Labour of Love - canada.com

Who doesn’t dream of quitting their jobs to spend a life travelling? Two British Columbia brothers didn’t just dream about it, they did it.

Greg, 47 and Colin, 44. Girard gave up their 9-to-5 jobs seven years ago to travel Canada and write about what they experienced on a website that helps travellers plan their own adventures across this country.

The website is Canada Eh Tourism & Travel and it has gradually spread from its Vancouver Island roots to cover Western Canada and soon will extend to Central and Eastern Canada. In fact ,they have websites specific to B.C., Alberta,Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

In that time, they’ve attracted close to 500 advertisers many of which have been with the site since the beginning.

“We’ve gone from nothing to making a respectable living and on top of that we get to see the whole country,” said Greg in a recent telephone interview from Prince Edward Island where the brothers were researching the latest update for their site.

They spend their summers travelling across Canada and in the winter, they transform that on-the-ground research into updates for their website.

“When you love this country as much as we do, it’s a pretty easy job to do,” said Greg.

The brothers think their site is unique because it’s not government-funded in any way and is based on their own research and first-hand experience.

When asked to list some of the best destinations in the country, they were reluctant to play favourites, but they did offer some personal hightlights:
- The Alaska Highway in the Yukon
- The Waterfall Route in Northwest Territories “We didn’t even know it existed before we went there.”
- Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan, site of Grey Owl’s log cabin
- Saskatoon
- Quebec City. The highlight was walking on the fortress walls.
- Lunenberg, N.S. and the province’s incredible beaches.

“When you’re from the West Coast you think that you have the best beaches, but Nova Scotia has some pretty amazing beaches.” And what is it like travelling for weeks on end with your brother? “It’s pretty awesome.” said Greh. “We definitely bug the heck out of each other, but that’s what brothers do.”