Premieres nationwide March 2010 on PBS (check local listings)
Stunning Aerial and Ground Footage Showcase Natural Beauty and Vibrant Cities
WLIW21’s Visions® series has been bringing television audiences the world’s top destinations like no tour could for more than a decade. Visions® of Canada, the 24th program in the popular series, celebrates the best our northern neighbors have to offer, traveling east to west from the Atlantic Maritime Provinces to British Columbia. Following the February 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Visions® of Canada is part of special programming airing in March 2010 (check local listings) on PBS stations.
“Since we began the Visions® series in 1997, we have taken our viewers to some of the most interesting destinations in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East for vicarious vacations,” says Executive Producer Roy A Hammond. “With Canada, we shot some of the most stunning images yet in the series, and right in our own backyard”. Visions® hits the highlights of the world’s second-largest country, spanning six time zones to showcase Canada’s diverse natural beauty and vibrant cities. Stunning high definition aerial and ground footage, paired with music and informative narration, give rich historical context to dramatic land and seascapes.
From wine country to the Hockey Hall of Fame, from the abstract beauty of the ‘earth paintings’ formed by low tide on the Bay of Fundy to the height of commerce along the St. Lawrence River, Visions® of Canada reveals a country of amazing contrasts that form a cultural and geographic mosaic. French, English, Irish, and Scottish roots meet Vancouver’s flourishing Chinatown. Palm trees and snow-capped mountains share a common land mass. East meets west, old meets new, tradition engages innovation, and a proud past comes face to face with an exciting future. And you’d have to be in a barrel to get closer to Niagara Falls.
Visions® of Canada begins in the east in the Maritime Provinces as the original Viking explorers might have. As the helicopter-mounted camera soars over Nova Scotia, it is hard to imagine such transcendent beauty was ever the site of decades of conflict, evidenced today only in the English and French names of places like Charlottetown (for King George’s wife), Halifax (an English lord) or Cape Breton (Brittany’s namesake). Visions® offers a new and unique perspective on some of Canada’s most famous locations, giving a taste of the history behind the Thousand Islands, plunging into the raging waters of Horseshoe Falls and much more. You’ll almost feel the cobblestones on the streets of Quebec City and the creative buzz of cosmopolitan Montreal, and then head west to experience the riches of the national capital in Ottawa, generally considered Canada’s best kept secret. Continuing west, the camera skims the surface looking for shipwrecks in Fathom Five Marine National Park, combs the beach at Lake Huron during the height of Canadian summer in Ontario, and finds itself, like so many, seduced by the pulse of Toronto’s modern metropolis. Here, the CN Tower, the tallest freestanding structure in North America, helps us find our bearings from anywhere in the city.
Moving over central Canada, the camera sweeps over the sea of grass that is the vast prairie lands, climbs high into the Rockies where only professional climbers venture, provides the quickest route to the top of the 621-foot Calgary Tower, teases the tranquil turquoise waters of Lake Louise among an abundance of pristine mirrored lakes nearly close enough to touch, and joins the ancient spirits above the Pacific Rim to see the world as it appears nowhere else.
After a journey of stirring beauty from east to west, the end of the continent at British Columbia can feel like the end of the world. But before the sun sets, Visions® of Canada tours Vancouver Harbor, the blue jewel in the green mountain setting discovered by Captain George Vancouver in the late 1700s — and then ends its journey in the capital of British Columbia, Victoria.
Visions® of Canada is the 24th program in WLIW21’s acclaimed Visions® series. Past programs include tours of Italy, Greece, Puerto Rico, France, and Israel. Visions® provides a visual itinerary… an emotional visit to a family homeland… a souvenir of the trip of a lifetime… or the virtual realization of a fantasy vacation – and always a one-of-a-kind experience. For more information, visit visionsof.org.
Sites Visited
Roche Percé, Gaspé Peninsula
Port-Royal, Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
St. Dunston’s Basilica
Jacques Cartier Monument, Gaspé
Royal Military College, Kingston
Fort Charotte, Halifax
Citadel, Halifax
Bay of Fundy
Confederation Bridge
Gulf of St. Lawrence
Laviolette Bridge
Manor Richelieu Hotel
Cap au Saumon Lighthouse
Montmorency Falls
Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
Québec City
Château Frontenac Hotel
La Citadelle
Place Royale
Maison Chevalier
Parlement de Québec
St. Helen’s Island
Montreal Olympic Park
Biosphere
1501 McGill College Tower
Habitat 67 (Expo 67)
Basilique Notre-Dame
Strathcona Music Building
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Place des Arts
Marché Bonsecours
Port Clock Tower
McGill University
James McGill
Botanical Gardens Pagoda
Thousand Islands
Boldt’s Castle
Niagara Falls
American Falls
Horseshoe Falls
Rideau Canal
Hamilton
Kingston
Fort Henry, Kingston
Ottawa Locks
Canadian Parliament
Byward Market
National Gallery of Canada
Canadian Museum of Civilization
National War Memorial
Georgian Bay, Ontario
Cabot Head Lighthouse
Fathom Five Marine National Park
“Wonderland” Maple, Ontario
Toronto
Princes’ Gates
Scotia Tower
CN Tower
Old City Hall
New City Hall
Roy Thomson Hall
Royal Ontario Museum
Art Gallery of Ontario
University of Toronto
Ontario Parliament
Rogers Centre
Air Canada Centre
Hockey Hall of Fame
Fort York
Toronto Islands
Midland, Ontario
Calgary Zoo
Fort Calgary North-West Mounted Police Memorial
Fairmont Hotel, Banff Springs
Lake Louise
Chateau Lake Louise
Spring thaw Yoho National Park
Upper Arrow Lake
Columbia River
Golden
Kelowna
Capilano Suspension Bridge
Vancouver Harbor
Science World
Public Library
Gastown Steam Clock
Canada Place
Harbour Centre Tower
Chinatown Gate
Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Chinese Garden
Convention Centre
“Gassy” Jack Deighton
Vancouver Art Gallery
Stanley Park
Strait of Georgia
Vancouver Island
Gabriel Island Lighthouse
Victoria, Vancouver Island
Queen Elizabeth II Statue
Empress Hotel
Royal British Columbia Museum
Bastion Square
Butchart Gardens
DVDs of this program are available when you support WLIW21.
A production of WLIW21 for WNET.ORG. Executive Producer/Aerial Director: Roy A Hammond. Producer/Writer: Sam Toperoff. Underwriters: Public Television Viewers and PBS.
There are 1700 miles between Toronto and Calgary. Nothing from this 1700 miles appears in your “sites visited”.
Also, nothing in the sites mentioned is from the 90% of Canada which lies more than 150 miles north of the US border.
A rather limited “vision”.
Visions of Canada-when will that be shown again?
Hi,
While I have not seen this particular video (Canada) I have seen many others on HDNet. Your team does absolutely Amazing Work! Please make more.
If you are looking for a calligrapher to provide personalized titles for each place name check out my work at:
http://steveczajka.posterous.com
Thanks
Steve
I noted a number of factual errors for the portions dealing with my part of the country, leaving me wondering how accurate the rest of the information given is.
For example:
-there is certainly no ferry from Canada Place in downtown Vancouver to Vancouver Island
-the Queen whose statue is found on the grounds of the legislature in Victoria is not Queen Elizabeth II, but Queen Victoria (imagine that!)
I also doubt the proposition that Victoria was chosen over the “metropolis” of Vancouver as provincial capitial as this occurred before the railway arrived later that century. I have not researched the point, but would not be surprised to find that Victoria’s population was greater at the time.
In short, the lack of fact checking in this documentary is deplorable.
I too was disappointed that the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan were totally left out. There is so much to see when you leave Toronto and before you arrive in Calgary. What a disservice to the people of not only Canada but to the viewers. Manitoba has 100.000 lakes, the Capital city of Winnipeg has so much heritage to show. 20 minutes north of the city is Lower Fort Garry just to mention a couple of things.
Other problems with Visions of Canada
While visiting Montreal, the narrator says:
“Not long ago Canada and Quebec were actually part of the British Commonwealth.”
OK – so you don’t now what the British Commonwealth is or that Canada is, and always has been, a member.
A list of commonwealth countries:
http://www.workpermit.com/uk/commonwealth_countries.htm
Lets put this in terms that might apply to the USA
“Not long ago the USA was actually part of NATO.”
Yes, it is that stupid.
OTHER ISSUES
Rather than saying that Canada is “one of the largest countries in the world” would it not be more informative to say “Canada is the second largest country in the world?”
If a documentary made by the BBC described Washington as “surprisingly modern” (as this program describes Ottawa) would you think the BBC:
a) condescending, or
b) ignorant
Pronouncing Saskatchewan is admittedly difficult but the version employed in this program is entirely new.
That’s all – I fast forwarded through the rest.
Hard to get good research help – try the Internet.
Shame on you. As an American who spent 44 days in Saskatchewan and visited Manitoba and Thunder Bay in Ontario, I was disappointed in watching Visions Canada and having the two provences omitted and Western Ontario. We even visited Newfoundland, where was it?