2025 Upcoming Trips
Our first priority for the year will be the cosmetic restoration of our classroom car, the Chinook Centre for the Art and Restorative Education.
Three events are envisaged for the second half of 2025: one at the Chinook Centre in Cranbrook, BC; one on Alberta Prairie Railway out of Stettler AB; and one with VIA Rail Canada from Edmonton to Saskatoon, SK (John Diefenbaker and Louis Riel country (Duck Lake, Prince Albert, Batoche):
Kanata Day 2025
Tuesday, July 1, we’ll be opening our refurbished Classroom Car (ex-CP 3051) to the public on Track 3 at the Cranbrook History Centre, with our Borders, Connections, and Boundaries program. This is an interactive program on the natural “squiggly” lines of water, rock, and ice that encircle and subdivide the north half of Turtle Island (Canada), together with the “straight” man-made borders, drawn by land surveys and politicians and how these shaped who we are.
Did You Know…
- the last part of the Canada-US border to be decided was arbitrated by Kaiser Wilhelm?
- US President Wilson offered Alaska’s panhandle to Canada’s PM Borden in 1919?
- Russia was a factor in the Western provinces northern border being set at 60 degrees?
- three Canadian provinces are made up of units that were once separate colonies?
- our western voyageur routes were the reason we escaped annexation by a new USA?
Heritage Weekend 2025
Sunday, August 3, 2025, we look at the migration of continents, species and humans the led to the patchwork quilt of our federation and peoples who live here now. We’ll see how a Scot, born in Sri Lanka, was hired as an advertising copywriter for a transport company and first recognized and encouraged a Kanata “mosaic” that’s both diverse and interconnected. We’ll experience this in maps, flags, food, songs and smells in a 6-hour Stettler/Big Valley trip.
Remembrance Day Weekend 2025
From Saturday, November 8th to Tuesday the 11th, we blend a traditional re-membering (opposite of dis-member) of veterans and others who have taken a stand in global conflicts, as well the struggle of Métis people to defend their homelands from waves of settlement.
We’ll also visit the home and Centre of John Diefenbaker, who ended discrimination in Canada’s immigration selection system when he was Prime minister and spoke out against racism in the Commonwealth. This is a trip for families and mature adolescents willing to do prep and follow-up study activity, leaving Edmonton late Saturday evening and returning late Tuesday evening.
