Trans Canada Trail - Canada 125 - Summerside, PEI - Community Commemoration on Waymarking.com

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Trans Canada Trail - Canada 125 - Summerside, PEI

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In 1992 the Trans Canada Trail was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, its purpose being to commemorate the 125th birthday of the Dominion of Canada.

On September 18th, 1992, at a meeting in the Loyalist Hotel in downtown Summerside, 32 board members of Canada 125 Corp. voted to implement a walking trail across Canada. Canada 125 Corp. was the organization charged with the task of finding or creating a fitting legacy to commemorate Canada's 125th anniversary. Though there were many proposals and a Canada wide walking trail was proposed early on, much discussion ensued before a consensus was reached and the Trans Canada Trail was born.

The rest, as they say, is history. When work on the Trans Canada Trail was well underway in each of the provinces, it was Prince Edward Island which managed to complete their section first. It utilized the old railbed of the one time Prince Edward Island Railway, which just happened to run through downtown Summerside. Here, just east of the historic Summerside railway station, is the official Summerside trailhead for the Trans Canada Trail and Confederation Trail. At the trailhead is a kiosk relating information on both the trail and its birth here in Summerside. Slightly further west is a monument consisting of a metal sculpture mounted on a round concrete plinth bearing a granite plaque, commemorating the birth of the Trans Canada Trail, text from which follows.


Those knowledgeable on Canadian history will remember that Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island is known as the Cradle of Confederation. The initial meeting in which was discussed the proposition of the creation of the Dominion of Canada was held in Charlottetown in 1864, three years before confederation came to be. It's fitting, then, that Canada's 125th birthday gift to itself should also have come to be in Prince Edward Island.

Confederation Trail is PEI's contribution to the Trans Canada Trail (TCT), the longest hiking and cycling trail in the world. Currently just over 18,000 kilometres long, it is hoped that, by 2017, the 25th anniversary of the TCT, the trail will be complete, stretching 24,000 kilometres in total. Prince Edward Island was the first of the provinces to complete its section of the TCT.

It is hoped that the TCT will be completed by July 1, 2017, Canada's 150th anniversary. As of March, 2016 it is 80% complete, with sections here and there across the country (excluding Prince Edward Island, of course) yet to be completed.

How the Trans Canada Trail began in the Confederation Province

The Trans Canada Trail is one of four interconnected recreational trail systems that crisscross the City of Summerside, PEI. Along the municipality's section of TCT stands a distinctive, three-pronged monument that marks Summerside as the official birthplace of the Trail.

A plaque on the monument reads: "Summerside, Prince Edward Island, birthplace of the Trans Canada Trail. This plaque and Trans Canada Trail logo unveiled June 17th, 2000 by Dr. Sherman Olson, National President of the Trans Canada Trail; Mayor Basil L. Stewart, Canada 125th board member, Trans Canada Trail founding board member; Hon. Greg Deighan, Min. of Tourism; and Joe McGuire, Member of Parliament."

"On September 18th, 1992, Canada 125 Board meeting was held in Summerside, where a resolution was passed to proceed with the Trans Canada Trail as the legacy project for Canada's 125th anniversary."

Basil Stewart, who is still Mayor of Summerside (an office he's held since 1985), remembers well the Canada 125 Board meeting, held at the Loyalist Hotel in downtown Summerside. He says the 32 board members - representatives from all of Canada's provinces and two territories - met every month in different locations to discuss 125th anniversary project proposals and allocate budget.

"The board saw hundreds of presentations and I remember there was one early on about a walking trail across Canada, although people weren't too excited about it at first - someone even mentioned that we'd only just finished the railway 100 years prior so we wouldn't HAVE to walk anymore," Mr. Stewart says.

"But it was one of those ideas that caught hold and wouldn't die. It kept being mentioned at board meetings and the more we discussed it, the more it felt right to link the country like this as a project to celebrate Canada."

Finally, Mr. Stewart says, when the board met in Summerside in September 1992, the Trans Canada Trail was voted on and passed as a legacy project with just a single dissenter. When Canada's 125th celebrations were finished, the remaining budget approximately 10 percent of the $50 million granted to Canada 125 Corp. by the federal government in 1991 - was allocated to the TCT Foundation. These funds were used to kick-start the Trail.

A vision of Canada connected through recreation Pierre Camu and Bill Pratt - two of Mr. Stewart's fellow board members, who later became co-founders of the Trans Canada Trail organization - delivered the initial Canada 125 Board presentation that planted the TCT seed.

Mr. Camu remembers the board was inundated with project ideas from all over the country but one that stood out was a donation request from the National Trail Association of Canada.

"Their presentation was very good and even though they never grew as a national organization, they were well organized," Mr. Camu says. In turn, he and Mr. Pratt presented the idea to the Canada 125 board, where it was mulled over and improved upon.

"The original pitch had been for a hiking trail - one only used by pedestrians - but as we thought more about it we realized it had to include other types of users besides walkers to make it truly a national project," Mr. Camu explains. "Multiple use (for hikers, cyclists, skiers and snowmobilers) was the way to go, to attract more attention and to be of greater service to the people of Canada."
From the Trans Canada Trail