The Current - The Current’s travel bucket list: Vote for your favourite!

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

We asked for your favourite Canadian vacation spots for The Current’s travel bucket list — and you certainly delivered, with more than 2,000 submissions. Rick Mercer joins Matt Galloway to unveil the shortlist of 20 amazing locations, and explain how you can vote for your favourite.

I've been covering politics for 20 years and I can't remember a time like now when everything we thought we knew has been thrown in the air. From Trudeau's resignation to Trump's tariffs to a spring election during huge shifts in the polls. There's a lot at stake and power and politics is here to guide you through it. I'm David Cochran and on CBC's only political

daily I speak to the key players in this election. From the candidates to the analysts to the journalists on the campaign trail. You can find power and politics wherever you get your podcasts including YouTube. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. It is the last day of March. Summer vacation is on the horizon.

And earlier this month, we launched our search for The Current's Canadian travel bucket list. We asked you to send us your submissions of the places every Canadian needs to visit as more and more people look to spend their travel dollars here at home. And you delivered to the tune of more than 2000 submissions representing every province

and territory in this country. Today, you can start voting on what will be our final bucket list. The top 10 locations. We'll tell you more about that coming up in a moment, but first to help us unveil the 20 finalists. One of the funniest people in a country known for very funny people.

Somebody who has traveled far and wide in this country, he is one of the stars of this hour, has 22 minutes for 15 seasons, hosted his own program here at CBC, Rick Mercer, good morning. Good morning, Matt. Nice to be here. Nice to see you. Great to be back. What do you make of this moment in this country right now? Boy, there's a lot going on in this country right now, isn't there? I guess in the good old days, a year ago, Canadians were angry. There was definitely anger in the country. A lot of it was pointed at the liberal party, but mostly it was manifesting itself through Justin Trudeau

Canadians were angry at the liberals But then they talked about how they hated the sound of his voice or the way he moves his head or the way he looks out at a crowd like it was very personal and Now that he's gone and we have a trade war, that anger has been replaced with fear. People are fearful about the future, they're fearful about our sovereignty, and it has changed literally everything. And they're wrapping themselves around the flag as well,

which is interesting. Well, I don't think anything has changed other than we never felt it necessary to fly flags off our balcony and to wave flags and scream we're number one, but the idea that we could do that was always there. We just didn't feel like it was necessary. And now people do absolutely feel like it's necessary. One of the ways that people are expressing that is by staying here in Canada.

People are canceling trips. There's statistics of how many flights, fewer flights are heading to the United States. I think they're saying 70%, which is astounding. Year over year. I would imagine 10% would be a major disruption in the travel industry. 70%, it's astounding. What do you love about traveling in Canada? You have had the opportunity through your job to see a lot of this country. Well, it was the greatest opportunity of my life to travel nonstop for 15 years.

But what I love about this moment that Canadians are deciding to travel inside of Canada is this, it's an easy sell. Canadians always had a desire to travel in Canada. There's no such thing as a family in Halifax that wouldn't want their kids to see the Rockies. There's no such thing as an Albertan that wouldn't want their kids to see Niagara Falls. That just doesn't exist. It was just always easier to go to the States. Just like if you were a manufacturer, you had a product and you wanted to sell it beyond your hometown. So easy just to go to the States. Well, that's not there anymore. So the good news is Canada is an incredible country. It's well worth traveling. It's huge. You could

spend five years, five lifetimes exploring Canada or 10 if you do it by via because they're very slow trains, but it's it's there's just so much to see and You know and there's a trip for everyone for everyone in every budget We asked people to tell us about the places that should be on every Canadian's bucket list And I mean there are people who say I'm not gonna tell you about my secret spot because then everybody will show up and it Won't be as glorious because all of you people will be here. But when you take a look at the places you have been, what are some of the places that stand out?

Oh my God, look, I was, when you called me, and I knew you were doing this, I was like, he better not be calling me looking for my top 10. Because as a Newfoundlander, I always have 20 movies on my top 10 movie list. I literally, I couldn't choose because if you ask me where I want to go in Ontario,

I need to give you a list of 15. Is there a place that you went to, maybe you had an idea of what it was, you got there and you couldn't believe what you had seen. Well, the one is going to come up a little later because you've asked me to speak about two on the list and I don't know if you want me to reveal it now.

But I will say, if I can say it, is Tofino, British Columbia, because I went to Tofino, and I knew I was going to take surfing lessons. And beyond that, I didn't do my homework. And I pride myself on doing my homework. And for whatever reason, all I knew was, I'm going to some place called Tofino

to take surfing lessons. I woke up at probably 5 o'clock in the morning, left the hotel, walked down on a beach, the sun was coming up. It was a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever slapped my eyes on. And it's just a tremendous, tremendous place. And I might be killed for this because I come from Newfoundland. We're supposed to talk about beaches in Newfoundland.

This beach spoke to me in a way that nothing else has. How did the surfing work? That's what people also wanna know. Well, I tell you, I went to a place called Surf Sisters, all of these beautiful young women who teach you how to surf. And I was very worried because I just instinctively knew I'd never get up

on that surfboard and they got me up on the surfboard. And it was, it's an incredible adventure and that's something that's happening there all the time and I believe at least at that time they promised they would get you up on that surfboard if you were eight months old or 80 years old and they certainly did with me. So 2000 plus submissions came in. It's exciting. It is. People are excited about this country and about showing off this country from those

submissions, we chose 20, not entirely scientific process to make sure that we represent the entire country because that's what we have to do. It's your public broadcaster. Um, we're going to go through the finalists, uh, the top 20 in just a moment, but first each of the top 20 will have a champion, a listener who wrote in suggesting that destination.

And you will hear from all the champions over the course of the next month. To start, we have Christine Day and Catherine McDonald joining us with their picks. Christine wrote in from Conception Bay South in Newfoundland. Catherine McDonald wrote to us from West Vancouver in British Columbia, perhaps channeling what Rick Mercer was talking about there. They both joined us now. Good morning to you both. Good morning.

Good morning. Christine, tell us what location on the giant map of Canada you are championing for our Canadian travel bucket list. Yes, well, like Rick, I too have traveled in lots of different places across Canada, and I agree Tufino is beautiful, but I had to select Bonavista, Newfoundland as my Canadian bucket list trip. Bonavista is a small town you know about 3,000 people grows to a real bustling town and tourist season. It's on the end of a peninsula jutting right out into the ocean. At the end there's a

gorgeous lighthouse. You'll never feel as close to nature as you will in Bonavista. You are literally surrounded by earth, water, wind, and sky, and lots of wind at that when you're in Bonavista. It truly does offer something for everyone all year round in any season. I mean, I can sort of give as much detail as you know. Keep going. Why, why, why? You're very good. You're very good. You could work for the tourism board too. Oh my gosh. Well, people have said to me, Christine, you need to work in tourism and travel

because you can really extol the virtues of all these places that you visit. But Bonavista holds a special place in my heart. And we started going there more regularly, I would say, during COVID, because it's such a perfect place to staycation in the sense that you can go there and literally not see another person. But as I said, it offers something in every season. So I'll just give a little snippet of what a typical season would look like there for me. So for me, in spring and early summer, it's right on Iceberg Alley. So you can go and spot really majestic blue and white icebergs. You might even catch one rolling over and crashing into the sea, which is pretty spectacular. And so being in the migration path and on the feeding grounds of many different animals, it offers tons of opportunities to spot a

number of different whale species like humpbacks, of course, minkees, and even orca whales in recent years. Other wildlife opportunities abound. You can snap photos of puffins and foxes and bald eagles. In fact, one of the favorite photos I ever took was of a bald eagle flying right in front of an iceberg. So that was pretty spectacular. When you're done with being outside, what do you do? Oh, well, there's lots of things to see inside as well. The town of Bonavista is lined with all these very carefully

restored historical homes and buildings. So they've really done a great job there of kind of preserving the built heritage of that town, especially in recent years. There's been a real resurgence of that. Because of that, it's attracted lots of shops and breweries, cafes, restaurants, bakeries. So there's a lot of very cool sort of small businesses there. A lot of young families have moved back to the area to start up those small businesses. There's festivals, you know, winter time and summertime. One of my favorite places to go there is there's a historic Garrick Theatre which has live music and film so that's a great thing to do especially in the wintertime when you don't want to get outside as much. Although I do say

that there's really no such thing as bad weather in Newfoundland, only bad clothes and so to me, even wintertime, because it's so rugged and so beautiful, of course, it's, I don't know if you are aware, but it's a UNESCO global geopark destination. So there's all kinds of very unique geological, natural and cultural wonders that have been sort of recognized and preserved now. And even in the wintertime, to me, it's nothing that a hot cup of tea won't cure. So you can certainly go back inside and get cozy again once you've hiked out over those gorgeous rugged cliffs even in the winter. Rick Mercer, do you have a word about Bonavista?

Wow, you covered an awful lot. I will say this about Bonavista. The last time I was there, we just decided to pop up on a whim to Bonavista because we were a little bit below it and it was a beautiful August day and I happened to be traveling with someone who just had a knee replacement so accessibility was top of mind and we went to the Bonavista Lighthouse which many Canadians will know by osmosis because it's often featured in beauty reels of Canada. And it was very easy to just walk to the edge at one point and we took photographs of puffins. And I have photographs taken on my phone,

and I'm quite famous for taking bad photos. I have photos taken on my phone of puffins that looked like they were taken by wildlife photographers, professionals. They're just right there. It's, you know, it's the most, it most, what a way to spend a day watching puffins. And that same day we saw, it was just humpback, humpback, humpback, there were humpbacks breaching everywhere,

which is, you know, this is like, they're like three school buses. I mean, it's an incredible thing to witness. And so the wildlife is right there, smack in your face. Catherine, that's the pitch from one side of the country. Let's go to the other side. And what is your pick for our bucket list? Well, morning, Matt.

Like Rick, one of my favorite places in Canada is Tofino, actually. I had a similar experience to Rick of going out sort of onto the beach first thing in the morning and you're just surrounded by the sound of the waves crashing in on the beach, the trees around you, there's a couple of people out surfing and it's one of the most peaceful places I've ever been. Even with all that nature around you, it creates a real inner peace, I would say. Hmm. When did you first go to Tofino? I started going in COVID actually. I was looking for a more local sort of location to go to,

and someone suggested Tofino. And I was kind of shocked once I had gone that I'd never been before living so close by really, which I think is one of the amazing things of Tofino, a lot of Canadians have never heard of it or they know it as sort of a surfing destination and that's all there kind of is to it, but there is so much to do in Tofino and to see, which is what I like about it so much. Was there a moment, I mean, having gone and seen this beautiful part of your province where you realized, you know what, I'm going to come back here. This is somewhere that I'm going to make an effort to come back to as often as I can.

100%. I think one of the nice things about traveling is I think there's places that you go to or you've been to and because of, you know, money or your age or the sort of distance, you know, you're only going to go maybe once or twice in your life and that can be an amazing experience. But to find places that you end up, you go to again and again and it becomes sort of component or a part of your life, I think that's really one of the amazing parts of travel and Tofino has certainly become that for me and I hope that becomes a place for other people listening today. Is that how it feels that it's become part of your life in some ways? Yes. I mean, I go every year, you know, sometimes a couple of times a year now.

Um, and every time I'm there, you're just thinking, okay, when can I come back again? Uh, it really has become that sort of place for me. Um, yeah, a real sense of peace going. Excellent. I'm going to let you both go, but just, I mean, the reason we're doing this in part is because this country is, is a big, beautiful place that people may not know enough about. And this is an opportunity for people to get out and explore. Catherine, what would you say to people about the importance of travelling in Canada now?

I think a lot of Canadians, like Rick said, they think to travel is to go to the States or go to Europe, go to another country. And we kind of forget about our own backyard. And I went to FINA once in the summer and I was surrounded in Pacific Rim National Park by all these German tourists. And I thought, I can't believe these people have come from so far away to a place that a lot of Canadians

would never think to travel to, where they think it's too far away for them to travel to. But if people can come from all the way across the world to places in Canada that travel, Canadians should be doing exactly the same thing. Christine, do you want to pick up really quickly on that? Absolutely. I mean, I think Canada's beautiful coast to coast, like I said, I've traveled many places in this gorgeous country and I can honestly say, there's something beautiful to be seen

in every province and territory. Being from Newfoundland, I am gravitating to Bonavista. That's my place to go. I love that place. And I think that Catherine's right. I mean, I think this is, we should be proud of this country. It's full of wonderful welcoming people and beautiful sights to see.

So please get out there and enjoy your country wherever you go. You've done well in your pitches. Thank you both for being here this morning. Thank you so much. Christine Day is in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland. She cast her vote for Bonavista.

Catherine McDonald is in West Vancouver, British Columbia. Her pick is Tofino. I'm Zing Singh. And I'm Simoning Zing. And I'm Simon Jack. And together we host Good Bad Billionaire. The podcast exploring the lives of some of the world's richest people.

In the new season, we're setting our sights on some big names. Yep, LeBron James and Martha Stewart to name just a few. And as always, Simon and I are trying to decide whether we think they're good, bad or just another billionaire. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Find it on bbc.com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. We're going to run through some of the others on the top 20. Basin Head Provincial Park in PEI, Saigonet-Fuert in Quebec, the Bull River in Alberta, Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, which I'd never been to before until a couple years ago I went and it was beautiful.

It is tremendous. Oh my goodness. It is tremendous and there's so many cultural events that happen in there which you don't think of necessarily when you think of a national park, but there's the famous fjords which are just incredible. I go to a writer's festival there, Woody Point, which is an incredible, the only reason I write books is to go to the writer's festival in Woody Point. It is such an incredible time. Manitoulin Island in Ontario and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Do you have anything to say about any of those that I just ran through?

The drive around Cape Breton is mind-blowing. And if you're lucky enough to do it when the leaves are changing, it is truly spectacular. It's probably right up there in terms of those drives that are available in North America. But Cape Breton is just one of the funniest places in the country in terms of the people that come from Cape Breton. Really some of the funniest people I know and some of the most welcoming people I know. And much like Newfoundland, there will always be good food, there will always be good music, there will always be great chat. And I can't say enough

about K-Bred. Okay. We're going to run through some of the others on the list. If there's any that stand out to you. Okay. I'll, yeah. Stratford, Ontario. I mean, you can go for the theatre, but there's lots more that's happening there as well in addition to the Shakespeare Festival. Great swimming hole. I wish I knew what it was called. Really? Yeah. An incredible one.

Ask Ron Sexsmith. He would know he lives there. He would know he's out there. But yes, of course, it's a theater capital. It's unbelievable. I go every year. Coochie Bu Guac National Park in New Brunswick. I've never been. Never? I've never been either. No, I've never been. One of the things I like about this list, I looked through it, is there are all sorts of places that I've never been to before, which is kind of what you want, right?

Oh, literally, it was my job for 16 years to go places and I like to be flippant and say, I've been everywhere, man, but no, I'm not even close. Quebec City? Oh, it's just... How could you not? Well, how could you not? And for people who've never been to Europe, it is Europe. It's like going to Europe.

It's so incredible. It's like you've picked up and flown to the other side of the world. Just the architectural culture shock of visiting Quebec city is as great as visiting almost anywhere. St. Andrews by the sea in New Brunswick. The best chowder I've ever had in my life. Really? Yeah.

Do tell. And I'm, and he's had some chowder. And the Bay of, I love the specific, how specific this is, the Bay of Fundy on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay, driving from Amherst to Mass Town, which we did last year. I'm guessing that person's from Nova Scotia. Yeah.

Not New Brunswick. The final batch is Katenapec National Park in Nunavut, the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories. I've never done the Nahanni. One of those giant North Rithers. 25 years ago, 30 years ago, I was asked to paddle the Nahanni with Justin Trudeau in the boat.

Goodness. And he was just a private citizen. And with Justin Trudeau in the boat. Goodness. And he was just a private citizen. And me in the back of a boat on a river, a canoe, sorry, I would say we both would have drowned and it would have been a very different country. Like Le Bers in the Yukon, which is stunning, the Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. The big sky, growing up, people would say to me, big sky. I'd be like, what are you talking about? Everyone has a big sky. They're all big. And then you see the big sky and you realize, oh, I've been wrong. I don't come from a place with a big sky. Churchill, Manitoba also.

Oh, the polar bears. And there's so many of them. Don't be worried that like, oh, I'm going to go to Churchill, I hope I see polar bears. You will see so many polar bears. You'll be sick of polar bears by the time you leave. Caribou, Chikolton in British Columbia, and finally, Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. Have not been. Are there any places on that list that are on your bucket list or places in this country that aren't on the list that you like, before your time runs out,

you wanna get to one of those places. You mentioned Nunavut, and one of the great things that I did get to experience was traveling in the North. If anyone ever has the opportunity to do so, and I was fortunate, it was with work, absolutely seize the opportunity, because it's like nowhere else. It is, and it is so different than most of our upbringings

you could ever imagine, about as far away as you could possibly get from the way you grew up. And yet it's in our own country. We're a Northern nation and we talk about this. Yes, and if you get any opportunity to do it, do it, you won't be sorry. I can't think of anybody better to help run through this list and talk about where to go

in this country than you. Rick, thank you very much. How do I vote? You go to the internet. Do you have the internet? I do. It's on the phones these days. Rick Mercer, author, comedian, great Canadian.

If you would like to vote on which location needs to be in the final bucket list, which of the top 20, go to the website, cbc.ca slash the current. You can vote once a day for the next month. And then Rick will be back to help us announce the top 10, the ultimate Canadian travel bucket list, where should we travel in this country? Go to cbc.ca slash the current voting runs until the 30th of April.

Rick, thank you very much. Thank you so much, Matt. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.