Book notes: Guides to the Parks and Historic Sites

We ticked off our first national parks visit on the weekend -- though only to Rouge River Urban Park right in Toronto. They were having a special event, so we did not even have to show our Canada150 free pass for the year.  But still.

I found there that the Parks Canada Official Guide to the Historic Sites of Canada, and its Official Guide to the National Parks of Canada are now published by an American magazine, National Geographic, in association with a German-owned publisher, Penguin Random House. Welcome to the borderless Canada of Chrystia Freeland and Monique Joly!

'Tother hand, they are pretty good guidebooks, with succinct accounts of each park or site, and Frommer-type info about getting there and accommodations and food, and terrific design and photography. Maybe a few historical quibbles for specialists, but you wouldn't be happy without that possibility, would you? Authorship is not credited, but I was told the writers are all Canadian, and there are long lists of acknowledgments at the back.

I'm hoping to make more use of both books in association with that free pass this summer.  (Family boast: one of my daughters was doing some online quiz thingy:  how many of these 160 Canadian places have you been? With locations as various and unobvious as, say, Nelson, BC, and the West Point lighthouse on Prince Edward Island, she scored 42% and I'm claiming the championship for her. We deserve our free pass!)