Say Hello to Your New Trans Canada Trail!

Old name, new look

You may have noticed that things look a little different these days on our website, social media pages, and maybe even trail signs. As of June 1, 2021, the name of The Great Trail of Canada has changed back to its original name, and is once again known as the iconic Trans Canada Trail.

The background

Back in 2016, we decided to separate the name of our organization (Trans Canada Trail) from the name of the physical trail (The Great Trail), as a way to celebrate and highlight the significant milestone of connection in 2017.

Charting our course for the future

Post-connection, we began the process of charting a course for our future. In order to build on this historic achievement, we undertook significant consultation and research with our partners, donors, funders and stakeholders to secure their input on our future direction.

Part of this outreach included focus groups and research into the name change. As good stewards of our brand, understanding how our name and our work resonate is valued feedback. We were also looking to respond to lingering concerns and confusion about the name change.  To address this, we conducted extensive polling and focus group research to find out exactly what Canadians know about us, and what they think of our name.

What we heard

The research showed that the Trans Canada Trail name was the preferred option. Almost all participants told us that they favoured the original name for the physical trail. And, the majority (70%) supported returning to the original name.

When we asked them why, the reasons included an emotional connection to the name and a strong sense of pride in a name that identifies the Trail as uniquely Canadian.  The other piece of information that the research yielded was the low level of awareness of The Great Trail name. The Trans Canada Trail name surpassed that of The Great Trail by a factor of 10:1.

Finally, at the basis of effective brand stewardship is managing the equity inherent in it, and, particularly in our case as a not-for-profit organization, investing wisely.

Given the results of our research and after careful consideration the Trans Canada Trail Board voted to return to the much-loved and iconic name of our national trail, the Trans Canada Trail (TCT).

Introducing our new Trans Canada Trail logo

We have designed a new logo that represents both the physical trail and the name of our organization.

Our new logo incorporates a trail graphic crossing through a maple leaf. It was designed to address much of what we heard in our consultations in terms of clearly identifying that we are a trail and embracing our Canadian identity. The logo is bilingual, and remains flexible to include Indigenous languages.

While the design has a modern look and feel, it also captures the timeless quality of the Trail for future generations. The logo conveys an invitation to join us on an adventure to embrace the outdoors, to discover the diversity of our land and people, and to share your stories along this iconic trail network.

We hope you love it as much as we do.

Website upgrades

We’re proud of our site’s new look and feel, but there is still more work to do, such as enhanced mapping features. In early 2021, we ran a survey online, asking what you would like to see in a new website. Thank you for completing that survey! We are taking those results and working diligently to improve our new website to meet the expectations of everyone who visits our site.

To everyone who has supported Trans Canada Trail.

To everyone who offered their thoughts and feedback throughout this process.

To everyone who cares, and shares in our belief in the importance of a national trail that connects Canadians and visitors to nature and to one another, from coast to coast to coast.

To everyone, we say thank you!