A few years ago, Jim and I had a conversation while hiking along the Bruce Trail in the beautiful Niagara Escarpment, which led to the idea of Project Zoom. We asked ourselves, “What does the rest of Canada look like and what’s it like to live there? There’s only one way to find out.”
We have always lived in Ontario, and frequently traveled outside of Canada. We decided to travel within our country’s own borders and do a trip across Canada to help educate ourselves and others.
We made the choice to live in each provincial capital city for approximately one month. We didn’t want to be on a 10-month road trip. The book focuses on ‘living’ in the various cities; therefore it was important to set up some realistic and doable guidelines. We believe that when you visit a city for a week or two, you still feel like a tourist. By the third week, habits have started to form, and a regular lifestyle seems to evolve. We set the following perimeters for this project:
- Drive to each provincial capital city with our car via Canadian highways.
- Walk, bike, run or use the transit system whenever possible in the city.
- Try and live a similar lifestyle to what we are accustomed to.
Our epic journey started in Toronto on April 1, 2011. Our blog contains ‘snippets’ of our adventures, which allows us to communicate with Canadians’, and others around the world, during our 7,300 km trip across Canada.
The book Zooming Across Canada will be a memoir of the time we spent in planning this trip, stories of the people we met along the way, what we learned about living in Canada’s provincial capital cities in ten months, and what happened after we completed our tour. It should hit the shelves in September 2012, and the proceeds from the sale of this book go to benefit Chip Charity.
The book will appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about Canada, or if you’re considering relocating to another part of the country, what it’s like to live there. For those of you who are thinking about immigrating to Canada, you will find valuable information on which city you may enjoy calling home.
Location Schedule
- Toronto, ON – April 2011
- St. John’s, NL – May 2011
- Halifax, NS – June 2011
- Charlottetown, PE – July 2011
- Fredericton, NB – August 2011
- Quebec City, QC – September 2011
- Winnipeg, MB – October 2011
- Regina, SK – November 2011
- Edmonton, AB – December 2011
- Victoria, BC – January 2012
Project Zoom Route Map
