The Geist Atlas of Canada: Meat Maps and Other Strange Cartographies

Janet Collins is a freelance writer in Sechelt, British Columbia.

No need to travel to Happyland, Ontario, to learn that Canadians have a
sense of humour.

Devoted readers of the literary magazine Geist have long been
entertained by the Vancouver-based quarterly’s whimsically themed maps
of our great nation. Suddenly, police officers from Donut Lake,
Manitoba, to Lac Beignet, Quebec, could find their favourite confection.
Likewise, brew fans in Drunken Dick, Nova Scotia, or Keg River, Alberta,
knew where to source some serious suds. Even sacred Canadian
icons—think hockey and Margaret Atwood—were honoured with their very
own themed maps.

Now, regular readers of Geist aren’t the only ones to enjoy this
quirky take on our country’s place names. An entire atlas has been
created to capture a wide range of cartographic creations that appeared
in the magazine’s popular “Caught Mapping” instalments.

From the offbeat “Meat Map of Canada” that points to prime
locations such as Burgerville, Ontario, and T-Bone Glacier, Yukon, to
the rather un-Canadian “Impolite Map of Canada” (with the rather
fitting footnote about the number of censorable swear words spoken in a
single 22-minute episode of the Canadian TV comedy series Trailer Park
Boys), The Geist Atlas of Canada could well say more about Canadians and
our collective culture than a library full of Pierre Berton books.

Kudos to map compiler Melissa Edwards for giving readers—even those
from Port Disappointment, Newfoundland—something to chuckle about.