Uh Lonely Planet?

'Further north, on Blue Jays Way, is WAYNE GRETZKY'S, the restaurant owned by none other than 'The Greatest' hockey player who ever lived, according to Canadians. Walk around to the buildings north side, on Mercer Street, to see how No 34 thanks his fans with a huge wall-sized mural.'

LONELY PLANET TORONTO 1st Edition

This quote was from a blog on TSN that I read today which was taken verbatim from the latest Lonely Planet Toronto edition. Now I used to be a Lonely Planet collector - I still have about 12 of them from various European countries in my den. I also know that they have had trouble before doing anything accurate about Canada:

Some years ago, in an attempt to entertain tourists, Toronto officials placed more than 300 brightly coloured fibreglass moose throughout the city. These were repeatedly attacked by angry citizens, and have now been removed.

Umm, did you do any research at all? Ugly yes, but it was an art installation fad which also included cows in Calgary and Chicago, buffalos in Buffalo, fish in New Orleans, but this sentence on random street violence? WTF? Where did that come from?

They have lovely feature on their website about places to visit in Canada: Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver. Ah yes, a world view where-in Toronto is right next door to Vancouver. The Rocky Mountains? Buh? You mean there is something in-between? Shockingly ignorant if they didn't represent the global knowledge of a good portion of the granola-y backpackers out there.

Here is another great "gem"

As a rule of thumb, it gets colder the further north you go

Wow thanks!

But the first quote takes the cake. They claim to have "reviewed" Gretzky's restaurant and pub, which I have been to numerous times and can vouch that it is a great place to watch a hockey game. But I don't think they actually visted the restaurant and likely didn't even go to its website. It has 99 on the first page! In the restaurant, there are literally THOUSANDS of references to "#99", including jerseys, the menu, pictures in the bathroom, the floor at the front door, the door handles and yes even the address - #99 Blue Jays Way. The mural which the Lonely Planet mentions shows Gretzky in a number of uniforms, #99! You're not going to walk out going - oh boy that #34 sure looked like a good ice hockey player.

And then what he is known as - well I'm sure every person who was sitting in Gretzky's when the authors "claimed" to have visted could have told you it was 'The Great One' and not the "Greatest". I also like the shot about how "Canadians claim" he was the best. Oh sorry, do the Aussie-publishers of Lonely Planet have an opinion? Oh that's right, you call it "ice hockey". Wrooooong, "field" hockey does not get a mention.

My point is not that they horribly massacred a paragraph about arguably one of the Canadians who has had one of the largest impacts on our national psyche, but that they do so without what looks to be proper editing or fact checking. It could also potentially imply that they don't actually visit places they "review". If they don't know that relatively simplistic fact, how do I know the book on Tanzania or Beligum is accurate?

And finally the Lonely Planet disclaimer:

We've tried to make the information on this web site as accurate as possible, but it is provided 'as is' and we accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by anyone resulting from this information

This information... it's useless.... Gretzky isn't number 34 at all!!!! Arrrrgg, the inconvenience.

Get a fact-checker Lonely Planet.