Big Tub Lighthouse-Tobermory

Tobermory is a small community located at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. It is 300 km northwest of Toronto. The closest city to Tobermory is Owen Sound, 100 km south of Tobermory and connected by Highway 6. The community is known as the "fresh water SCUBA diving capital of the world", because of the numerous shipwrecks that lie in the surrounding waters, especially in Fathom Five National Marine Park. Tobermory and the surrounding area are popular vacation destinations. People come for the beaches, the diving, the unspoilt countryside and the relaxed pace of life. The town lies north of the Bruce Peninsula National Park.

The MS Chi-Cheemaun passenger-car ferry connects Tobermory to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. Tobermory is also the northern terminus of the Bruce Trail, and has twin harbours, known locally as "Big Tub" and "Little Tub".
The Grotto, Grotto - water carved rocks. Tobermory is typically a few degrees colder than Toronto. Most of the businesses in the town are open from May until the Thanksgiving long weekend in October, and are closed for the other seven months of the year.

Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver is a coastal city located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is named for British Captain George Vancouver, who explored and first mapped the area in the 1790s.

The metropolitan area is the third-largest in the country, and most populous in Western Canada, with the city proper ranked eighth among Canadian cities. According to the 2006 census Vancouver had a population of 578,041, and 2,116,581 people resided in its metropolitan area. In 2009, Vancouver and the surrounding area (including Abbotsford) was estimated to have a population of 2,501,699. The 2010 estimated population of the city proper was 642,843. Over the last 30 years, immigration has dramatically increased, making the city more ethnically and linguistically diverse; 52% do not speak English as their first language. Almost 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage.

From a logging sawmill established in 1867 a settlement named Gastown grew, around which a townsite named Granville arose. With the announcement that the railhead would reach the site, it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated as a city in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and London. Port Metro Vancouver is the new name for the Port of Vancouver, which is now the busiest and largest in Canada, as well as the fourth largest port (by tonnage) in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry. It also is the third-largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, earning its film industry the nickname Hollywood Nort

Rocky Mountains

Manitoba, Canada

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi). The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other major industries are transportation, manufacturing, mining, forestry, energy, and tourism. The largest ethnic group in Manitoba is English Canadian, but there is a significant Franco-Manitoban minority and a growing aboriginal population.

Manitoba's capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canada's eighth-largest Census Metropolitan Area, and home to 60% of the population of the province. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the highest court in the jurisdiction, the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Four of the province's five universities, all four of its professional sports teams, and most of its cultural activities (including Festival du Voyageur and Folklorama) are located in Winnipeg. The city has train and bus stations and a busy international airport; a Canadian Forces base operates from the airport and is the regional headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The name Manitoba (meaning "strait of the spirit" or "lake of the prairies") is believed to be derived from the Cree, Ojibwe or Assiniboine language. Fur traders first arrived during the late 17th century. Manitoba became a province of Canada in 1870 after the Red River Rebellion. A general strike took place in Winnipeg in 1919, and the province was hit hard by the Great Depression. This led to the creation of what would become the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, one of the province's major political parties.

Cover from Canada

Many thanks to Pamela for this cover with Canadian stamps!

Peggy's Cove

Peggys Cove (2009 population: approx. 46), also known as Peggy's Cove from 1961 to 1976, is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St. Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.From its inception, the community's economy revolved around the fishery, however, tourism began to overtake fishing in economic importance following the Second World War. Today, Peggys Cove is primarily a tourist attraction, although its inhabitants still fish for lobster, and the community maintains a rustic undeveloped appearance. The regional municipality and the provincial government have strict land-use regulations in the vicinity of Peggys Cove, with most property development being prohibited. Similarly there are restrictions on who can live in the community to prevent inflation of property values for year-round residents. The historic Carpenter Gothic style St. John's Anglican Church, the only church in Peggys Cove, is a municipally designated heritage site.

Cover from Canada

Many thanks to Pamela for this nice cover!

Kingston, Canada

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Ottawa, Ontario on Lake Ontario where the St. Lawrence River, flows out of the lake, near the Thousand Islands. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," (Ga-ta-row-key) the growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post. In order to control the fur trade, French explorer LaSalle founded Fort Frontenac in 1673.

Located midway between Toronto and Montreal, Kingston was named the first capital of the Province of Canada on February 15, 1841, by Governor Lord Sydenham. While its time as a political centre was short, Kingston remained an important military installation. Kingston is the county seat of Frontenac County. According to the 2006 Canadian census, the population of the city proper was 117,207, while the population of the metropolitan area was 152,358. Kingston is nicknamed the "Limestone City" because of the many historic buildings built from the local limestone. Also because most of the city is built on a bedrock of Limestone, which would explain why many historic building were constructed from this material.

Newfoundland

Newfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island. A former colony and dominion of the United Kingdom, it became the tenth province to enter the Canadian Confederation on 31 March 1949, named simply as Newfoundland. Since 1964, the province's government has referred to itself as the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and on 6 December 2001, an amendment was made to the Constitution of Canada to change the province's official name to Newfoundland and Labrador. In day-to-day conversation, however, Canadians generally still refer to the province itself as Newfoundland and to the region on the Canadian mainland as Labrador.

As of January 2010, the province's population is estimated to be 510,900 Approximately 94% of the province's population resides on the Island of Newfoundland (including its associated smaller islands), while approximately 50% live on the Avalon Peninsula. The Island of Newfoundland has its own dialects of the English, French, and Irish languages. The English dialect in Labrador shares much with that of Newfoundland. Labrador also has its own dialects of Innu-aimun and Inuktitut.

West Edmonton Mall

West Edmonton Mall (WEM), located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is the largest shopping mall in North America and the fifth largest in the world, founded by the Ghermezian brothers who emigrated from Iran in 1959. It was the world's largest mall for a 23 year period from 1981 until 2004. West Edmonton Mall covers a gross area of about 570,000 m2 (well over 6 million ft2) and cost C$1.2 billion to build. There are over 800 stores and services[4] and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 23,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives 28.2 million visitors per year and between 60,000 and 150,000 shoppers daily depending on the day and season. The mall is currently valued at C$926 million.

This card shows the World Water Park of WEM. The World Waterpark is the world's largest indoor waterpark, built in 1985, with a size of over 20,000 square metres (4.9 acres). The park has the world's largest indoor wave pool and is known for its high-speed water slide called the Sky Screamer, which is often mistaken as the park's tallest slide at 24 metres (79 ft). The highest slide in the park is the Twister, which is 25.3 metres (83 ft) high.

And you may find that the sender wrote nothing on the back, right, because I did not know him or her. The sender is a friend of my friend's, and he or she was glad to send a card from where he or she studies now. Thanks all the same!

Cover from Canada

A nice cover sent from Halifax, Canada. Inside of it Nichole sent a lot of Canadian stamps.

Halifax, Canada

The City of Halifax (est. 1841) was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County, and was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996. It is no longer an incorporated city and is a community of HRM.

On April 1, 1996, the government of Nova Scotia dissolved the City of Halifax, and amalgamated the four municipalities within Halifax County and formed Halifax Regional Municipality, a single-tier regional government covering that whole area.

Today the area of the former City of Halifax is now referred to as an unincorporated "provincial metropolitian area" by the provincial government's place name website and the area is referred to as "Halifax, Nova Scotia" for civic addressing and as a placename.

Many thanks to Nichole for this nice card from Canada!

Alberta, Canada

My first card from Canada.