You are coming into Polar Bear season in Churchill on the Hudson Bay (October & November)

Access is out of Winnipeg so BA into YYZ or YYC and connect from there. Stay in the Fort Garry hotel in Winnipeg then on you to Churchill - takes 2-3 hrs in a Hs748 and you'll have to forego the sleeper seat & champers for that one.

We did the trip London-London in 7 days. It was an amazing experience but I don't think you could do it much faster than that as these guys don't really appear to any sort of schedule. Your budget would however stretch to doing a helicopter tour as well but even that is weather reliant. Also the accommodation once up there is 'functional' rather than luxury but I wouldn't have changed a thing. (Well, I suppose a bar in the hotel might have been nice...)

As for whether there's a recession on, looking at how quiet the shops were today in the market town where I live certainly suggests something's afoot.