Canada Map
Map
Canada’s mainly 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.
Québec, set apart from the rest of the continent by the profundity of its French tradition, focuses on its biggest city, Montréal, which is for several people the mainly vibrant place in the country, a fascinating mix of old-world style and commercial dynamism. The pace of life is extra relaxed in the historic provincial capital, Québec City, and extra easy-going still in the villages dotted along the St Lawrence lowlands, where glittering spires attest to the enduring influence of the Catholic Church.
Across the mouth of the St Lawrence, the pastoral Gaspé peninsula - the easternmost part of Québec - borders New Brunswick, a mild-mannered introduction to the three Maritime Provinces, whose people contain 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 meters, sometimes extra - whilst the tiny fishing villages characteristic of the region are at their mainly beguiling close Halifax , the bustling capital of Nova Scotia.
Back on the mainland, separating Ontario from Alberta and the Rockies, the so-called prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan contain 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.
Moving west, Alberta’s wheat fields ripple into ranching country on the approach to the Canadian Rockies, whose international reputation is extra 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 mainly useful springboard for a venture into the mountains.