This is a list of people who have walked or run across Canada from the east coast to the west coast or vice versa. Walking or running across Canada has long been pursued as a way to seek notoriety or bring publicity to social causes.
This was an informal race across Canada fueled by the Halifax Herald newspaper.[1][2] In 1921, Jack Behan and his son, Clifford, of Dartmouth, NS, Jennie and Frank Dill (husband and wife) of Windsor, NS, and Charles Burkman of Whitewood, SK, all walked from Halifax, NS to Vancouver, BC. In order of arrival in Vancouver, the Behans completed the walk in 136 days, the Dills in 134 days, and Burkman in 139 days. Although the Behans were the first to reach Vancouver, the Dills did not leave until seven days after the Behans began their walk. This trek was followed-up by the Behans and Dills attempting a race from Montreal, QC to Halifax.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Jackson Charron-Okerlund
Jackson Charron-Okerlund (CrossCanadaJax) ran across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He began his journey on 6March 2023 from the Terry Fox memorial in St. John's, NL and completed his 7,000-kilometre, 160-day trek on 12August in Port Coquitlam, BC.[9] Charron-Okerlund live-streamed his run on social media and raised more than$100,000CAD.[10][11]
Steve Fonyo ran across Canada in 1984–1985 and raised $14 million for cancer research. Fonyo began his Journey for Lives run on 31 March 1984 at age 18 and completed it 425 days later on 29 May 1985, covering 7,924km (4,924mi). In recognition, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1985.
Trevor Redmond
Trevor Redmond walked from Stanley Park, BC to the east coast of Canada and back, between 2006 and 2007, for cancer prevention, research and awareness. He covered 11,421 kilometers.[13][14] In 2009, he completed a 14,632 kilometer[15] bicycle ride across Canada and Back over a 3-month period. Redmond calls himself, the "Fellow in Yellow",[16] and wears yellow when he meets the public in preparation of his run across Canada to begin March 26, 2024.
Beresford Greatheed
Beresford Greatheed was the first person to walk across Canada. He made his journey in 1895: departing Vancouver, BC on 2 March 1895 and arriving in Halifax, NS twelve months later. Greatheed's cross-Canada walk was intended to be the first leg in a walk around the world that he undertook to win $50,000.[17][18] According to an article in the 24 August 1891 edition of The Times (London), "...two clubs in Vancouver, The Union and Vancouver, wagered $50,000 on whether a man could walk around the world in five years living without money or luggage and depending entirely upon his own exertions."[19] Greatheed took up the challenge.[20][21]
In 1906, on a bet and a dare, John Hugh Gillis walked from North Sydney, NS to Vancouver, BC. While some have reported him to be the first person to cross Canada on foot,[22] that honour belongs to Beresford Greatheed. Gillis departed North Sydney on 31 January 1906 with two companions, both of whom left his company in Montréal, QC. Near Ignace, ON he was joined by Charles Jackman. Jackman had begun his walk in Montréal on 14 April with the goal of catching up to and overtaking Gillis. The two of them walked 2,700km together and strode into Vancouver station at midnight 24 September 1906.
As part of his Man in Motion World Tour, a 26-month trek in a wheelchair to create awareness of the potential of people with disabilities and to find a cure for paralysis after spinal cord injury, Rick Hansen logged 40,075km[23] through 34 countries on four continents (North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia)[24] before crossing Canada. His cross-Canada ride started in Cape Spear, NL on 26 August 1986 and finished on 22 May 1987 in Vancouver. 2 years, 2 months and two days averaging 80 kilometers per day.
Steve Hartwig
Steve Hartwig, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran suffering from PTSD that resulted from a posting to the war zone in the former Yugoslavia, walked from Vancouver, BC to St. John's, NL in 2014.[25] He left Vancouver on 23 June 2014 and arrived in St. John's on 13 Sept. Each day on the journey he walked a 32-km forced march, also called a military hike. He undertook the walk to raise awareness of PTSD and entitled his walk, "Into No Man's Land".[26][27]
Burnest Heard
A Heard postcard.
Burnest Heard (born Burnest Watson Heard Wozny[28]), the self-styled "World's Greatest Lover",[29] walked from Vancouver, BC to Halifax, NS and back. Heard set out on 1 June 1937 and arrived in Halifax 19 months later, in December 1939. He pushed a 150-pound oil drum across the country to make it clear that he did not hitch-hike during his journey. Heard paid for his trip by selling postcards of himself, at 10cents apiece (he claimed to have sold 18,000 of them[30]); staying in hotels and buying his own food.[31] After a rest in Halifax, he began his return trip on 1 February 1940 and took two years and ten months to reach Vancouver (in December 1942). His first cross-country transit was widely reported in newspapers all over the US and Canada; however, his return journey was only featured in the Canadian press.[3][32][33][34]
In 1991, Al Howie ran from St. John's, NL to Victoria, BC in 72 days, 10 hours and 23 minutes; departing St. John's on 21 June and arriving in Victoria on 1 September. His 7295.5km transit (100km a day for 72 days) is recognised by Guinness World Records as the fastest crossing of Canada on foot (male).[35]
Ann Keane
In 2002, Ann Keane ran from St. John's, NL to Tofino, BC in 143 days; departing St. John's on 17 April and arriving in Tofino on 8 September. Her 7,831km transit is recognised by Guinness World Records as the fastest crossing of Canada on foot (female).[36]
Ryan Keeping
Ryan Keeping (born in 1998) is an ultramarathon runner from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Inspired by his hero, Terry Fox, he completed a 7,342km run across Canada in 99days.[37] He set out on 1April 2024 from St Johns, Newfoundland and arrived in Victoria, British Columbia on 7July 2024, 99 days later. He ran the entire route at approximately 75km/day, with each day broken into three 25km segments.
He was inspired to do this run by several of his immediate family members being diagnosed with heart disease. He raised over $240,000CAD through GoFundMe; of which at least 80% will go to the Heart & Stroke Foundation (with the remainder financing the expenses on his journey).
His motto for the run was "Flip the Switch". To flip the switch is to start to become the person you want to be; it's taking that first step towards deciding you're going to better yourself.[38]
In 2013–2014, Jamie McDonald ran across Canada (wearing a Flash costume) and raised a quarter of a million British pounds for children's charities.[39] He was born with the rare spinal condition syringomyelia, and at nine years old was told by doctors he would be unable to walk. Fortunately, McDonald's symptoms “gradually disappeared”. In 2014, while on a visit to Canada, he decided to run across the country. At the beginning of his journey, he ran about 10–13 miles a day but with his tourist visa and winter kicking in (at which point several areas reached minus 40 degrees) after a couple of months, he ran approximately a marathon a day. He began his journey in St John's, NL on 9 March 2013 and arrived in Vancouver, BC on 4 February 2014.[40]
Skylar Roth-MacDonald
Skylar Roth-MacDonald ran across Canada in 2021 to raise $50,000 and awareness for the Canadian Mental Health Association. He set out from Victoria, BC on 1 June 2021 and completed his run 143 days later in St. John's, NL on 12 October. He ran more than 7,200km and raised more than $65,000.[41][42]
Sébastien Sasseville
Sébastien Sasseville ran across Canada in 2014 to raise awareness about living with diabetes.[43] He left St. John's, NL on 2 February 2014 and arrived in Vancouver, BC on 14 November 2014, World Diabetes Day. His nine-month journey was the equivalent of 5 or 6 marathons each week.[44]
Melanie Vogel
Melanie Vogel became the first woman to complete a coast-to-coast-to-coast through-hike on the Trans Canada Trail. She started her journey in Cape Spear, NL on 2 June 2017 and completed her 20,000km journey at Point Zero of the Trans Canada Trail at Clover Point in Victoria, BC on 12 November 2022. In addition to walking from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, she also traveled north to the Arctic Ocean; following the Trans Canada Trail.[45][46]
Michael Yellowlees completed an 8,000-kilometre fundraising walk across Canada on 5 December 2021 when he arrived at Cape Spear on the eastern edge of Newfoundland.[47] He began his walk in Tofino, BC at the start on 5 March 2021. He raised more than $60,000 for the Trees for Life charity.[48] Yellowlees was accompanied by Luna, his Husky dog.[49]
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a 511 km2 (197 sq mi) national park located in British Columbia, Canada, which comprises three separate regions: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. It is located in the Pacific Coast Mountains, which are characterized by rugged coasts and temperate rainforests.
Tofino Air is a small Canadian airline offering floatplane service from Tofino, British Columbia. It offers scheduled services, scenic tours, and specialized charters.
The Trans Canada Trail, officially named the Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail extends over 24,000 km (15,000 mi); it is now the longest recreational, multi-use trail network in the world. The idea for the trail began in 1992, shortly after the Canada 125 celebrations. Since then it has been supported by donations from individuals, corporations, foundations, and all levels of government.
Port Alberni is a city located on Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The city lies within the Alberni Valley at the head of the Alberni Inlet, Vancouver Island's longest inlet. Port Alberni currently has a total population of 18,259.
Ucluelet is a district municipality on the Ucluelet Peninsula, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Ucluelet comes from Yuułuʔił which means "people of the safe harbour" in the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth language and is the homeland of the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ. As of 2021, its population was 2,066, a 20.3% increase from 1,717 in 2016.
Stephen Charles Fonyo Jr. was a Canadian runner with an artificial leg who was a nationally renowned fundraiser for cancer research and treatment, and a former Member of the Order of Canada.
Lillian Alling was an Eastern European immigrant to the United States, who in the 1920s attempted a return by foot to her homeland. Her four-year-long journey started in New York, and went westward across Canada, then north through British Columbia, the Yukon, and then west again through Alaska. Whether she successfully crossed the Bering Strait to Russia is unknown.
A transcontinental walk involves crossing a continent on foot. If a walk does not technically cross the entire continent, but starts and ends in a major city right near two opposing sides of a continent, it is usually considered transcontinental. People have crossed continents walking alone or in groups.
Arthur "Al" Howie was a Canadian long-distance runner who won more than fifty marathons, ultramarathons, and multiday races in over two decades, including the 1991 Trans Canada Highway run in the record time of 72 days and 10 hours. A brass plaque on Victoria's Mile Zero marker commemorates this athletic event for which he raised $750,000 for a fund for children with special needs. Two weeks after running across Canada he won the Sri Chinmoy 1300 Miler in New York improving on his own world record time. Both the Trans Canada run and the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) race qualified for the Guinness Book of Records. He lived in Duncan, B.C., from 2005 until his death in 2016. He had been receiving treatment for Diabetes I. The City of Duncan awarded him the Perpetual Trophy for Excellence and Sportsmanship in December 2007, and in 2014 he was inducted into The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.
John Dunn is a wilderness explorer, writer and photographer, originally from England, but now based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has completed a number of pioneering expeditions throughout northern Canada and the Canadian Arctic. He writes for Canadian Geographic and National Geographic magazines and conducts illustrated talks worldwide. He holds a degree in geology and worked for a time in the Australian outback before moving to explore the Canadian Arctic.
Tofino is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Peninsula at the southern edge of Clayoquot Sound. It is situated in the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations.
Jamie McDonald is a British adventurer, author, motivational speaker living in Gloucester. He is best known for completing worldly adventures dressed up as his fictional alter-ego, Adventureman.
Edward Dostaler, also known as Fast Eddy, is a Canadian charity runner who ran solo across Canada and back to raise money for breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. He was born in Hinton, Alberta and currently resides in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Amphitrite Point Lighthouse is an active lighthouse in Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, named after Amphitrite, the sea goddess and wife of Poseidon in Greek mythology. It is also known for one of the sample pictures in Windows 7.
Josie Osborne is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2020 provincial election. She represents the electoral district of Mid Island-Pacific Rim as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party. She has served in the cabinet of British Columbia since 2020, currently as Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.
↑ Tucker, Shirley Jean Roll (2011). The Amazing Foot Race of 1921: Halifax to Vancouver in 134 days. Heritage House Publishing Co. Ltd. ISBN978-1926936055.
1 2 "Walkathon". Star-Phoenix. 20 July 1960. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
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