• How Gimli, Manitoba, became the world's biggest Icelandic community outside Iceland
• The 150th anniversary of a labour movement that made history 
• An autumn walk through the hidden kingdom of fungi with mushroom expert Keith Seifert 
• An Alberta birds and dinosaur adventure with Canadian Geographic Adventures 

The entire town of Gimili, Man., takes on an unmistakably Icelandic hue during Islendingadagurinn, the annual Icelandic cultural festival. World-famous strongmen compete, and local delicacies like vínarterta (prune cake) and Brennivín (Icelandic aquavit) are plentiful. But even on a regular day in Gimli, you’ll hear Icelandic being spoken and see traditional Icelandic clothing being worn. For this town is New Iceland’s major centre — home to the largest Icelandic population outside of Iceland.

The town was established in 1875 as a “reserve for Icelanders,” many of whom were fleeing poor living conditions. New Iceland was a part of a series of reserve schemes set up by the federal government in the 1870s to establish populations of European ethnic minorities — Mennonites, Doukhobors and Icelanders — both in Manitoba and what was then the North-West Territories. The land, comprising an 18-kilometre-wide tract running along the shores of Lake Winnipeg for about 68 kilometres, was chosen for its relative fertility and proximity to the proposed route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. (The line was originally slated to run through nearby Selkirk, but — terrified of being relegated to the status of insignificant backwater — the City of Winnipeg convinced the railway company to divert the new line further south by offering up free land, tax exemptions and a $200,000 bridge.) 

Some 150 years ago, an international workers movement found fertile ground in Canada, where many industrial workers regularly laboured 12 hours a day, six days a week. Between January and June 1872, many workers took to the streets to demand shorter working hours in what became known as the Nine Hour Movement. The labour unrest was instrumental in Parliament passing the Trade Unions Act on June 14, 1872, legalizing the formation of unions to advocate for workers’ rights. 

This article forms part of Commemorate Canada, a Canadian Heritage program to highlight significant Canadian anniversaries. It gives Canadian Geographic a chance to look at these points of history with a sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical, eye.

In 1872, Canada was an agricultural nation with a handful of cities where factories sent plumes of smoke into the sky and railway engines shunted boxcars in switching yards in the centre of town. These were places where people lived for their work. They had no choice, as the typical work week was 70 hours.

The new factories took almost every waking minute of a worker’s life, except for Sundays — the Christian Sabbath.

Canadian workers were slower to unionize than their British and U.S. colleagues. Canada was a small country where employers could easily keep and share blacklists of troublemakers. And the government was always there to use force against workers who got out of line.

It’s mushroom season, so we happily took up Keith Seifert on his offer to go on a mushroom and fungi walk in the Gatineau Hills.  

Keith is one of the world’s leading experts on fungi, having spent over 40 years studying them on five continents, both as a research academic and as the top scientist on the subject for Agriculture Canada. He is the past president of the International Mycological Association.

Keith is also the author of the new book, The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi -Exploring the Microscopic World in Our Forests, Homes, and Bodies.

So join us on our walk, where we spot mushrooms both delicious and deadly, and talk about the rich and complex relationship that fungi have with trees and the forest, and why understanding fungi is key to a better future for all of us.

Breeding season will be in full swing in this amazing region of central Alberta, and birding will be the focus each morning. We will explore several unique habitats including Prairie sloughs, riparian Cottonwood forests, and the desert-like conditions of the badlands. Our afternoons will be spent learning about the unique geology and natural history of the region at Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.

Meet your RCGS Travel Ambassador: Myrna Pearman

Check out these other upcoming trips:

- Belize and Tikal with Myrna Pearman 
- Ultimate British Columbia with Brian Hodgson
- Annapurna and Chitwan in Luxury with Javier Frutos