Swiss airline red-faced over 'uninhabited' Canada quip

A boring press release arrives from Swiss International Airlines, heralding the launch of a new service from Zurich to the Canadian cities of Calgary and Vancouver. But wait! What are these strange annotations in the margin?

The airline's announcement says that "Calgary and Vancouver, which are both located in southern Canada, are major destinations not only for their growing tourist popularity". But the reference to "southern Canada" has struck a dull note with somebody within Swiss, who clearly thinks of Canada as frozen tundra and who has added a caustic electronic note in the margin saying: "Well, yes, but most of the rest of the country is pretty much uninhabited!"

The release also notes that the weekly Edelweiss flight leaves Switzerland for Canada at 9.25 every Monday morning and arrives back in Zurich at 9.55 on Tuesday mornings. But it doesn't detail departure times from Canada. The commentator in the margin has remarked: "This is a very Zurich-centric view! Why not give the other departure times, too?"

Oh, the perils of email. This is hardly the ideal start in winning over Canadian travellers. An apologetic Swiss International spokesman, Jean-Claude Donzel, says: "Something went wrong with the sending of the press release. This was not the final version."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/andrew-clark-on-america/2009/oct/27/swiss-air-canada-press-release

Well? What can one say?

Usual comment from those that don't know much but believe that they are the center of the universe!

Vancouver is in Southern Canada!

See what happens when nobody has a globe to look at now!

absolutely true. Most of Canada is either sparsely populated and, indeed, unpopulated. The majority of the population of Canada are found in the southern half of the country. I LIKE the fact we still have 'room to breathe', open spaces to explore, relatively pristine areas still untainted by development and human habitation.

Now, not having the departure times from Canada is, indeed, Zurich-centric, imo.

Map showing the population density of Canada:

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/peopleandsociety/population/population2006/popden2006

That just perhaps one is making excuses?

Vancouver is about 50 degrees north. Montreal is about the same as Switzerland in northern latitude.

Frozen tundra refers to a treeless artic with underlying permafrost.

All of the country is populated. Some areas with better species than others.

And yes. Our population presently live like parasites along a border that should have been defined much further south.

"All of the country is populated. Some areas with better species than others."

So true!

:rofl:

Just imagine that one visited an area that is 53 degrees 37 minutes 49 seconds north.

I would expect that they would find birds in a big lake and fish that are probably sturgeon.

Can't imagine anyone living(human) in that area of a frozen tundra.

keeps voting for CRAP, lol. Not really but.....sorta.

Birds, ducks and prehistoric fish are nice. Perhaps more intelligent. They don't for crap.

I may be a bit biased. I most likely am minutes, if not seconds from the sturgeon and the birds.

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"Despite the vastness of the nation, 90 percent of the Canadian population is located within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the U.S. border.

Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Canada.html#ixzz0VNJZcWPI

yup

we got LOTS of "uninhabited" country here

hope it stays that way . . .