On January 17, 1921, a couple of young amateur athletes named Charles Burkman and Sidney Carr set out from Halifax to walk to Vancouver. A week later, the father-and-son team of Jack and Clifford Behan set off in pursuit. And another week later, a newly married couple, Frank and Jenny Dill, decided that joining the hike would make an excellent honeymoon.
Ninety years later, conditioned by Terry Fox, Rick Hansen and the hundreds of marathons that raise funds for various health causes, our assumption is that the 1921 foot race must have been about raising money for diseases. It was indeed for health, but no diseases or disabilities were the focal point, and no money was involved other than an almost desultory prize ($500) that was not even put up until after most contestants had already crossed New Brunswick.
The end of the Great War had plunged Canada into a prolonged economic depression. War–industry jobs disappeared, the massive female workforce was...
James Roots, although currently living in Kanata, Ontario, is a born and bred Torontonian. He learned photography from his father, one of Toronto’s most popular wedding and portrait photographers for half a century.
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