Canada: A Visual Journey - Hardcover

Kyi, Tanya Lloyd; Lloyd, Tanya

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1552850854 ISBN 13: 9781552850855

Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Take a trip across Canada through the eyes of some of North America's best photographers. With over 200 stunning color photographs, this book offers readers a chance to experience firsthand the rich cultures and breathtaking scenery of this northern nation without ever leaving home. The introduction takes a historical approach, looking at Canada from the days of the explorers through development of the territories and provinces as we know them today. All ten provinces and three territories are captured in full color, allowing you to take a closer look at the beauty and diversity of each area. From the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and Vancouver's dazzling skyline to the rushing waters of Niagara Falls and the pastoral beauty of Prince Edward Island, CANADA: A VISUAL JOURNEY captures the essence of this great land.

About this title

About the Author:

Tanya Lloyd Kyi earned her Arts degree from the University of Victoria. She is the author and photo editor of the best selling Canada series and America series as well Canadian Girls Who Rocked the World. She lives in Vancouver.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction

Alexander Mackenzie sailed from Scotland to New York in 1775. He was only 11 years old, yet within a decade he had joined a company of fur traders based in Montreal and embarked on his first expedition into the Canadian Shield and northern Saskatchewan. By 1789, he had traced the Mackenzie River to its mouth. Shortly after, he set off towards the Pacific in search of a rumoured waterway that would lead west to the ocean.

He was driven in part by patriotism -- the hope of expanding Britain's claim to the continent. However, his main motive was probably the riches and fame awaiting the explorer who discovered the fabled Northwest Passage. The trading routes to Russia and Asia lay within his grasp, as soon as he charted a transcontinental course.

We know now there was no such passage. The route Alexander Mackenzie carved was not the easy course that had been predicted. Despite these challenges, at age 31 he became the first European to travel through the Rockies to the Pacific.

He was not the only traveller to follow the rivers, creeks, and game trails of the north. Long before his arrival, this area was linked by hundreds of First Peoples hunting and trading routes. In fact, without the knowledge of the Native guides he consulted at each stage, Mackenzie had no hope of completing his travels. Still, his name painted on the rock by the rugged shores of the northern British Columbia coast is a testament to his sense of adventure and his strength of will. Because of his perseverance, a new corner of the continent was etched onto the maps of the world.

Explorers and entrepreneurs coursed after Mackenzie, opening trade along his route and forging new routes through the west. Simon Fraser followed the mighty Fraser River and David Thompson challenged the Columbia. And while these journeys were taking place, dreamers and visionaries in the east were forging new colonies from scattered settlements, and a new nation from disparate colonies.

In 1867, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick united to become the Dominion of Canada. The province of Manitoba was created three years later. B.C. joined Confederation in 1871 and four years later the Canadian Pacific Railway hewed a path through the Rockies and linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts for the first time. Prince Edward Island became part of Canada in 1873, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, and finally Newfoundland in 1949.

Today, highways and railway tracks crisscross the country. Logging roads and hiking routes intersect throughout the dense wilderness that challenged Mackenzie's party. Grocery stores on Baffin Island sell colas and potato chips, and the Internet reaches even the most remote points of the nation. The Rocky Mountains are no longer a continental barrier; the rivers are well charted and many are harnessed for hydroelectric power.

Yet none of this diminishes the sheer size of Canada. The nation spreads across almost 10 million square kilometres (4 million square miles). It is bounded by three oceans: the Atlantic to the east, the Arctic to the north, and the Pacific to the west. To the south, the longest unguarded border in the world -- 6379 kilometres (3964 miles) -- runs between Canada and the United States. And harnessed or not, the country's rivers burst with more fresh water than in any other nation in the world.

In this enormous area, there remain many places where no one has ever stood. In fact, if the population of Canada were spread evenly over the land, there would be only two people per square kilometre (about one person per square mile). In the watersheds of northern British Columbia, the tundra of the Yukon, and the alpine slopes of the Rockies, there are pristine places untouched by development. Here, it's possible to recapture the mystery that Canada must have held for the explorers of the 18th century.

In the time of Alexander Mackenzie, the world awaited news of the frontier. Memoirs penned by successful explorers became bestsellers, and newspapers eagerly reported each new discovery. Publishers and cartographers offered the public glimpses of a world they might never see first-hand.

We are still a world of armchair travellers today. Those of us on the west coast may never visit the seaside villages of Newfoundland, yet we can picture the multi-hued houses lining the cliffs. Those of us in Newfoundland can imagine the orcas breaching in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A child in Alberta can envision the migration of the polar bears onto the pack ice in Churchill, and a child in Nunavut can imagine the rolling wheat fields of Saskatchewan.

Canada is home to some of the world's best-known landscape photographers, and it is these artists who chart the contemporary world for our curious eyes. They capture the passion of Caribana in Toronto, the thrill of the Calgary Stampede, and the elegance of Victoria's Butchart Gardens. They reveal the exact hue of the maples in Quebec's Laurentian Mountains, the pose of a mountain goat in Jasper National Park, and the hum of Winnipeg's markets. These images travel in magazines, in books, and over the World Wide Web into our homes. As we turn our eyes to each new place, we mark it on our own map of the world just as 18th-century cartographers marked Canada's newly discovered geography on theirs.

In Canada: A Visual Journey, there are places so often photographed they have become ingrained in our collective imagination. They have become part of what we see when we think about Canada. There are also places not yet imagined, places newly explored and mapped by photographers -- places waiting for us to discover.

About this edition

• Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1552850854
• ISBN 13: 9781552850855
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 250