RE:LOCATION NATION
GIVEN THE CURRENT CULTURAL MAKEUP OF CANADA,
it can be difficult to identify a universally shared Canadian experience. But as Canadian Geographic embarked on our Re:location project, highlighting both past and present community relocations in Canada, it became apparent that there may be one.
This initiative — which includes an interactive website (cangeo.ca/relocation), an educational program with a Giant Floor Map, a feature story and poster map (see “Promised lands,” page 44), along with a forthcoming public exhibit at our headquarters at 50 Sussex Drive in Ottawa — focuses on Canadian communities forced to move. Yet all Canadians have likely experienced a relocation, either personally or through members of their family tree. Indigenous Peoples here have faced systemic relocation for centuries and nonindigenous Canadians have forebearers who immigrated here. So, we can all imagine the challenges — and in some cases opportunities — of moving to a new place.
Coincidentally, the evolution of the places we call home is a theme that emerges in other features in this issue, too, be it the habitat changes happening in British Columbia’s Broughton region (“Broughtons in the balance,” page 32), the expanded role of the Royal Canadian Navy (“Operation Caribbe,” page 62) or the amalgamation of Ontario’s Port Arthur and Fort William in Thunder Bay (“Charting the Lakehead,” page 72). Combined, these stories remind us that all Canadians share a profound appreciation of what defines “home.” And how to maintain that anywhere — even in space, as astronaut David Saint-jacques did when he took our publisher’s flag (above) to the International Space Station during his 2018-19 mission. Home can always be with us.