Canada Book

Honestly, I chose this book because of its title, a sort of Fredericks of North Dakota sort of appeal.

I've been to Moose Jaw, and have always loved the name. I also have traveled extensively in Canada, and was intrigued to read about the country that everyone seems to forget.

Will Ferguson wrote the chapters in this book over a number of years, randomly traveling hither and yon. He is a writer who captures the look, feel, history, and humor of the places he goes and, in this book, he organizes his tour from west (Victoria) to east. He hops from place to place in a somewhat random fashion (maybe chosen because of journalists' tours and family vacations?) to give the reader a sense of the interesection between people and geography. Canada is so vast: he writes of a town where no one can walk around alone because there are polar bears lurking everywhere (churchill) and of towns where the smallest break in the prairie is a town with a name on it.

Now, I want to go back to Moose Jaw, and I want to go on to eastern Canada, where I've never been before. This was a nice way to take a virtual trip: Ferguson is funny and insightful, and the pictures he's planted in my mind's eye make me wonder why I'm sitting here writing this rather than googling cheap flights to Ontario.