Chance of a Ghost

Canada Post has issued a set of stamps honoring the country's fabled spectral presences. We could now call the corporation Canada Ghost.

Among the spirits saluted: the Ghost Train of St. Louis, Saskatchewan; the Phantom Ship of the Northumberland Strait; and the Ghost Bride of the Banff Springs Hotel. Still waiting to be seen, although often heard, is the Ghost Piper of Sauble Beach.

Ghosts like to hang out in hotels. Kingsley Amis's "The Green Man" opens with the appearance of a ghost in the manager's quarters: "I came out of our apartment on the upper storey to find somebody standing, back turned to me, near the stairhead. I took this person for a woman in an evening dress rather heavy for a humid August evening. Without a sound the figure turned to face me. I vaguely saw a pale, thin-lipped face, heavy auburn ringlets and some kind of large bluish pendant at the throat. I sensed a surprise and alarm that seemed disproportionate."

There are ghosts haunting Chateau Frontenac in Quebec, the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay, and--most famous locally--Hotel Vancouver, where a woman in a 1930s red gown has been spotted flitting thru elevator doors from the first floor to the fourteenth. The fourteenth seems to be her favorite. The hotel is so fond of her the bar has created a cocktail in her honor: The Lady in Red.

It has gotten to the point where no self-respecting hotel can get by without a haunting or two. Next time you call for a hotel reservation, ask first about the resident ghost.