The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more…
While technically a part of Quebec City, Charlesbourg has a larger role to play than just being a suburb to the provincial capital. Jacques Cartier, the first European to arrive spent the winter of 1535 here, but it wasn’t until over a century later before the town was founded in Read more…
The fish ladder at the dam in Grand Rapids lets fish lie trout and salmon move upstream and bypass the dam. There are additional fish ladders in upstream dams so fish can spawn as they did thousands of years ago. The fish ladder was designed to allow fish through while Read more…
Grand Rapids was my bonus level in Michigan. I had only planned to visit Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Lansing on the trip, but efficiency won the day. Former president Gerald Ford was born and grew up in Grand Rapids, his presidential library and grave site has price space on Read more…
University of King’s College is the oldest university in the British Empire outside of the British Isles. It was originally established in 1789 in Windsor before being moved to Halifax in 1923, occupying the northwestern corner of Dalhousie University’s main campus. Dalhousie College, now a university, was built with customs Read more…
A blockhouse built in the town during the War of 1812 is now a National Historic Site. I used to protect the town from American privateers, but Atlantic Canada also profited handsomely from privateering during the war. Similar Blockhouses were built in Lunenburg and Saint John, three such blockhouses with Read more…
Although originally settled by the Germans, a good chunk of the city’s residents speak French, and many are bilingual. It’s not just home to Atlantic Canada’s only French-language university, the University of Moncton, it’s also host to Acadian food. The city was named after Colonel Robert Monckton, but the ‘K’ Read more…
The landscape of Grand Pré was created by 17th century Acadians who built dykes, drained the seawater, and let the rain wash the salt away to create fertile farmland. Although the infrastructure holding the sea back has been replaced, visitors are still standing on the same tract of land cleared Read more…
Little Wolfsville on Nova Scotia western shore has a French-language university that mainly teaches at the undergraduate level. Established in 1838, it is one of Canada’s older universities and follows Nova Scotia’s religious affiliations for higher education. King’s College was Anglican, Dalhousie was controlled by the Church of Scotland, and Read more…
I imagine myself being Mayberry as I walked through the small town of Wolfville where everyone knows everyone else and there are no secrets beyond the first day of telling them. The two main banks in the town are still in their original 19th century buildings and the commercial area Read more…
Dartmouth is the opposite of Halifax. It’s on the opposite shore of Halifax, the architecture makes no sense, it’s inconvenient to live on the schedule of a half-hourly ferry, and it’s expensive to cross on the two toll bridges to Halifax. If they put Province House in Dartmouth, it would Read more…