Do that map tour in southern Ontario, and you’ll find the same pattern. It’s the trail left by homesick immigrants clinging to wee bits of their old world.

I live in Stratford, on the (of course) Avon River. Drive southwest on Highway 7, and you’ll eventually bump into the city of London on the Thames River in Middlesex County. Take the same highway east out of Stratford, and you’ll pass the towns of New Hamburg and Baden on your way to Kitchener, which the first European settlers called Berlin.

In fact, head out in any direction from Stratford and you'll soon bump into a little dorp with a surprising name. Rostock, Dublin, Paris, Lucknow, Tilbury, Colchester, Listowel, Chatham, Woodstock, Tavistock, Alma, and dozens of others splattered across the landscape — every one a reminder of abandoned lives.

And every other city in southern Canada offers a similar hinterland tour. From Ottawa, for example, pop down the road to Kars (named for a Crimean battlefield), Richmond, Orleans (not the city in France), Perth, Limoges (where they don’t make porcelain), Wilno (settled by Poles), or Dunvegan. Name a region in Europe and you’ll eventually find one of its town names transplanted to Ontario.

No passport required.