Great White Beaches By up! Contributors Jun 1, 2006

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Canada boasts 16 per cent of the planet’s waterfront real estate, the most of any country on Earth. Starting this month, we can actually enjoy our natural attributes for 90 sweet days. Summer’s short, but hitting as many of these 10 sandy gems will ensure it’s oh, so sweet

The Embattled Beach

Chesterman Beach, Vancouver Island, B.C.

Chesterman’s beauty is gripping. And unlike most beaches in Canada, it mesmerizes visitors and locals year-round, from slicker-clad storm-watchers in February to grinning surfers in August paddling out towards its southern break. This same beauty has caused epic land battles, as the isolation that begat fleeing draft-dodgers and searchers looking for community soon bowed to the omnipresent tentacles of gentrification. The Islanders who’ve lived rent-free like nymphs among the Tolkienesque rainforest for half a century were ordered off the land, or sold out to wealthier Johnny-come-latelies with the designations of CEO and realtor and surnames like Travolta and McLachlan. Still, there’s no room for bitterness when walking across the sandspit towards secluded Frank Island, knowing that the next landmass beyond belongs to Japan.--Tom Gierasimczuk

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