The Canadian Religious Travel Guide: How to Find Those Special Places in Your Travels

Ray Covell was a librarian in Kelowna, British Columbia.

This unique book will appeal to travellers interested in Canada’s religious heritage. Church-going Canadians who want to take their religion on holiday with them will want to take this travel guide with them, too. The introduction tells us that “Occasional side trips to see a special church or the site of an early mission can enrich a vacation by providing experiences that other travellers overlook.” For the Canadian religious tourist, this is the book.

The book is organized alphabetically by province, from Alberta to Yukon. Within each province, the organization is a little haphazard, although churches within a city are grouped together. The city’s name appears in boldface in the right margin, but the entry for St. Albert appears under Edmonton. There is no index to places mentioned, and a map of each province showing locations of historic churches would have been most useful. The editor asks for help in improving the next edition and offers a free copy if the information is used.

The typesetting is amateurish, but the black-and-white photos are good. If you want to look up Canada’s religious heritage sites on your travels, this is a useful book for you.