Description

This multi-faceted colorful bilingual game was issued without charge to schools and citizens who requested a copy from the Commissioner of Official Languages of the Canadian Federal Government's Language Development Program.

All of the components of the game fit into the cardboard game board, which when closed is a large envelope that is 35.7cm long x 31cm wide. The game was created by Madeline Knonby and illustrated by Geo Boka, copyrighted 1974.
The game board when open is 35.7cm long x 62.3cm wide and about 1cm thick, and is a stylized map of Canada. Each province and territory (of the time) is in a different color and major cities are indicated on the map appropriately. In addition there are colorful scenes depicting various activities across Canada. Some places are indicated with their names in English and others indicated with their names in French. Different types of lines between cities illustrate modes of transportation between cities. For example, the dotted black line at the bottom between Winnipeg and Regina indicates a railroad, while the double red lines from Winnipeg going east indicates a highway; the yellow line from Churchill going northwest indicates an air-route and the white and black line going northeast indicates a water-route! The "legend" at the lower-left side of the board indicates these transportation modes as well as moves of players during the game.

The spinner on the board indicates the transportation modes a player must use while attempting to travel across Canada. The 32 page included bilingual book contains instructions for playing the game and other bilingual information. The game is for four players (illustrated in circles on the front of the book), each of whom is represented during play by a 1.5cm diameter plastic disc of white, green, red, or yellow.

The 33 1/3 RPM phonograph recording (17.8cm diameter) includes 2 songs in both English and French. There is also a glossary of phrases in both languages which includes phrases such as: "It's snowing", etc.

This game appears to be a modified later version of an earlier game - From Coast To Coast, but an earlier version of The Great Game Of Canada.