I love Canada. This is strongly coloured by the 2.5 years my family spent in Alberta in the late 70s when I was 11-13 years old. Dad was in the British Army and they have (had?) a joint forces base near Medicine Hat with the Canadian Armed Forces, mostly for doing tank training on the prairies, I think. Dad was an instrument technician (no, not musical, vehicle) so was there to keep things running along with the mechanics. It was an idyllic time for me. I was given a *lot* of freedom that they wouldn't give me in the UK either before we were there or after we left. We lived in a small self-contained village (school from K to 8? jr high, I think; supermarket, burger/shake bar, cinema, bowling alley, pool, gym with court layouts for most sports, outdoor ice rinks (2), library, tons of other activities) with mostly other army families, a good hour away from "the Hat" by bus (I was even permitted to go on that bus by myself/with friends to go shopping and spend my babysitting money - some weeks I could make over $20, and only charged 50c to $1 an hour depending on number of kids!), and patrols were done by MPs regularly so parents saw it as very safe. I recall it as the happiest time of my childhood.

We dad retired from the army a couple of years after then, were had the option to emigrate to Canada or Australia. I wanted Canada, so did Dad. But Mum had family in Australia, so that's where we ended up. I'll always wish we had gone to Canada instead. I moved back to the UK 29 years ago. I never made it back to Canada for a holiday and now, being very reluctant to take my expensive wheelchair on a plane, it's unlikely I ever will. I looked at cruises from the UK that hit Canadian ports, but all of them would require a flight home as they aren't round trip cruises :(