This is a film about Canada. I've always asked myself what does it mean to be Canadian? This is a difficult question that even most people living here have a hard time answering. Canada is an incredibly large country, and it is my belief that can lead our provinces to feel disconnected.
Most Canadians are very proud of the places they live, and this sense of pride is contagious. But I feel in some cases they undervalue the rest of the country. So for Canada 150, I decided to hit the road and seek adventure, from East Coast to West Coast, to find an answer to my question. Get ready to learn about some places in Canada that you may not be familiar with, and hear inspiring stories from other fellow Canadians. Stories that will help unite us even more.
I started my journey in Cape Sphere, just outside of St. John's. This is the most easterly point in our continent. The views are breathtaking and impossible to describe.
To learn about the culture and traditions, I spoke with Laurie McCarthy. She's really passionate about keeping Newfoundland traditions alive. I really want to expose people to age-old traditions here in Newfoundland, whether that's boil-ups on the beach or berry picket in the woods, and it's really all about passing on our cultural food. It's pretty much wrapped up in nostalgia, right?
And those moments that you remember as a child, they're powerful and they create memories that you just can't let go, right? So it's awesome to pass that on. Growing up in Newfoundland is really about a lifestyle, right? You know, you don't come here for the weather.
No one settled here, right, for a very long time because the life was harsh here. You come to Newfoundland for the people and a lifestyle. And it seems the more that people come here, the more they want to come here. And they want to be a part of, you know, I call it a magic lifestyle. It's a very special place.
Spectacularly beautiful here, from the beaches to the coastlines. We've got some beautiful areas to go and see and every time you stand on the edge of a cliff and you look out there I mean it's about as magical as a place gets. Newfoundland and Labrador are very special places. The landscape, the people, there's so much history. I encountered one fishing village after another.
Places with big hearts and welcoming embraces. Newfoundland truly has a lot of character. We're not very go-go around here. It's really a lot about sitting back and enjoying the people and the place and the moments that you're in. And you're able to just give people an idea of what life was like here, what life is still like here, what it can be.
Right? If you don't know where you come from, how are you going to know where you're going? It keeps a sense of groundedness. And it's about remembering how much work it takes to put the food on your plate.
Gros Morne National Park is captivating. The most impressive thing about this park is its diversity. So many different types of terrain and features encapsulated in a relatively small geographical area.
Within a two-hour drive, you can go from one end of the park to the other. Gros Morin is home to one of the most unique landscapes in all of Canada. Here I met with two girls that are part of a tourist organization called Wild Women Expeditions. You really know that you're on a unique landscape. The tablelands in particular are really fascinating and when you go there you're just like where where did this come from?
It's this big orange flat rock just there on the landscape surrounded by mountains of green and then if you keep going north you can take a beautiful boat ride into Western Burk Pond, which is 1.3 billion years old. I mean, that's the oldest rock you can find on Earth. The beauty and majesty of the place never gets old. It has that effect still to this day on me, but I love getting to relive it every time I take a new group in there. You just see the awe on their face, right?
Because it is so big. The pond is so long and the cliffs are just so sheer that it's a very dramatic experience. It's open. It's just there. Big and you can just appreciate it.
I've seen women with tears in their eyes in there because they just have this overpowering feeling of enormity and it really has the great opportunity to kind of put things into perspective. I just love how Gros Morne National Park as a whole is hugs basically all these tiny little fishing communities and those communities are really important part of the story of the park. I don't think you can go there and and miss that and I don't think it should be overlooked either. Just inside the park there is a charming coastal town called Trout River where we had an interesting conversation with a local fisherman.
I'm a fish harvester and I've been fishing now for 30 years. Fishery is pretty much the main industry in this area. A lot of my friends have their fathers and their grandfathers have fished and they still fish just exact same way as they did 70, 80 years ago. You have your beautiful days.
I mean if you were fishing today, it's beautiful underwater, but I mean there's days you have to go out and it's risky at times. In these areas you have a love for the land and the water and that's that's what makes it so so beneficial for us. I think it's never taken for granted.
From Newfoundland, we took the ferry to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where we met Mrs. Wanda Robson. I'd like to tell you a story about my sister Viola. There was nobody else in Nova Scotia that offered the services and deliver and sell beauty products to black women.
So it was November the 8th, 1946. As she nears New Glasgow, she hears a funny noise in the car, so she stops at a garage. He looks at it, and he says to her, I can fix it, but I need a part which I don't have, but I have to get from the next town, so you're going to have to fix it. to stay overnight. She loved to go to movies but she didn't give herself much time for pleasure so she goes in the movie, asks the cashier I'll have one ticket down please.
Cashier looks at her and she says we're not allowed to sell downstairs tickets to you people. So she said well here's the money, here's the difference, I'm going to sit down. The usher came to her and said you know if you don't move I'll have to call the manager.
Well My sister said, I'm not causing a fuss. I've offered the extra money. You have to call the manager because I'm not moving.
The manager went to the courthouse to get an order for her arrest, and she was put in jail. It worked out that they found her guilty of trying to defraud the government of not paying the provincial amusement tax that they have on theater tickets, which was a grand total of one cent. Mrs. Robson is a true example of determination. In 2007, at the age of 77, she graduated from university.
Perhaps it was that grit that led her to fight for greater awareness surrounding the events that led to her sister Viola's arrest in 1946. I can't believe it. In 2009, it just seemed like... An avalanche.
It was like I was getting phone calls. I was getting people coming to the door, people writing me letters, the government. Then I spoke at the province house and that was the day they gave her a pardon. Something I had never expected.
But then I thought, oh Viola, you've done it. You've done it. You've done it.
In recent years, Viola Desmond's memory has been honoured in a few different ways. The fairy in Halifax was named after her, she has been memorialised on one of our Canadian stamps, and in 2012, Viola Desmond was named the Queen of the World. 2018 she will become the first Canadian woman to appear on a Canadian banknote. The slogan Canada's Ocean Playground couldn't be more true.
Picture perfect lighthouses and coastal scenery. Nothing compares to looking at the distant horizon across the Atlantic Ocean. Imagine standing by a lighthouse at dawn or studying the many spectacular rock formations along Nova Scotia's coastline.
In Anaganish, we had the opportunity to talk with a Syrian refugee family that had been welcomed into Canada not long ago. This is their story. A refugee means that you lose everything, especially lose your sense of belonging. That losing your home, losing your friends, your connections, everything you have been building since ever you were born, will be lost in one moment.
So we were in Lebanon and... We didn't know where to go from Lebanon. Then, you know, we had this opportunity from the Canadian embassy that they invited me and my family to come to this country.
They offer everything they can to make us feel safe. While the other countries close the borders, everything in favor of the refugees, Canada opened the doors and shipped us in a safe flight to just arrive here and give us the chance to start our life again. That was...
It was really amazing thing that didn't happen before in any other country. Everything they cared about was because we are human beings and we are seeking safety to arrive in our new country and to feel that this is really our home again. Then we discussed what we are going to give back for the country who received us. So we started our business again. The chocolate factory that we used to work in Syria, making chocolate since 40 years when my father started his business.
in Damascus. My father thought he would not be able to start his business in 10 years when he arrived here in the beginning. Then he realized it's easy by the support of the Canadians and because you are in Canada, because you are in Nova Scotia, because you are in Antigonish, that happened very fast because we have people around us, they embraced us and they really care. But I feel that we are the luckiest because we came to Canada. We discussed what to call the company and it was the message.
that we are here for. And we said we need to deliver and let everybody know that our story is through our name. And the whole family agreed on the name Peace by Chocolate. Just outside Anaganish, we talked with Brad Firth, who is nearing the end of a run across Canada, for a very noble cause. Basically, you know, I'm doing it to raise awareness around violence against women.
And also, you know, just to try to raise the conscious level of all Canadians. I'm just sharing what I know, but also, you know, I'm just feeling grateful to do this kind of work, right? It's beautiful work and I enjoy being a runner and just trying to carry that message as far as possible. Just trying to inspire. and motivate as many people as possible.
Even though I fell into addiction, I overcame it. So I started racing when I was really young and playing hockey as a child. And I went back to it.
I went back to my original teachings. So that's why I'm able to resurrect myself, resurrect that athlete inside me. You have a fulfilling life. You have a peaceful life, a joyful life. It's been a long seven months of running.
I'm tired, you know, so I'm expecting, you know, a good invitation to Newfoundland. I have 20 days of running left, but at the same time, you know... I want to carry that message deep into Newfoundland, you know, with a lot of focus, a lot of drive, just like any other community.
When you want to run across Canada, you have to expect all kinds of conditions and you have to not to expect a lot. Don't complain. You know, this is what you want to do.
Don't complain. On October 24th, Caribou Legs arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland. After many months on the road, he finally achieved his goal of running across Canada.
Prince Edward Island can be described as a storybook place. Picture as towering cliffs, emerald seas to red sandy beaches. Intensive colours everywhere you look, just like a fairy tale.
Some people may not realize the story of Confederation started here. In Charlottetown, we met Lacey, a young entrepreneur who demonstrated to me that when a person is driven, it doesn't matter how old they are. So, since I was little, I've grown up dancing on PEI, and I've been to almost every dance school that the island has. quite a few. But as I got older I started to want more of an experience of what it's like working in the dance industry.
But PEI didn't really have an opportunity for me to learn these things, so I would have to go off-island and I didn't want that to to be the case for all the dancers that are here now. So I thought if I was able to bring this opportunity to PEI for the dancers, giving them all the things that I wish I had when I was growing up, I'd be able to make a difference. So that's what I've done.
I started my business in April of 2016 at 16 years old. I've grown very quickly from two classes up to 16 classes a week and I have about 80 students. So I hired choreographers from Off Island to come in and work with with my dancers for special workshops.
I'm the primary teacher though, and I absolutely love it. So that's a little bit about 24 Dance. It's going really well. And yeah, it's crazy when I say it out loud, but I love it. The thing is that I always wanted to leave, but now that I've had all these amazing opportunities and I'm meeting all these amazing people on PEI, some really cool mentors, lots of cool projects going on, new businesses opening, I'm realizing that I'm going to be able to Realizing that PEI is an amazing place, especially to start a business.
The support you get here is incredible. There's tons of funding available. It's just a really great place. So I definitely will go off and travel and learn more, but I'm always going to come back here because there's no place like home.
Not far from Lacey lives a 92-year-old farmer named John Lister. John has been farming his entire life and is still passionately caring for the land after all these years. It's a great place to farm.
I run cattle, grow grain, make silage. I'm not going to stop until I can't do it anymore. I'm looking at 100 right now. If I didn't pound, I probably wouldn't be around. That's what's wrong with a lot of people.
They quit. 65, draw their pension, quit. 70, put them in a box. If you quit, you're done.
Because everything slows down if you don't do nothing. I tend to keep going as long as I possibly can. And that may be four or five more years.
Maybe more. I don't eat out. I don't eat in restaurants or fast food outfits forever.
No. Because I make all my own. You name it, I make it.
I suppose my secret is the fact I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't eat bought food. It's full of preservatives. You weren't made to handle that sort of stuff. I don't know what it is to be sick.
I'm never sick. Pure and happy. Why wouldn't I be?
At the end of the day, we cross the Confederation Bridge headed for Moncton New Brownsville. Systema New Brunswick is working very hard to break economic barriers. Nobody deserves to be excluded from opportunity for any reason. We started with 50 children and one teacher. It was madness and chaos.
That's the only thing I can say. You know, we had a lot to learn and we have progressively learned over time. And today it's so exciting. In New Brunswick, we now have the largest Sistema-inspired program in all of Canada.
We have eight locations throughout the country. the province. We have Sistema centers in the north and the south of the province.
We engage Anglophones, Francophones, First Nations children and newcomers to New Brunswick. Today we have more than 15 orchestras and almost a thousand kids involved in our programs. The great thing about it is it's a story that all of New Brunswick shares in because to create a program like this doesn't happen by one person or three people.
It takes everybody in the community to make it happen. And so as a result, children who would never, ever have an opportunity like this attend three hours every day, five days a week, with a fully professional staff team of teaching artists. There are a lot of people told us kids in North America wouldn't do that. But they do it. And they stay.
In fact, we have two to three times more applicants than we have space for. So kids want to be here, and once they arrive, they stay. It's about engaging children who otherwise would be left out, because I don't think there's anything more tragic than that. Kids from economically disadvantaged families have as much capacity to be great as anyone from a middle or upper income home.
So why would we expect anything but excellence? And through this experience, children are inspired to achieve their full potential. New Brunswick has been jokingly referred to as the drive-thru province, but I can assure you the province has a lot more to offer if you're willing to take the time and stop.
It is a wilderness paradise. 84% of the province is covered in trees. Renowned for its many trails, its lush forest, its rivers teeming with fish, New Brunswickers themselves do not take this place for granted.
They love being outdoors in all seasons. New Brunswick is also well known for its fresh and abundant seafood. When I visited Grand Manant, I was amazed by the hard work that is required to be a lobster fisherman. I was most astonished by Sarah. I met her and saw how skilled a fisherman she was.
I don't know, it's just nice to be there. I've spent 20 years of my life on the water, so it's normal for me to be on the water. I enjoy the sunrises, I enjoy the sunsets. There's always something different to look at.
A couple days ago I saw a shark breach. The week before that I saw an orca. And yesterday I saw humpbacks. I have done all of the jobs that are involved in lobster fishing, but it takes a special captain to hire a female because physically we're weaker than men. But given a little bit of time, we can do the job.
Pretty much any woman can do that if that's what they want to do. A normal day, we'll get up around 4 or 5 depending on the tide and where we're going to haul our traps. It's a 15-minute drive to get to the boat.
There's four of us in our crew and it takes us about... An hour and a half to get out to our traps. We'll haul as many as we can. Probably stay out there for 10 or 12. It just depends on the tide. A normal day for us.
We get home at 7 or 8. Here it doesn't matter. We're fishermen. We don't use the fisher girl or the fisher woman or fisherette.
It's a job and we just go do it as fishermen. If you can do the job, then go do it. The province of Quebec offers the perfect balance of New World and Old World.
It is the largest province in Canada. It is also the largest French-speaking territory in the world. Quebec City has more romance and European charm than any other city in North America. Montreal has earned a reputation for producing great artists and fostering a true creative spirit.
This is a place that's aged gracefully, wearing its years with quiet elegance. When I arrived in Montreal, I went in search of the best bagels. You can find inspiration in anything, even a piece of bread. So we have hot bagels coming out of the oven every five minutes. So it's very convenient for someone to walk in, buy a dozen bagels or a bagel or two.
They're hot, they're fresh, they're irresistible. The Bagel Shop opened up in 1957. We have the perfect recipe, the perfect combination of employees, staff, and everything. So that's why our bagels are the best.
We do it with love, we do it with passion. There's nothing more than that. So you can see when they come out of the oven, you have a nice shine golden look to it. That's because of the honey. And the second thing is we bake our bagels in a wood oven.
The fact that we bake it in a wood oven gives it a different texture and that's what makes our bagels stand out. Every morning I wake up with a smile on my face coming to work because I love making bagels. It's my passion. When I make the bagels and I serve customers, seeing them with a smile on their face. makes it very satisfying for me.
My name is Giovanni Zlano. I work at St. Vita Bagel Shop in Montreal and we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you think about sodas, probably there are only two brands that will come to your mind. But innovation is also possible in Montreal.
I talked with Sebastian about his 1642 Cola made with Canadian maple syrup. Why 1642? It's the date of the foundation of Montreal. You know, in this type of market, the soda market, there are two big companies that are fighting to have the largest share of the market.
It was difficult to perceive that there were possibilities. It went through innovation, creation and novelty. A good craft collar made with natural sucs.
like maple syrup. It comes to touch something in us, in Canada, which is intrinsic to each of us. Maple syrup is part of our history. Montreal, I am in love with Montreal. Montreal welcomed me, Montreal gave me a job, gave me friends, gave me a second family, finally.
And for me, I would not see myself living elsewhere than in Montreal because I feel good, it's a life that looks like me, multicultural, diverse, spontaneous. And in my case, it's sure that today, now, my company is so Montrealese that I can't live elsewhere. And today, I am very proud to be able to give jobs back to Canada.
It's my contribution and that's what I prefer in the success of this project. In Ottawa, I met Saheem Benally, who truly embodies the Canadian dream. Not long ago, she immigrated here from Algeria, North Africa. With only a hundred dollars in her pocket.
I was coming from Civil War. I just wanted, you know, a safe place. I have an university degree, but when you come here, you have to start from scratch. And you don't have, you know, to be, to be afraid to just roll your sleeve and take any kind of job.
I just wanted to join the workforce. This is what I wanted. I wanted to work and work hard and be independent. Actually it was in winter, it was the first shock. It was minus 20. For someone coming from North Africa, where in winter it's 15 degrees, it was quite a shock.
But once you get a good pair of boots, and a good coat, and a good hat, you can go through winter. Because it was quite a stretch for my skin and I started having bad skin problems and skin conditions. I thought about the Argan Oil which is an all-natural and very powerful moisturizer that grows in my region.
And the woman who produces the oil doesn't know how to read or write. The only source of income is producing the oil. You know, make it by hand and provide the best quality ever and it's my way to empower them. Canada gave me the opportunity to be self-employed, to be independent, to be a breadwinner and those women need this help and this is my way to give back. The Ottawa community has been amazing because it's a very green city.
They took the first order and then it was the second order and the third order. Today my product is available around the country. We went from 10 stores to 300 stores and this can happen only in our country.
40% of the population of Canada live here in Ontario for a good reason. Toronto is a cosmopolitan city, a modern metropolis, bursting with energy but at the same time very relaxing. One thing that really stood out to me about the city was how alive it felt.
no matter what time of the day it was. There is something here for everyone. A truly multicultural metropolis that is very tolerant and inclusive.
More than half the population here was born outside of Canada. Ed Whitlock symbolizes the true spirit of Ontario. His story taught me the importance of overcoming challenges. That age is just a number.
The real accomplishment in life is always being able to remain young at heart. My name is Ed Whitlock. I'm 85 years old. I came to Canada when I was 21. The main thing that struck me when I came to here from England was a tremendous spirit of optimism among all the...
people I was associated with in the mining industry. In those days there was no running up there and so I quit running. I didn't start running again until I was 40. Nowadays I train running around a very small cemetery.
It's only about a third of a mile for a lap and I run round and round like that for... Sometimes when I start off five or ten minutes, sometimes when I'm up to training like I am now for a marathon, it's over three hours. It's peaceful there, you don't have to worry about the drivers and that sort of thing.
My dream about Sunday is that I will get my pacing right and that I will run proper pace at the start of the race. I hope to be able, with the weather permitting, I hope it'll be less than four hours. I've been running more or less continuously since I've been 40 to now 85 and... I waste a lot of time training. I don't know whether it's really, really worth it, but it is to me.
On October 2016, Ed broke another world record, running a sub-4 hour marathon in Toronto at age 85. Sadly, this would be his last marathon. Ed passed away on March 2017. His competitive spirit and running achievement will inspire people in the years to come. Manitoba is home to vast farmland surrounded by thousands of acres of grain.
Winnipeg feels like an oasis. The gateway of the prairies located at the heart of Canada. Manitoba was once a key strategic point and trading centre. No exploration of Canada is complete without visiting Manitoba. Every city has monuments that represent and symbolize the ideas of the people that live there.
But in Winnipeg, they took this principle and went bigger. They have the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which opened its doors on September 2014. This is the first national museum since 1967 and the only one west of Ottawa. This museum has been a game changer for certainly tourism to Winnipeg and we see that we've had 63% of the visitors.
of our visitors since April have come from outside of Winnipeg, so it's drawing people here which is sparking all kinds of economic development and conferences and conventions are coming here that would not otherwise have chosen Winnipeg. We're part of a whole renaissance of development in Winnipeg where we've got a new park and zoo, we've got a new airport, we've got a new football stadium, a new hockey arena, all kinds of new hotel and restaurant developments, so it's really happening in Winnipeg. and it's really making Winnipeggers quite proud. The architecture of the building is a piece of art, a monument to human rights in and of itself.
It's also about multiple perspectives. So the museum looks very different if you change your angle and your point of view, if you walk around to a different side, both outside and inside. And that's an important concept to human rights as well. If we change our point of view, things might look totally different and we get a new understanding. standing.
This museum is not based around a collection of things, it's based around an idea. So what we're doing is trying to illuminate that idea primarily with storytelling and so we use all different methods to tell those stories. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other.
This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other.
This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other. This is a place where people can get to know each other.
can come and learn more about human rights, talk about human rights, and we hope that it'll spark the kind of educational climate that can help us understand why human rights is important and maybe get ideas about what they can do to promote human rights as well. Everybody deserves a second chance in life, and this is exactly what JD and his Sunshine Band are doing. I feel there should be one in every city.
Well we come from a place called the Sunshine House, and the Sunshine House is a drop-in center in downtown Winnipeg that provides street-involved people with recreational activities. We started a band out of a project that we were running there. We wrote a song together, made a video and released the video and then we decided that we should run an entire project on music.
A lot of people that come to the drop-in center aren't necessarily musicians, but they still contribute to the... music with their stories and their little tidbits of their own lives. So there are some people that can play instruments. But we have our crew of shiners, we call them, and shiners are the people that play the percussion and give the kind of like je ne sais quoi to our music, you know, the intangible elements.
And we take the stories, the slang, and the humor off the streets of Winnipeg, give them a backbeat and a melody, and put them back on the streets with renewed swagger. I feel very comfortable and confident. They're my friends, you know, it's real. We've created an entity.
It's nice. We've created a real thing. It's great to have created something that had the input from so many different places and people. You could overlook certain things on the streets or in the city or in life generally, but you can also focus on trying to unearth some things where you wouldn't expect, and that's something that I think our band has been able to do.
It's a great opportunity to try to unearth the voice of the community. Saskatchewan is the land of endless horizons. It's impossible not to feel free here. I thought Regina was the most unexpected place I visited.
Everything was enjoyable. The open landscape, the people, there is nothing missing in this city. You will find amazing parks, impressive buildings, sport complexes and some very neat history.
It is fantastic for a city of its size. This city is one of the friendliest in Canada, with a strong sense of community. If you're accepted to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Regina is where you're going to train. Here we talked to one officer who shared with us her personal experience as an RCMP.
I'm born and raised in Bomaco, Mali. I left there when I was 12 to come to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for high school. Before I joined, I went to the University of Saskatchewan.
I was going to become a teacher, and I wasn't sure if that was for me, so I decided to change careers, decided to join the RCMP. And essentially that was because I wanted to see if I could have that opportunity to do that, and if I'm tough enough, and if I'm strong enough, let's see if I can try it and let's see if I can do it. And so that's really what brought on the career decision and it worked out and here I am 13 years later.
It's been awesome, it's been great, it's been everything and it's been much more than I ever anticipated. The reason I joined was to be that person for somebody who's having their worst day. And in general duty, that's really what it is about.
You're working with people on their, potentially the worst day of their life. I wanted to be that person for them and I wanted to be in their corner. And so if it came to safety, if it came to protection, that's what I got to do.
And that was so rewarding and not an opportunity everybody gets in their jobs on a daily basis. and it's an amazing opportunity in the RCMP to be able to be there for someone. I've had the benefit of growing up in both cultures. What it's really meant for me is really instilled what it is to be Canadian and represent this country wherever you go. Canada for me is about being open.
Our country is vast, it's open, but we're also very open people. There are some who would say that if you're in Saskatchewan there's nothing to see and it's the complete opposite. If you're in Saskatchewan you can see forever, you can see for miles. It really is the province, the land of the living skies and if you leave the city and take a look at our sunsets and the prairies you understand what it means to live in Saskatchewan because you can breathe. It's beautiful.
Canada is hockey, and there are very few here who would dispute that. Often hockey is falsely perceived as being a male-oriented and aggressive sport, but women also practice it with passion and intensity. We had the opportunity to attend a hockey match of the University of Regina women's team and talked with Sarah Hodges. She is one of the very few women in the country that is full-time coach of a hockey team. I think hockey is the one real Canadian thing that everybody identifies Canadians with.
with and I think it's important to our national pride and our national identity. We always want to see the Canadians do well whether it's at the hockey or the Olympics, anywhere on the international scene and I think it's what we're known for and we're expected to do well. It's just a way of life in Canada.
It's been over 30 years since. I had my start in hockey and when I started I wasn't allowed to play. There was no girls hockey at the time.
The only option was to play boys and they didn't let me play when I was six. So I started playing when I was seven. I think the women's game is more refined and there's more emphasis on skill.
The men's, I think there's a lot more crashing and banging. And I think you can be a big player that's got some speed and be successful. Whereas women's hockey, you have to be... I'm skilled all around to be a good women's hockey player, so I think that's the difference on the ice.
Girls hockey is also expensive to play and it's also the parents see kind of a carrot at the end of the road. So boys, they all want to make the NHL. I think with the girls, they all want to play university or play on the national team. So there's a goal for them which makes the parents maybe a little bit too intense at times. While I've worked hard, I think it's important to change.
I grow all the time, so I started coaching when I was 23 and I'm not the same coach now as I was 18 years ago. I've changed every year and I've tried to get better and I think that's important to be successful in anything that you do. The first thing that people relate to Saskatchewan are their parents. But Jay Brown argues that there is a lot more than flat land here.
The core of what SaskHiker is, is to provide people the information that they need to find hiking trails throughout the province. I love spending time outside, especially in Saskatchewan outdoors, and I wanted more people to do that and I figured the best way to do that was just to show people where to go. So showing what this province is, it's a lot different than what I think most people think it is. I think everybody thinks that Saskatchewan is, you know, the wheat field and the sunset and the elevator, right? You know, we've been saying that for a hundred years, so why would you think any differently?
The Trans-Canada Highway, it's a major highway. I think that's the most people's experience of Saskatchewan is getting on that highway and putting their crews in. You know, there's a reason that that highway was built there because it's flat and it's easy to build the highway. But if you're willing, you know, to take a left off the highway, you know, go down a...
dirt road, go somewhere where you're maybe not 100% comfortable, you'll see something that you've never seen before because it only exists here. To access it isn't as easy as just driving and parking the car. You have to go for it.
You have to find it. You have to go and you have to go spend time in nature. You can see how the people lived here for thousands of years.
Let me tell you this about Banff. It's everything you'd imagine plus more. People from all over come to see the Rockies, which rise majestically from the Alberta plains. It's impossible to exaggerate the beauty of this place.
A few hours away you will find the Badlands. The landscape is unlike anything I had ever seen. The whole province is overflowing with natural beauty. Calgary is a young and modern city with a particular Western feel.
Southeast of Calgary I visited a ranch and met with Brenda Furr. Brenda and her husband run a very unique initiative. 300 horses or more per day are going through this slaughterhouse. They are, for the most part, healthy horses.
The meat is shipped to Europe. So what we do here is we get... ...them healthy, teach them, train them, and hopefully in the future adopt them out to new homes. We have everything from registered quarter horses.
We have a granddaughter of Seattle Slough who was a Triple Crown winner. We have some of the best bloodlines there are in Canada here, believe it or not. And there's no reason... for them to be shipped, but breeders are looking for that one special horse, so they'll breed 80 mares or better.
To get that one, the rest they don't care about. On average, at least a year they're here. Some will go out sooner, depending on what the person's looking for, but we like to give them a good base of groundwork training and, you know, be safe to be around those sorts of things. So on average a year, some are here four and five years. before we find the right home.
On average we have 30 to 35 horses, but we have been up to 60. So we keep our numbers where we can manage to look after them properly. What we do is we have someone that's interested come here and actually work with the horse, and I look to see if there's a connection between that person and the horse. If there's not a connection or if the person doesn't know what they're doing, Then no, we don't adopt them out. But we also do offer a program here. If we have room, they can board the horse here and we teach them how to teach their horse.
It's a passion and we love them and I believe that no horse deserves to go to slaughter. They just don't. I would say that it was kind of like I was in a chaotic moment in my life and woke up one day totally had an out-of-body experience, went out to Bragg Creek, totally got lost in the woods and I would say that that was kind of the first day that I guess I felt nature and when that day happened I relentlessly began exploring every day after that.
And before that I never really did it had anything to do with photography at all. You know I didn't really plan any of that you know before that it was nine-to-five desk job kind of thing. And so my audience has seen me go through this whole transition, kind of being stuck a little bit, to finding the vitality of life every day in nature.
One day, Dax had the courage to follow his heart. He left his day job to write his own history and started this adventure. This was the catalyst for him to become a well-known and recognized nature photographer.
And since then, he has been hired nationwide for his unique way to share nature. Coming to Banff is amazing. Everywhere you turn, there's like a hidden kingdom of beauty around you.
If you're just open enough to find them, right? You don't need to necessarily get to a destination. I don't really like to explore under a timeframe or under an itinerary.
What I like to do is like pull over on the side of the road and then just walk. Vancouver has been on my radar as a city to visit for quite some time. This place is impressive.
Everything from the people to the architecture to the city itself, it just has a really different vibe that separated itself from any city I've travelled to in Canada. The rainforest surrounding the city is incredible. The city felt extremely fresh to me.
First Nation culture is respected and celebrated here. Vancouver is a very progressive place. There is a real sense of freedom here.
It's one of the most livable cities on earth. Just outside downtown Vancouver, I met Judy Williams, who is passionate about preserving Wreck Beach. Wreck Beach has been a clothing optional beach since the 1920s.
It's where you can be naked if you choose. Right now, you can walk from the Acadia section all the way around to the Musqueam Reserve, because it's all parkland now, and you can be nude the entire way around if that's what your preference is. And we didn't want to give up one inch and we've fought all these years to keep the beach clothing optional.
And we fight for what we believe in and we fight for having a right to be as we wish to be down here. We're non-violent, we're protective of this beach and that's the way we want to keep it. It's about personal freedom. It's about being able to really be at one with nature, to appreciate the beach.
The beauty of this lovely beach, this is where I came and healed myself and that's what made me free. Nowhere else can you be 15 minutes from a major metropolis and come here and have the illusion of wilderness. This is where concrete, steel and glass incarcerated humans can come to feel at one with nature. When you're coming down that trail, you leave that workaday world, the fantasy world up there, because this is the real world here. This is where our hearts are.
And as you get closer to the bottom of the steps, everything lifts and you can just float and be free. In today's world, there is no place for any kind of discrimination. S.D. Homan taught me that whatever obstacles you face, you should always stand up for your own rights. The Queer Arts Festival is a multidisciplinary festival.
I joined because there wasn't a place for me in the art world, and so I made that place. I encourage people to do that. If you can't find your places, try to.
You know, get involved with something and make it happen. So, being the change that I wanted to see, I guess, it's hard to fund a festival called Queer, but we are successful. And you can see that by the new works I think that it's created, and I think that offshoots have come, you know, come from the festival. We have lots of other groups that have been inspired to do things that I don't see happening in other cities of our side. Our success is because we just don't give up.
We just keep pounding against that door and are willing to do what we need to do to bring the art and to make the artists feel like they have a place to create and be themselves. How do we measure success? One of my favorite stories is... And it goes back to being in a community center is we had a very hard-hitting piece by Mary Taylor in there a few years ago called Homophobia Kills. And she had these huge walls and they were lined with weapons that were used in homophobic and trans murders.
And we had a group of four boys come in from a basketball. They just wandered into the gallery and they sat there stinger-ing at the words that were projected onto the wall. And our president, Jeff Gibson, who works in the schools, came over and talked to them and he explained to him what the work was about.
And they grew thoughtful and silent and listened. And then they went away and 20 minutes later they brought their whole basketball team in to view the work. And so from, in a 20 minute span of time, they went from being bullies to allies, right? And that's my measure of success. But the trip didn't end in Vancouver.
We took a ferry to Vancouver Island and spent a little time in Victoria before heading west. We arrived in a paradise called Tofino, a beautiful beach with great waves. This was the perfect spot to take a deep breath to think a little bit about our adventure. I was overwhelmed by Canadian openness.
Almost everybody that we approached welcomed us and did everything they could to make this project a success. We should feel very proud about living in this beautiful vast country. I think the easiest way to describe what it means to be a Canadian is having a culture that embraces differences and works to take the best of them instead of pushing them away. We are a mosaic of cultures that have defined this country and will stay like that for future generations.
We know we are not perfect but accept that and work every day to strive to do better and to be better. Together we are better.