As I reported earlier, the CBC has been on a quest to choose the Seven Wonders of Canada. After 25,000 nominations, more than a million votes, and friendly deliberations by three specially chosen judges, the seven wonders have been chosen. They are:
I must say I am extremely pleased with the list. It turned out to be not just a list of wonders but a list of powerful symbols representing every aspect of this great country. The Canoe, a brilliant aboriginal invention, was the means by which early European traders and settlers travelled through our forbidding wilderness. It continues to give us great joy by taking us into the wilderness that is so much a part of our identity. The Igloo, another great invention, represents the north and the northern aboriginal peoples who will need all of their inventiveness to survive the challenge of global warming.
Niagara Falls, the Prairie Skies, and The Rockies represent the some of the diversity of awe-inspiring landscapes in this country. In the online voting, the top seven choices were all natural wonders, but they couldn't all make it on the list because the judges were mandated to choose both natural and human-made wonders. Old Quebec City definitely deserves to be on the list for its beauty and to represent Canada's rich Francophone heritage. Finally, Pier 21 in Halifax, a wonder I didn't know about before this process, was the port through which many of the immigrants who built this country arrived.
It really is an impressive list. It covers every geographic region, represents all of our founding peoples, and honours the marvellous landscape that is a part of our soul. I would have liked to see some trees on the list, and in fact the judges considered expanding the list to eight in order to include the mystical forests of Haida Gwaii, but they finally decided that if the world only gets seven wonders, Canada could make do with that number as well. So there you have it. Well done CBC and well done Canada!
If you want to go straight to the pretty pictures, click here and enjoy!
