The time and expense involved in
covering Canada's immense distances
means that most visitors confine
their explorations to the area
around one of the main cities -
usually Toronto, Montreal,
Vancouver or Calgary for arrivals by
air. The attractions of these centers vary widely, but they have
one thing in common with each other
and all other Canadian towns - they
are within easy reach of the great
outdoors.
Canada's most southerly region,
south Ontario , contains not
only the manufacturing heart of the
country and its largest city, Toronto
, but also Niagara Falls ,
Canada's premier tourist sight.
North of Toronto there's the far
less packaged scenic attraction of Georgian
Bay, a beautiful waterscape of
pine-studded islets set against
crystal-blue waters. Like the
forested Algonquin park, the bay is
also accessible from the capital
city of Ottawa , not as
dynamic a place as Toronto, but
still well worth a stay for its art
galleries and museums.
Quebec, set apart from
the rest of the continent by the
profundity of its French tradition,
focuses on its biggest city, Montreal
, which is for many people the most
vibrant place in the country, a
fascinating mix of old-world style
and commercial dynamism. The pace of
life is more relaxed in the historic
provincial capital, Quebec City
, and more easy-going still in the
villages dotted along the St
Lawrence lowlands, where glittering
spires attest to the enduring
influence of the Catholic Church.
For something more bracing, you
could continue north to Tadoussac
, where whales can be seen near the
mouth of the splendid Saguenay
fjord - and if you're really
prepared for the wilds, forge on
through to Labrador, as
inhospitable a zone as you'll find
in the east.
Across the mouth of the St
Lawrence, the pastoral Gasp้
peninsula - the easternmost part of
Quebec - borders New Brunswick
, a mild-mannered introduction to
the three Maritime Provinces
, whose people have long been
dependent on timber and the sea for
their livelihood. Here, the tapering
Bay of Fundy boasts amazing
tides - rising and falling by nine
metres, sometimes more - whilst the
tiny fishing villages characteristic
of the region are at their most
beguiling near Halifax , the
bustling capital of Nova Scotia
. Perhaps even prettier, and
certainly more austere, are the land
and seascapes of Cape Breton
Island, whose rugged topography
anticipates that of the island of Newfoundland
to the north. Newfoundland's
isolation has spawned a distinctive
culture that's at its most lively in
the capital, St John's ,
where the local folk-music scene is
the country's best. The island also
boasts some of the Atlantic
seaboard's finest landscapes,
particularly the flat-topped peaks
and glacier-gouged lakes of Gros
Morne National Park.
Back on the mainland, separating
Ontario from Alberta and the
Rockies, the so-called prairie
provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan
have a reputation for dullness
that's somewhat unfair: even in the
flat southern parts there's the
diversion of Winnipeg , whose
traces of its early days make it a
good place to break a trans-Canadian
journey. To the north, the myriad
lakes and gigantic forests of the
provinces' wilderness regions offer
magnificent canoeing and hiking,
especially within Prince Albert
National Park . Up in the far
north, beside Hudson Bay, the
settlement of Churchill -
remote but accessible by train - is
famous for its polar bears, who
gather near town from the end of
June waiting to move out over the
ice as soon as the bay freezes.
Moving west, Alberta's
wheatfields ripple into ranching
country on the approach to the Canadian
Rockies, whose international
reputation is more than borne out by
the reality. The provincial capital,
Edmonton, is overshadowed by
Calgary , a brash place grown
fat on the region's oil and gas
fields, and the most useful
springboard for a venture into the
mountains. British Columbia
embodies the popular picture of
Canada to perfection: a land of
snowcapped summits, rivers and
forests, pioneer villages, gold-rush
ghost towns, and some of the
greatest hiking, skiing, fishing and
canoeing opportunities in the world.
Its urban focus, Vancouver ,
is the country's third city, known
for its spectacular natural setting
and a laid-back West Coast hedonism.
Off the coast lies Vancouver
Island , a microcosm of the
province's immense natural riches,
and home to Victoria, a
devotedly anglophile little city.
North of British Columbia, wedged
alongside Alaska, is the Yukon
Territory , half grandiose
mountains, half subarctic tundra,
and full of evocative echoes of the
Klondike gold rush. Whitehorse
, its capital, and Dawson City, a gold-rush relic, are virtually
the only towns here, each accessed
by dramatic frontier highways. The Northwest
Territories and Nunavut ,
arching over the provinces of
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba,
are an immensity of stunted forest,
lakes, tundra and ice, the realm of
Dene and Inuit native bands whose
traditional way of life is being
threatened as oil and gas
exploration reaches up into the
Arctic. Roads are virtually
non-existent in the deep north, and
only Yellowknife , a bizarre
frontier city, plus a handful of
ramshackle villages, offer the air
links and resources necessary to
explore this wilderness.
