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Open
Skies and Air Highways to a Great Canadian
Vacationland
by
Jerry
W. Bird
There's
a great big, broad land way up yonder,
There are forests where silence has lease
There's a beauty that thrills me with wonder,
There's a stillness that fills me with peace.
Robert W. Service
 This
summer, we will be loading our Dodge Caravan with
magazines, and heading out on the road across
Canada to meet the media, develop new travel
industry contacts, interview mayors and community
leaders. The starting route we have chosen is the
Trans
Canada Yellowhead Highway
from Prince Rupert, BC via Kamloops, Jasper,
Edmonton and Saskatoon to Winnipeg. Via Rail Canada
travels the same route, and we have over 20
Railway
Travel pages
on this site alone. We plan to stop at many
interesting places in between and will renew old
acquaintances.
Travel
With Taste Tours
Putting
the Spirit in the Season
Award-winning
Vancouver Island food writer, Elizabeth Levinson,
and culinary tourism specialist, Kathy McAree, are
putting the spirit in the season with indulgent
weekend getaways.
Canada
Hosts 2006 Air Cargo Expo
For
example, I can't wait to visit my Royal Canadian
Air Force base at Macdonald, Manitoba near
Portage
La Prairie
where I served for a year or so. It's really an
awesome journey, some 2600 km in length. A few
months ago,
I
was keynote speaker at the Yellowhead
Highways
Association's 56th Annual Conference in Sherwood
Park, near Edmonton, Alberta, and my timely topic
of course, was Tourism. While we are off to
Atlantic City, USA, Europe and Africa, my son
Ken Bird will be carrying on the tradition.
He and his friends will be exploring more of
Canada's great river systems, with 30 already to
their credit. See Rivers
of Canada.
In
designing our Air Highways Canada Showcase
for the next USA trip, we dig deep into a gold mine
of memorable experiences as residents and visitors
in many of Canada's cities, rural communities and
far flung frontiers. Thanks to the Canadian Tourism
Commission, its provincial counterparts and mail
from communities near and far, we have a gold mine
of information, and plan to bring our readers the
creme de la creme
Canada's
Railway Castles
Another
natural place to start a tribute to Canada is with
the hotel industry. Canada is dotted with famous
hotels, castles, inns, lodges and resorts; a few
having existed since pioneer days, while others are
but faded memories. Many of my favorite haunts
remain as attractive as ever, keeping up with the
times, yet retaining their unique charm. Across
Canada, the palatial Banff Springs and Chateau Lake
Louise, Victoria's Empress, Hotel Vancouver,
Edmonton's Mac, Saskatoon's Bessborough, Regina's
Hotel Saskatchewan and Calgary's Palliser are prime
examples.
Further
east, there's the Fort Garry, Royal York, Chateau
Frontenac and Laurier - the list goes on- and on.
Fotomation - Famous travel posters available at
Canadian Pacific Stores. http://www.cphotels.ca
And
how can I forget our glorious week long stay at the
Hotel Newfoundland in St. Johns during the TCAAN
Convention. Newfoundlanders know how to throw a
party. Last summer, I was pleased to meet with
Sandra
Kelly,
whom Air Highways interviewed in 1993 at an
Airports Conference when she was Mayor of Gander.
This lady of our times is now the Hon. Sandra
Kelly, Provincial Minister of Industry. A well
deserved position. I promised to return and write a
feature on Newfoundland Tourism, and am eager to
return. Speaking of hotels, during the mid 70s, a
suite in Edmonton's Macdonald Hotel served as our
advertising agency's branch office.
Harrison Hot Springs Resort, near Vancouver also
'springs to mind' as a legend of CPR's glory days,
when high rollers, from movie stars to royalty rode
the train, staying at hotels and resorts at or near
the main line. We launched Air Highways Magazine
there at the BC Aviation Council 1996 Conference,
where I spoke on my favorite topic - Open Skies.
Another great hotel, Vancouver's Sheraton Wall
Center was the site of our 1st Air & Marine
Tourism Conference, and we plan a return
engagement.
 Travel
into History: The
first hotels in my memory were in my home town,
Dawson City of Klondike fame. Most were remaining
relics of Gold Rush days. Ornamental pressed tin
adorned the inner walls and lined the ceilings,
corrugated tin, patched with flattened aviation gas
cans was the popular roofing material, and the
facade was usually a false
front.
In the Royal Alexandra
Hotel on Front
Street, facing the steamboat docks, hung enormous
oil paintings of buxom nude ladies. Scattered about
lobby were shiny brass spittoons and deep, black
leather chairs, where we kids dove for loose change
every few days. There was usually a gang of old
timers from the creeks and about town, with tall
tales to tell. Most of them like Black Mike, Snooze
Benson and Little Dave, frequented the snake room
and card tables at the back of the hotel. For more
see Canada's
Hotels and Resorts.
Icons
of Aviation:
Our
SuperTours from Vancouver via Asia to Africa, were
inspired by the early achievements of Edmonton's
Grant MacConachie, founder of Canadian Pacific
Airlines, who dreamed of an air bridge to the
Orient and across the pole.
Canada's
Airport network, and pilots Wop May, Max Ward and
others have played a vital role in opening the
North to trade and tourism, just as the
great
transcontinental
railway
changed the face of Canada in the 1890s. Stay
tuned, there's plenty more to come on the topic of
transportation
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