CANADA, REIMAGINED

A six-year map project yields a new, connected vision of the country,

the impact that happens in one city will have an impact in other areas. And so this was a nice, little metaphor for that. Canada Day is just around the corner. What does Canada mean to you and does this map help you visualize that in any way? We really are an urban nation. I’m proudly Canadian. I’m not nationalistic, not a face painter, a big flag waver or anything like that, but I’m certainly very proud of who we are as a country, as a character. And I’m actually very proud of our cities and how they’ve evolved into unique and dynamic spaces. How has the map become an instrument for you to reach out to more remote areas of Canada that you wish you could be more connected to? I do remember that when I was younger and I went away, I was really proud to be from Toronto. And then when I was in Toronto, I was very proud to be from North York. And when I was in North York, I was proud to be from Willowdale. I’ve always had that very keen sense of place and pride. I can just imagine someone from Gravenhurst seeing this map for the first time and being excited that they’re on it. Or some small town in Newfoundland is on this map, or a city like Flin Flon in Manitoba is on this map. There are people who will want to identify and see themselves reflected in something like this. Was there a new place metaphorically that you found yourself moving to while working on this? You can see I have a couple of closed stations on the map. Those were settlements at some points that were important, but they’re no longer there. I felt like I should include those, because in a subway system as big as the one I created, there’s going to be a few closed stations.There were multiple occasions I was learning stuff about a city or a town or community that I had never, never heard about or knew much about and I was totally enamoured by it. When people look at this image, where do you want this map to take them? I think people don’t think about the idea of Canada as a city and what that would be. And then I also think that people will drill down into the map and go, “Oh, what’s that? I never, never heard of that town.” They’ll go look it up and see what it’s all about.