The Current - Need vacation ideas? Canadians share their favourite spots

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Two more listeners make the case for their favourite vacation spots, hoping to win a place on The Current’s list of great Canadian travel destinations. Emilie English shares what she loves about the Cariboo-Chilcotin region in B.C., and Tania Millen takes us on a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. You can see the full shortlist and vote for your favourite on cbc.ca/thecurrent.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. We have been creating the ultimate Canadian travel guide and that quest to create that

guide is almost complete. Of the thousands of submissions we've received, we've narrowed it down to 20 finalists. And over the past month, I've been talking to listeners championing their favourite destinations, places like Grossmourn in Newfoundland, Lake Leberge in Yukon, Manitoulin Island in Ontario, places that these listeners believe every

Canadian should visit. You can vote for your favorites online at cbc.ca slash The Current. We will reveal the final list of the top 10 later on this week. Today I'm joined by our last two finalists. Emily English is from Chelsea, Quebec, and Tanya Millen is in Hinton, Alberta.

Good morning to you both. Good morning. Good morning. Emily, what is your pick for the top 10? What is the place that every Canadian should go to? I chose the Caribou Chilcotin region in British Columbia, specifically the stretch between Williams Lake and well, all, if you go all the way

to the coast, Bella Coola, but that highway 20 is really something special. So we've been talking a little bit about road trips and what's really special and powerful about being on a road trip. And in your submission, you described driving through this region. If people were on the road, what would they see? Well, they'd see a lot. I guess it depends how you get there in the first place.

If you're driving up from pretty much anywhere in BC or Alberta or Canada, you'll go through a variety of ecosystems and places. But once you get there, you're in the interior of BC and it feels like you're kind of in cowboy country and the, so you're in the interior and then you head west and it's a real like, I feel, I've been thinking a lot about it and it's a real like Canadian kind of east to west journey lot about it and it's a real like Canadian kind of east to west journey in 500 kilometers of particular stretch of Canada, of course, but you start out in the interior Williams Lake and then

you drive west, you cross the mighty Fraser and then you drive through this beautiful landscape, which starts out vast open spaces, big skies, beautiful grasslands and rolling hills. And then as you keep going west, you get closer and closer to those beautiful mountains that are ever present in the distance. And you can see pretty much everything. There's canyons and hoodoos and glacial rivers.

It's just really something special. You said this is your soul place. Yeah. What does that mean? Well, I grew up in Ontario, and then I lived in BC for a number of years, and I actually got the chance to go up to this region many times as part of my work,

and then also just as a visitor. But I don't know, there's just something really special about this place. I never really considered it. I didn't know anything about it. But even the first time I went up there, I was like, wow, this is really something unique. It's not just the landscape, but it's like the people and the history, like the history there is really evident on the landscape of both settler and indigenous history. You can see the old ranches, but the ranches are still functioning and there's cowboys riding, wrangling, you know, the cattle. And there's just something really special about it. It's big, it's open, it's quiet. Well, when I was there, and it might still be the case, there was very little or

actually no cell service. So you're just kind of disconnected from, you know, your, the everyday kind of hum of life and you just get a chance to think and like to ponder, to explore the area and be surprised by, I was surprised by so many things there that I didn't expect to see. But the soul place, I don't know, there's just something quiet about it. There's something really deep and open and really, really beautiful. So I definitely hope to go back again in the future. That's lovely. And you kind of know when you're in a place that, when it hits you that way. Tanya, the pic that you're making, this is interesting. This is kind of a family affair because your

sister originally wrote in, but you're going to tag team up on this and you will champion a place that you both love. You're not speaking on behalf of your sister. You're speaking, it's kind of like two powers kind of brought together in one. Tell us of your pick. What is the place that you think every Canadian needs to visit?

Sure. Well, uh, so Waterton National Park and, um, it's just a tiny little pocket of a national park compared to Banff and Jasper National Parks. So in the southwest corner of Alberta, but it's this example of the larger ecosystem because it's connected to the north, to Castle Provincial Park, it's connected to the west across the continental divide into British Columbia, and then it's connected to the north, to Castle Provincial Park, it's connected to the west across the Continental Divide into British Columbia, and then it's

connected to the south to Glacier National Park, and Waterton and Glacier are actually an international peace park. So I think what I find so fascinating about it is that the prairies just continue on and then run straight up into the mountains, and there's no rolling hills in front of that.

So you literally drive along this fan up the river and to the lakes and then you're in the mountains right there. But then it being so small, you wouldn't think there was a whole lot there, but actually big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, there's wolves, there's deer. And when you hike through there, or just on a regular day when you drive into town to have an ice cream, you often see lots of those animals which you really don't see in other places because they're so dispersed. And the best way to see them, I mean, you can drive and hike, but the best way perhaps

is on horseback? Yeah, so the first time I went there was 2016 and I purposely took my horse and it's a very horse welcoming park. There's Alpine Stables, an outfitter there who still runs horseback trips but you can, if you have your own horse, you can go there to ride. And that's how I've mostly explored the park is on horseback. It's interesting. I can let you both go, but I mean, you and Emily are both championing kind of areas, you know, in the West, surrounded by mountains. Why should every Canadian, Tanya, visit the Rockies?

What is it about the, for people who are elsewhere in the country, what is it about the Rockies that is so special? I think, you know, I've been thinking about this and I think partly it's the continental divide. You know, it really does divide the watersheds and the North and South Saskatchewan that run all across the country to Hudson Bay and the Athabasca that runs North to the Arctic

and even all the big rivers that flow west to the Pacific they all start in the Rockies. And so there's that piece that it really does feed our whole country but there's also just the spectacular aspect and the feeling that you get when you go into the Rockies is it's a very different place that takes you to a different place in your head, I think. You both nailed this idea, and Emily, you picked up on it perfectly, this idea of the soul place.

When we launched this idea, we had people who were contributing suggestions from all across this country, and all of them were speaking to that idea of the place that makes them feel good in their soul. Thank you both for making your pitches this morning, and we will add the pins to the Currents map. Thank you. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Matt. Tanya Millen and Emily English are our last finalists for the Ultimate Canadian Travel Guide.