Bert ter Hart has allowed us to join him on his journey across Canada from Gabriola Island, BC, to Big Shippegan Lighthouse, New Brunswick. His exploration across Canada—in the footsteps and the paddle strokes of Indigenous people, European mapmakers, and ordinary travellers—is a quest to understand the shared experiences that have shaped this country, the small acts that a great number of people have undertaken. Beyond the everyday challenges he will face in this journey, he is constrained by time: he must travel to, and cross, the Rocky Mountains at Howse Pass as early as possible in the spring to beat winter to New Brunswick. We caught up with him with a few questions in late November as he was planning, and training for, his journey.
Q: How would you describe yourself? A: I was born and grew up on the Canadian Prairies. Surrounded by a vast expanse of sky and a limitless horizon, I loved everything about the Prairies. My parents immigrated to Canada from Holland in the early 1950s and, despite both having travelled around the world more than once, Canada, and specifically Saskatchewan, drew them like no other place on Earth.
My father came to Canada after a career in the Dutch merchant navy. He was a navigator, and he plied those same skills as a land surveyor in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Working with my father, I trudged miles through prairie grasslands, ravines, coulees, and birch forests. The land deeply inspired him. He had a profound respect for the First Nations peoples who had lived and thrived in such a harsh and frequently inhospitable place.
At just 17, I joined the Canadian Armed Forces looking for an education
