The Point of Canada

Jeff and I drove all the way from Cincinnati to Abbotsford, British Columbia in my 2007 Chevy Aveo. The trip took about 5 days with a short break to visit my peeps in Michigan. We drove up through the UP and crossed into Canada at Sault Ste Marie. I had been quite nervous about crossing the border for awhile as they ask you how long you plan to stay in Canada, what you're doing there, etc., and as I was entering Canada as a "visitor" (legally), I thought they might get suspicious if we answered "forever" and "living there" to the 2 previous questions, and even though we did give them those answers, they seemed more concerned with what Jeff was doing in the US for the past 4 days than what I'll be doing in Canada indefinitely. We expected them to search our car full of crap, but they let us go without any issues.

Ontario is just like northern Michigan in terms of its terrain: beautiful hills covered in evergreen trees. This was not so unusual to me, although I never expected Ontario to be such a bloody long province. Once we entered Manitoba, however, that's when things got weird. The landscape became incredibly flat and the freeway was extremely straight for miles and miles, so straight that once we did finally reach a curve, it felt unnatural and was somewhat difficult to execute.




Seeing pancake-flat terrain with very few trees and buildings for hundreds of miles is not for the mentally unstable, let me tell you. For a couple of days of driving 12-13 hours on the flatness, we both got extremely giddy towards the end of the day. It became somewhat frustrating for me, so frustrating that I eventually turned to Jeff and asked, "What is the point of Canada?!" to which he answered, quite deservedly, "Screw you!" In my mind at the time, after seeing hundreds of miles of nothingness, a fair-sized portion of the country that looked almost completely uninhabited, I kept asking myself why this country even exists. There's nobody here! A little while after we entered the Canadian Rockies, however, I started to get the point.


In drastic contrast to the the flatness of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, British Columbia is extremely mountainous. Once we entered the mountains, we never left them. Up and down we went for hours, going around curves so sharp and massive that if you went an inch too far left or too far right, you would ensure your untimely demise (ok, so it's not that dangerous. Not even close. That line just popped into my head and I had to put it in here.) It was so gorgeous, especially when the sun was setting.


Some may not agree, but I really think this area of mountains, although not as big, is comparable with the beauty of the Alps.


The point (or maybe one of the many points) of Canada is this: diversity. The different extremes in terrain lead to a wealth of diverse economic opportunities: mining, agriculture, logging, tourism, etc. This diversity, however, only begins with the landscape. From what I've been reading, Canada encourages immigration (unlike the US), and by doing so gets some of the best and brightest foreign skilled workers and college students that the world has to offer. The United States isn't the only "melting pot" nation in the world, and quite frankly, Canada might be a bit better at it as it continues to use this diversity to its advantage.

Did you know that only 10% of the residents of Vancouver are actually from Vancouver? I could not believe the number of Asians I saw there. I was also surprised to see some Middle Eastern and Asian men wearing turbans in public. I can't remember the last time I've seen anyone wearing a turban in the US, and I think it's sad. There is also a ginormous Chinatown in Vancouver, in which the street signs are even in Chinese. I get the feeling that this area is not only to attract tourists, but to also serve the local Asian population in a big way. And I'm just skimming the surface with these observations. I can't wait to discover what else in this country is chock full of awesome.

Ok, back to the trip. There were some occurrences of random weirdness along the way.


While driving through the mountainy part of Alberta, we saw a sign that read "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump." Jeff told me that the Indians (they call them First Nations People in Canada, which I find kind of awkward to say but much more fitting than the use of "Native American" in the US) would herd buffalo off of a cliff so they would save time and ammo not having to kill them individually with weapons (WTF moment). That's what I call efficiency, and whoever is responsible for marketing that place is a genius.

Also, there was also this random dude in the middle of nowhere pulling a funky-looking cart behind him, like one of those carts you'd see in China.


He might have just been backpacking across Canada and decided to bring a bit more than a backpack with him.

I was also pleased to see recycle bins sporadically placed along the highway, even in the middle of nowhere!


If the Canadian federal and/or provincial governments (not sure who funds what here) can provide a free recycling service in the middle of no man's land, then why can't the US provide one in an ordinary town with peeps in it?

The weather during the trip was actually a lot better than we thought it was going to be, but we did have to drive about 200 miles in "blizzardous" conditions.


It was so windy man, I thought my Aveo was going to get blown off the road.

Here are a few more pictures of things that don't need any sort of commentary, they are so beautiful:





Sorry for the poor quality; all the pictures we took were through a dirty windshield while the car was moving. We didn't want to take the time to stop as we had so far to go.

After about 45 hours of driving and over 10 tanks of gas, we finally arrived in Abbotsford on Friday night. We had been going up and down in altitude for so long that once I stepped out of the car, I felt extremely dizzy and nauseous, like I had been drinking for hours. We were so glad to be home though.

**To my Canadian readers, if any: I realize that many of my opinions here could possibly be quite ignorant, maybe to the point of being completely false. Please remember that I have been in Canada less than 2 weeks and still have a lot to learn, considering I knew very little about Canada before coming to live here. Just know that I possess an extremely open mind and that I will eventually get it right (hopefully). Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.**