Toronto Star

To many, this country is its geography. But to those who know better, what defines Canada is less the land than our response to it. Above all, this means the incredible feats of engineering and construction required just to carve a nation out of the vast northern wilderness, just to enable Canadians to be part of a larger community. In other words, Canada is its infrastructure and communications are us. No surprise then that any serious debate about the Seven Wonders of Canada would be more focused on human intervention into the topography than the topography itself, no matter how impressive. Let's start with the transcontinental railway, a heroic accomplishment by any standard, but in the 19th century it was viewed as nothing less than a precondition to nationhood. It was the first of many monumental undertakings needed to connect the disparate regions of a country so dispersed it wouldn't otherwise have made sense.