The West
From Manitoba to the Pacific Coast, western Canada offers a rich diversity of landscapes and cultures. Smoldering from the off-handed treatment it has historically received from Ontario and Quebec the west has recently emerges as a powerful presence in Canada. Rich in minerals, oil, and natural gas, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta especially, have become forced to be reckoned with. Sometimes referred to as Canada’s “garden of Eden”, British Columbia, the most westerly region that flanks the Pacific, is the west’s warmest provinces. It encompasses not only the splendid and irascible Rocky Mountains, but also a twisted coastline. The Canada’s Prairie Provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba constitute the remainder of Canada’s “official” west. Alberta begins the search for the ‘prairie existence’ and demonstrates the unexpected diversity of the region by journeying up into Canada’s vast playground: Rocky Mountains. Banff’s splendid beauty contrasts with the exciting city-life of Edmonton and Calgary. Saskatchewan is explored through its rich history and its proud and prolific cultural features. Manitoba provides an experience of the prairie itself: wide open spaces, no longer shaded by forests, rolling on to a distant horizon. Flora and fauna of untamed west: Stretching from the 45th parallel to the North Pole, western Canada provides diverse habitats for a rich array of plants and wildlife. Western Canada is blessed with a multitude of different environments. The north has tundra and some of the continents loftiest mountains, while the south includes prairie grasslands, thousands of lakes, and mountain ranges. It even has the northern tip of the Central America’s desert, and yet a few hundred kilometres away you can find lash temperate rainforest. Given this huge assembly of habitats, western Canada’s flora ranges from lichens clinging to the permanently frozen rocks through varieties of cacti and lush ferns to such exotic as wild rhododendrons, azaleas, and wild orchids. Perhaps most striking are the fir trees and aspens which make up forests, stretching to the horizon.
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