rock. Married to Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler, Arnett returns to Toronto regularly to visit family members, including father James, past chair of the Toronto East General Hospital.

Seinfeld has made numerous visits to Toronto since his eponymous sitcom ended, including several benefit shows.

Tickets for the black tie gala are priced at $1,000. The event is being chaired by Michael Geddes of Lone Eagle Entertainment, the production company behind series like Wipeout Canada and Carlawood.

The truth about IKEA: It's not Swedish

PopGoesTheNews.com IKEA spends a lot of money every year keeping consumers under the impression that it's Swedish: It uses the colors of the Swedish flag, has a guy with a Swedish accent do its radio ads, and serves delicious Swedish meatballs in its restaurants. This extensive marketing campaign has paid off because you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't think IKEA is Swedish.

IKEA is, in fact, a Dutch company.

The retailer's headquarters are located in Leiden, a city of about 120,000 people located 40 km south of Amsterdam. Virtually all of its stores are owned and operated by INGKA Holding, a private Dutch company that is owned by Stichting Ingka Foundation, a tax-exempt not-for-profit foundation also based in the Netherlands. The IKEA trademark and design concept are owned by a separate Dutch company, Inter IKEA Systems, which is owned by Inter IKEA Holding, a company registered in Luxembourg.

IKEA's founder is Ingvar Kamprad, who is of German descent and was active in the pro-Nazi movement as a teen (he has since apologized for his involvement). Now 85, he lives in Switzerland and is ranked by Forbes as the 162nd wealthiest person in the world.

Most IKEA goods are manufactured in China or Poland. Dining chairs and tables are given Finnish names and carpets get Dutch names.

So where does the whole Swedish thing come into the picture? Well, Kamprad was born in Sweden (the IKEA name is an acronym for the founder's names, the name of his family's farm Elmtaryd and the nearby village of Agunnaryd), the company was founded in Sweden and the company's product design and development is done in Sweden.

Incidentally, Sweden is about 1,200 km north of the Netherlands.

Sunwing under fire for bogus bubbly boasts

Sunwing fails to mention it does not serve real champagne.

PopGoesTheNews.com A Canadian travel company could find itself in hot water over the way it sells beach vacations.

Sunwing Vacations advertises "champagne vacations" in radio spots, newspaper ads and on its website — complete with an image of two nearly-full champagne flutes — hoping to give budget-conscious travelers the illusion of luxury. But passengers who are promised a "bon voyage glass of champagne" are really being served less than a dollar's worth of domestic sparkling wine.

The Toronto-based travel company, which also owns Signature Vacations and SellOffVacations, uses the word "champagne" all over the Sunwing website, which currently shows a pair of flutes three times. "Our award winning Champagne service has been voted #1 by customers and travel agents for the last four years," reads a message on the home page.

According to several international trade agreements, the word "champagne" can only be used if the grapes and the wine are produced in the Champagne region of France. In Canada, the word can be used as long as it is clear to consumers that the sparkling wine is not from Champagne — but virtually all Canadian winemakers have stopped using it on their labels. SAQ, the government body that regulates the sale of alcohol in Quebec, prohibits sparkling wines labelled "champagne" unless they come from the Champagne region and consumers in Ontario won't find bottles of domestic sparkling wine labelled "champagne" at LCBO stores.

A passenger posted a pic of the bubbly on a Sunwing flight.

Canada will ban the use of "champagne" on sparkling wines that do not originate from the Champagne region of France beginning Dec. 31, 2013, as per a 2003 agreement with the European Union.

Passengers on a recent Sunwing "champagne vacation" claim they were served about three ounces of Andrés Baby Canadian Champagne in plastic cups at the beginning of their outbound flight — not exactly the generous flutes of "champagne" depicted in Sunwing ads. A 750 ml bottle of Andrés, a B.C. bubbly with an alcohol content of seven per cent, retails for about $8. (By comparison, a bottle of popular champagne brand Veuve Clicquot at the LCBO starts at $65.30 and has an alcohol content of 12 per cent.)

Sunwing ignored repeated requests to provide the brand name of the bubbly it pours.

The company's sparkling promotion (the perk, despite being virtually worthless, is widely mentioned in favorable terms on travel review sites) could land it in trouble with the industry association that polices advertising claims. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards clearly states that ads can't contain "inaccurate or deceptive claims, statements, illustrations or representations, either direct or implied, with regard to a product of service." Complaints can be submitted online.

Celine Dion's former home can be yours for a song

The pool area of Celine Dion's former Florida home.

PopGoesTheNews.com Could it be that no one wants to live in a home custom-built for Canada's beloved chanteuse Celine Dion?

The Quebec-born superstar's first Florida home has been on the market for 20 months and its asking price has been slashed from $15.5 million to a mere $9 million.

Located at 370 Eagle Drive in the posh Admiral's Cove gated community in Jupiter, Florida, the 14,749-square-foot waterfront mansion is still fit for the queen of Canadian schmaltz even though Dion and husband René Angélil haven't lived there in nearly a decade. Boasting nine bedrooms and a whopping 15 bathrooms, the house has a domed stained glass skylight in the grand foyer, intricate crown moldings, two winding stairwells, a tiered theatre with a stage and a pool with custom mural privacy wall.

Dion's former abode has a sun deck on the third floor and views of the intracoastal waterway that, like the heart, go on and on.

Each bedroom has an ensuite bathroom and sitting room, while the master suite consists of (curiously) separate "his" and "her" bedrooms and bathrooms, wood-paneled walk-in closets and covered terraces.

The home was the backdrop for the first official photographs of Dion's first-born son, René-Charles, who was born in January 2001.

Dion's former house features this theatre with a stage.

Dion sold the palace, which was built in 1998 for her and Angelil, to enterpreneur Richard Santulli and his wife Margaret in 2002 for $9 million (plus another $7 million for furnishings). They put the property on the market in May 2010 with a list price of $15.5 million, which was reduced to just under $14 million last August.

Dion currently has a sprawling multi-million-dollar beachfront estate on Jupiter Island, just north of Palm Beach.

Thousands of dollars sent to feds remains unclaimed

PopGoesTheNews.com • Canada, you're richer than you think.

Hundreds of payments issued to the federal government have evidently never been deposited into the public purse, according to data from the Bank of Canada. PopGoesTheNews.com has learned that more than $240,000 sent by Canadians to the Receiver General and Canada Revenue Agency in the late '90s alone is currently sitting unclaimed by the feds.

When a certified cheque or bank draft is issued, the funds are taken out of the payer's account and held by their bank. If the cheque hasn't been deposited by the payee within 10 years, the funds are transferred to the Bank of Canada, a Crown corporation. Payees can claim the funds by presenting the original cheque or taking an oath.

Among the payments made to the Receiver General is $3,301.50 issued in August 1991 by pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb and $1,594.75 paid to Canada Revenue Agency in July 1993 by The Highland Inn in Osoyoos, BC.

The vast majority of payments – ranging from $2.11 to $9,600 – came from individuals. Amounts over $1,000 are held by the Bank of Canada for 100 years and those under $1,000 for 30 years.

Among the monies that never reached the accounts of the Receiver General are $1,000 from Toronto law firm Blake Cassels & Graydon, which issued certified cheque No. 0300002012 in July 1994, and a total of $190 from law firm Baker & McKenzie paid by three separate certified cheques in July 1992 and May and July of 1993. Certified cheque No. 459090 for $250, issued in August 1990 by Vancouver law firm Edwards Kenny & Bray was never processed. Vacheresse & Associates Consulting, a Vancouver legal services firm specializing in immigration cases, sent the Receiver General certified cheque No. 491693 for $550 in April 1993.

Fileco Limited Partnership, a records management and document shredding company in Concord, Ont., sent the Canada Revenue Agency a certified cheque for $886.22 in December 1992 that was never processed. In February 1992, the West Coast Crab Bar in Tofino, BC sent the taxman $141.19 that remains unclaimed.

The Bank of Canada does not charge a fee to search its records nor to make claims so it's not clear why the government hasn't collected funds that have been held by the Bank of Canada for a decade or longer.