The Drive Across Canada by Mark Richardson

In 1958, the National Film Board of Canada released Trans-Canada Summer, a tantalising documentary film produced and released during construction, which highlighted the route it would take across the nation, along with the possibilities and opportunities such a project would bring ¹. While the Trans-Canada wouldn’t officially open until after the completion of the Rogers Pass section, on September 3, 1962, by then prime minister John Diefenbaker, the actual route wouldn’t exist in its more drivable, paved version until 1971. Not to overly romanticize the film, whose portrayal of our country may not always resonate with citizens today, nevertheless, the NFB’s portrayal of Canada across its first ever transcontinental highway system is often a romantic and unifying vision, if only because it shows the country, from coast to coast through beautiful colour panoramas, united by its incredibly diverse geography, people, and traditions. With narrator Pierre Berton’s reassuring voice, it’s hard not to get caught up in the optimism of it all.

“There were, of course, cynics who said why bother building a highway through nowhere. But there were others who said try building it, and it will be nowhere, no longer.” ~ Trans-Canada Summer

The Trans-Canada Highway was part of the post-war project, during that glorious period in Canadian history where just about anything seemed possible because there was federal money to do it. With project approval granted in 1949, construction began in 1950. The goal: to build a two-lane highway that linked Canadian provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the most linear fashion practicable. But while the project officially began in 1949, the dream of a route across Canada has existed in some form for much longer.

In The Drive Across Canada, part history, part journalistic documentary, part memoir, author Mark Richardson embarks on his own journey with his co-pilot, Peter, tracing the steps of an eclectic host of pioneers of the great Canadian road trip. As with all of the storied trips retold, Richardson begins in the Atlantic, travelling from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the westernmost terminus at Mile 0, in Victoria, British Columbia, including ceremonial dips of his tires into the oceans on either end.

Centred around the goals of early drivers to not only cross the country, but to win the Todd medal. The stipulations of the prize could be considered rather rigorous, even unattainable, given the conditions of the roads that existed in this country, when the contest was first announced in 1910. In fact, it would take thirty-six years for someone to finally win the medal. And those early days in car travel were wild, with various vehicles employed, including a Model-T Ford and a motorbike with sidecar, in epic attempts to traverse a country whose only continuous link was the railway. While some drivers chose to cross over into the States at various points, nullifying their bid for the medal, others rode directly on the rails—with sometimes death-defying results, and also ending their bids for the medal. These trailblazers were all characters, and in the telling of their travails, Richardson provides an entertaining counterpoint to his own trip.

It is not only the stories of those original, intrepid travellers that engage the reader; throughout his book, divided up into chapters representing each province, Richardson features conversations with people who are somehow connected to the more than seven thousand kilometres of asphalt. Though its roads may be mostly straight on long sections, the building of the highway was anything but straightforward. Besides the political struggles between the provinces and Ottawa for funding, the Trans-Canada has sometimes taken a personal toll; and while there are those who have found love (see the story of moose-accident survivors finding love in Newfoundland), found or strengthened community, there are also those who have lost livelihoods where the major road that had once placed their town on the map was moved elsewhere. Most poignant are Richardson’s revelations of the loss of life on the Trans-Canada and the legacies of tragedy.

It is not only the stories of those original, intrepid travellers that engage the reader; throughout his book, divided up into chapters representing each province, Richardson features conversations with people who are somehow connected to the more than seven thousand kilometres of asphalt.

Richardson recounts numerous accidents that became the catalyst for safer construction, including the now more common four-lanes separated by medians, but he also tells the story of some of Canada’s most devastating accidents. The Quebec bridge collapse in 1907, which resulted in the deaths of seventy-five workers, “making it still the worst bridge construction disaster anywhere in the world,” and the subsequent collapse in 1916 resulting in a further thirteen deaths. Then there are the accidents that have taken place after the completion of the Trans-Canada, the CPR steel bus crash that killed twenty-two people, the Carberry crash that killed seventeen, and the countless other collisions that have claimed the lives of Canadians across the country. Accidents are not simply tragedies of the past; the highway continues to be deadly, especially along rural stretches.

When the Trans-Canada was finally completed, stretching from St. John’s to Victoria, it marked a greater unification of the provinces of this country. No longer did we need to drive south of the border in search of navigable routes; the reliance on train travel was also forever altered. And while the loss of major passenger rail services is ultimately a loss to us in this ever environmentally conscious nation, there is a poetic value in tying Canada’s peoples together across rocks, mountains, prairie, forest, lake, and river. Through small towns and large cities, the highway brings us closer to our neighbours.

Unlike the author, who twice travelled from sea to sea, with only minor stops, my own journeys have taken place over many years. So far, I have travelled on these remarkable roads in every province except Newfoundland and Labrador. And while my travels might not qualify me for any medal, they have nurtured in me a great love for this country. This summer, in part because I was reading Richardson’s book, my own travel companion and I decided that the best way to finish the summer would be on a trip to Victoria with a stop at the highway’s terminus and the Mile 0 sign, watched over by Terry Fox, whose own journey is commemorated in an 83-kilometre long stretch between Nipigon and Thunder Bay, called the Terry Fox Courage Highway.

Road trips are part of the Canadian experience, and whether you embark on the coast-to-coast trip in one epic burst or savour it slowly over the years, enjoy the roads that made it possible. In these times of political and economic uncertainty, Canadians have sought ways to connect and reconnect with their country. A road trip, however short or long, is an excellent way to do it. If you’re looking for inspiration or to learn more about one of this country’s greatest projects, check out Mark Richardson’s The Drive Across Canada.

And maybe Thane “Inthane” Silliker, who earned a Trans-Canada Insanity certificate for riding from Halifax to Vancouver and then back to Halifax in less than 150 hours (not including a mandated 12-hour rest period halfway through), said it best, “It was a hell of a long ride, but it was never boring.”²

Mark Richardson is the former automotive editor of the Toronto Star and is the author of Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Publisher: Dundurn Press (May 6, 2025)
Paperback: 9″ x 6″ | 296 pp
ISBN: 9781459754928

https://www.nfb.ca/film/trans_canada_summer/ ↩︎
The Drive Across Canada, p. 258 ↩︎

Christina Barber

Christina Barber is a writer and educator who lives in Vancouver. An avid reader, she shares her passion for Canadian history and literature through her reviews on Instagram @cb_reads_reviews. She has most recently been committed to writing and staging formally innovative single and multi-act plays.