MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - A former local resident went on a trip of a lifetime earlier this summer as part of a Canada 150 event.
Phoenix Smith, who grew up on a farm just outside of Olds, took part in the Canada C3 (coast to coast to coast) expedition, where she got to be part of a 150-day journey across Canada.
The full Canada C3 journey, which is a signature project for Canada's 150th anniversary, is an epic 150-day sailing journey from Toronto to Victoria via the Northwest Passage. Smith's leg was 10 days long and took place in the Atlantic provinces from Charlottetown to St. John's.
She was one of 25 participants from all across the country on the fourth leg of the trip.
"It was a little crazy," said Smith. "It was unlike anything I had done before. It was truly inspirational."
Part of the mandate for the program is to bring a cross-section of Canadians together to see what conversations could be started about different themes such as diversity and inclusion, reconciliation, youth engagement and the environment.
"My whole highlight from the entire experience aside from getting to explore the East Coast and all the communities was all the conversations I was able to have with all those people," she said.
"We had these incredible conversations about what Canada 150 means and what the next 150 years will bring," she said.
Smith grew up near Olds. After graduating from Olds High School in 2007 she attended the University of Calgary. After receiving an arts degree and an education degree she moved to Yellowknife, N.W.T.
"I moved up to Yellowknife to find a job teaching elementary school," said Smith. "I ended up in a completely different place."
Smith became the director of the only dance studio in the Northwest Territories.
"We have over 100 students," she said. "It's just a wonderful place to be, where I get to use my education background and my arts background all at the same time."
She was involved with dance in high school as well as with various theatre productions. She was very grateful to get the chance to grow up in a small community in Central Alberta.
"I loved it," she said. "When I moved to the big city it was a bit of a challenge getting used to the commute, and just getting used to the overwhelming number of people and the lack of community."
Smith said she was able to find that great sense of community she had in Olds when she moved to Yellowknife.
"My parents still live just outside of Olds, so I'm able to come out and visit at Christmas and in the summer," she said.
Smith was thrilled to be able to take part in the Canada C3 expedition.
"It's a Canada 150 project," she said. "It's a former icebreaker that was recommissioned and changed into this ship that would go from Toronto all around the East Coast up through the Northwest Passage, and it will end in Victoria on October 28. The entire 150-day journey is split up into 15 different legs."
Smith's just recently finished her leg of the journey.
"I started in Charlottetown on June 30, which is where I got on the ship," she said. "We went and visited all kinds of different communities and cities. We saw all these incredible places along the way as we travelled from Charlottetown down to Halifax to Canso, to end in St. John's on July 11."
Each leg had 25 Canadians of a variety of backgrounds from all across the nation aboard. The ship has a crew and staff of about 35 members who stay with the ship, said Smith.
Smith said the groups on the expedition not only got to visit some great sites but also got together to discuss various topics of importance to Canadians.
"There was a legacy room that was used as an open space for discussing truth and reconciliation and indigenous issues that needed to be talked about," she said. "There was a research lab on board that was used for various science experiments."
Smith said it took a few nights to get used to sleeping on board a ship. She said they were told up front that it was definitely not a cruise ship.
"It was pretty crazy," she said. "I had never really been to sea before. I learned that I did get seasick. But sleeping on a ship and being in close quarters with all these incredible people from across Canada was just amazing. Getting to take part in these amazing conversations about Canada and about our history was incredible."
Smith said the ship would travel at night and visit different ports each day.
"One example is we stopped at Canso (Nova Scotia) for the Stan Rogers Folk Festival and got to meet some of the locals there," she said. "They took us through their town and showed us the museum. It was a pretty neat welcoming party. They took us up on stage at the end of the night of the folk festival, and the whole town sang us a Stan Rogers Northwest Passage song. It was just a surreal experience."
Smith said other highlights of the journey were visiting Halifax, seeing the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site and just exploring the Atlantic provinces.
"We saw this amazing little community - a little fishing village called Francois in Newfoundland and Labrador," she said. "We pulled into this village on our ship and it was completely foggy. As we pulled into the bay the fog lifted and it was just this idyllic image of what you expect Newfoundland to look like. It was my first time there. It was so colourful with people walking around and enjoying their little town."
Smith felt her upbringing in Olds helped give her a unique perspective on the conversations.
"I felt like Olds was represented on that ship," she said. "It was me being from Alberta and the Northwest Territories and having perspective from both communities I've lived in."
