We pack a lot into the pages of every issue of Kayak, but there’s always more great stuff we just can’t fit in. So join Teeka and Beau, our otter mascots, to find out more about the theme of each issue, or just pick up some random bits of Canadian history.

The Halifax Explosion

Almost no one in Halifax on Dec. 6, 1917, knew how serious the fire on two of the ships in its harbour was. A sailor ran to the telegraph office warning that one of them, the Mont-Blanc, was loaded with explosives headed for the war in Europe. Telegraph operator Vincent Coleman told everyone around him to leave. He stayed behind to send messages to trains telling them not to enter Halifax. When the Mont-Blanc exploded, it cost Coleman, along with 2,000 other people, his life, but without his warnings, there might have been even more deaths.