Canadian Railway Journey: Living the National Dream, Travelling on Canada's Orient Express

There is a time in this fair land
when the railroad does still run

 By Stephen A. Nelson 

For the Brandon Sun

Once upon a time ... in a land from sea to sea, Canada's railways were not only the more human way to travel -- they were the only way to travel. Trains from the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway ran daily from coast to coast, as passengers carried on their steamy love affair with trains.

These days, it seems, the love is gone. It's hard not to notice the abandoned tracks and derelict railway stations -- strewn across the country like bouquets left behind by jilted girlfriends and forgotten lovers.

Yet -- despite Canadians' auto-erotic relationship with the car and affair with air -- travelling by train remains alluring to overseas visitors drawn by the romance of Canada's National Dream. Sure, the old gal may not be what she used to be -- but these visitors still love her. To them, this Brief Encounter is the journey of a lifetime.
 

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Old Strathcona District: Maybe Not Exactly the Champs-Elysée but best part of Edmonton

photo copyright Travel Alberta

Old Strathcona District

“I thought it would be like the Champs-Elysée , but it's not.”

That was Andrea's first reaction when we arrived in Edmonton's Old Strathcona District.

The travel magazines promising theatres and cinemas, boutiques and bookstores, restaurants and sidewalk cafés had clearly captured Andrea's imagination – and she was most keen to go to what I had called “the best part of Edmonton.”

Clearly Andrea had failed to factor in two things: Edmonton is not Paris, and Old Strathcona's famous Whyte Avenue lacks the more temperate nature of those foreign climes. In fact, Whyte Avenue might have more in common with Toronto's Queen Street than it does with Paris' tree-lined avenue. But that's not all bad.