One of the great attractions to bring visitors to Canada’s far northern cities, is to view the spectacular light show of the Aurora Borealis, or “northern lights”
This past weekend, the lights were particularly spectacular due to a couple of recent solar flares.
The city of Hay River, on the south shore of the Great Slave Lake, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, has a lovely picture of the northern lights as a backdrop to its two-page advertisement behind the mayor’s welcome message in this year’s visitors guide.
There is just one problem. The photo is not from the Northwest Territories.
Adam Hill is a local Hay River photographer. He says, “If you know the Hay River landscape, then you know that photo is nowhere near here.”
In fact, it’s not even from Canada., and neither is it recent. Hill says, “And if you’re an aurora photographer, you know that photograph. That is one of the earliest, best photographs of the aurora”
The photo was originally taken by British photographer Anthony Spencer who captured the lights over Sweden.
Freelance photographer Pat Kane, works in Yellowknife, the capital which is located across the huge lake on the north shore.
He says, “It’s kind of a small slap in the face, I think, to local businesses and creatives who are trying to make a living in a very tough industry”.
The visitors guide was put together by Northern News service.
Hay River Mayor Andrew Cassidy says the town has no record of submitting the photo to be used in the background and adds that using the foreign photo was unfortunate.
He says, next year Hay River will print its own visitors guide and try to use photos from locals. With files from CBC
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