Lock in for a unique voyage Five-day cruise along historic Trent-Severn Waterway offers novel take on southern Ontario By: Dan and Viola Prowse Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Winnipeggers Dan and Viola Prowse have travelled extensively, including sojourns to Ecuador, Colombia and South Africa. Nostalgia, family connections and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity led them to Ontario’s historic waterways.

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The Trent-Severn Waterway, Canada’s only destination on the New York Times’ 52 Places to Go in 2025 list, has drawn us back to Ontario. We have fond memories of studying, living and working in southern Ontario over a half century ago, so a trip back to reconnect with family and friends and refresh memories seemed like an ideal 2025 summer vacation.

The TSW, the longest of Canada’s historic canals at 386 kilometres, is a system of rivers, lakes and canals wending its way across the province of Ontario connecting Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay and passing numerous communities, woodland areas and waterfalls.

Ontario’s system of canals and locks was developed over a period of two centuries to scale up transportation on waterways long used by Indigenous Peoples. Like the Rideau Canal, which links Ottawa to Lake Ontario at Kingston, the Trent-Severn Waterway’s canals were conceived in the 19th century when U.S. invasion was a concern and, more than a century later, Canada initiated the Saint Lawrence Seaway with the U.S. signing on, making it an international project. History has moved on with the growth of railways and west coast ports, but the waterways, maintained and operated by Parks Canada, are a legacy to be enjoyed.

Many travel options

While you can access many of the TSW’s attractions by car, they are best seen from the water. Intrepid paddlers can traverse the 44 locks and enjoy camping and other accommodations offered by Parks Canada. While we have kayaked in several fresh- and salt-water locations, the TSW’s multi-day kayak voyage, or a more manageable canoe version, are both now outside our comfort zone. At the other extreme of experiencing the TSW, a trip on the biggest boat the canals can accommodate with dozens of other seniors did not suit our tastes or our budget.

However, friends and fellow Winnipeggers Alvin and Mary Suderman extolled the virtues of seeing the TSW from the 36-metre Kawartha Voyageur, a great option for those who enjoy viewing nature from the comfort of a dining room and having sleeping quarters in which you can stand up.

“They have a very loyal following with many repeat customers — one couple was on their 44th TSW cruise,” says Alvin Suderman.

The Sudermans last summer embarked on a five-day cruise from Kingston, down the St. Lawrence River through the Thousand Islands and through more than 20 locks on the Trenton-to-Peterborough section of the TSW.

“We saw parts of Ontario we’d never have seen otherwise,” says Alvin.

For some, rental of a houseboat is an option to experience the TSW, but reviews are mixed. For one thing, houseboats are notoriously difficult to manage in a narrow system of canals and locks.

Fortunately, we had another option. Dan’s cousin Allister Mainland, who is living his dream of winters in Manitoba and a cabin moored on the St. Lawrence in the summer, invited us to join his “Cousins’ Cruise No. 2” for a 2,500-kilometre month-long double traversing of the TCW — the sequel to a Rideau Canal excursion the previous summer.

Cousins Meghen and Thomas and Allister’s friend, Andrew Gregorash, took the first three weeks of the adventure, while we were crew for the final stretch from Peterborough to Iroquois on the St. Lawrence.

Before crewing, we drove through the countryside enjoying quaint towns on the way to meet Allister and Thomas at a restaurant overlooking Lock 34 and Fenelon Falls. In Millbrook, Ont., we enjoyed a compelling locally-themed play staged by 4th Line Theatre in a rural barnyard featuring a heroine racing through a tall grass meadow to reach the stage. A fellow spectator recounted his part in a previous production in which he rode horseback across that meadow, sweeping someone off the stage and galloping away. If we lived nearer, we’d defitinitely have season tickets for the 4th Line Theatre!

The crew change at Peterborough, the birthplace of the modern canoe, made it convenient to explore another must see — the revitalized Canadian Canoe Museum.

Tracing the canoe from its Indigenous origins to modern incarnations, museum highlights included canoes owned by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, Winnipeg naturalist and film maker Bill Mason (who has been called a patron saint of canoeing) and the Starkells, who canoed from Winnipeg to Brazil in a canoe built by Winnipeg’s legendary Bill Brigden.

We also had time to canoe in downtown Peterborough, cycle local bike paths including a section of the Trans Canada Trail and catch a free concert by Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy.

Peterborough is the site of a historic engineering marvel — the world’s largest lift lock. While many TSW locks seem ancient with their hand-operated chain winches and valves, Peterborough’s lift lock involves a two-metre diameter hydraulic piston that lifts or lowers boats and 1,500 tonnes of water 20 metres in the space of a few of minutes. Impressive to watch from a distance, it’s even more dramatic traversing the lock by boat.

Crew duties

We quickly adapted to our crew duties including scrambling to the bow to toss a rope to a canal attendant or to lasso a mooring bollard. In the deepest locks, it was our job to steady the boat as the water level dropped at the rate of a meter a minute. Descending down from the sunny top of the lock to a dank zebra mussel-coated concrete-walled canyon up to eight metres deep and then having massive gates open to reveal an expanse of river below really never became routine.

Allister’s 10-metre cruiser — large for us but a small player beside some of the often U.S.-registered vessels — provided comfortable sleeping below deck with facilities including a shower, functional kitchen and, when moored with shore power, much-appreciated air conditioning. Marinas offered adequate and often luxurious washrooms, showers and laundry facilities. At some marinas, many boat owners avoid the crushing cost of fuel and just dock their boats virtually all summer as ersatz vacation homes.

Beyond Trenton, the origin of the TSW, we were welcomed at the Prince Edward Yacht Club in the peaceful and picturesque natural harbour featuring many sailboats at Picton in the Bay of Quinte. It was in Picton that Canada’s first prime minister John A. Macdonald managed a law office for his uncle, but our focus in the town was finding its heralded rhubarb-ginger ice cream and coffee affogato.

Further downstream, Kingston was alive with its 35th buskers’ festival of international circus performers and musicians. For Allister, Kingston was a chance to visit Canada’s penitentiary museum; for Meghen, her old Queen’s University haunts; for Dan and Viola the Great Lakes Museum — the resting place of the SS Keewatin.

Less than half the size of its sibling the SS Titanic, the Keewatin is identical to the luxurious Edwardian steam ship on which Dan and five young siblings had sailed the Great Lakes long ago — much to the horror of some of its well-heeled travellers. The trip yielded a favourite family quote when Dan’s father, a farmer from Pipestone, Man., told the officious waiter in the formal dining room to respect his three-year-old son Thomas’s request: “Did you not hear the boy? My son will have oatmeal porridge!”

Home stretch

The home stretch to Iroquois gave us glimpses of the Thousand Islands, pre-seaway canals, elaborate mansions, including Singer Castle, and closeup views of the seaway’s massive ships. While approaching the St. Lawrence Seaway locks at Iroquois on the TSW, the surroundings felt more like a a South Seas adventure than an expressway of massive bulk-carrier freighters the seaway can conjure.

While the Thousand Islands were not to us more impressive than Lake of the Woods and the natural scenery on the TSW not superior to that of Manitoba and northwestern Ontario, the canal system with its historical villages and cities and their many attractions are unmatched in Manitoba. (Even getting there offered up many attractions with Thunder Bay’s record-breaking suspension bridge at Eagle Canyon, hiking the beaches of our Algoma honeymoon and the surprising beauty of Sault Ste Marie’s waterfront.)

In 2026, Parks Canada is again offering free admission to national historic sites and parks, free dockage at canals on historic waterways, and 25 per cent off camping and overnight fees at some lock station cabins, oTENTiks (tent/A-frame cabin mashup) and even an Ôasis (tear drop-shaped elevated cabins with hammock lofts).

Whether Ontario’s canals are your destination or just part of an exploration of our neighbouring province, we are sure you won’t be disappointed.

Viola Prowse is a retired educator and current board member with the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba. Dan Prowse is an electrical engineer.

viola_prowse@foodfocus.com