Rush hour has forever been the bane of workers’ existence, that time of day when you gather with what seems like everyone on the planet in a rush to get home. Rush hour in Nunavut — the most northern province in Canada — is non-existent. In fact, they have what’s fondly called “rush minute.” That’s because the isolated city of about 7,000 people has no stop lights and no roads to any other town. There are about 5,500 registered vehicles in Iqaluit, the capital city, but they don’t create congestion on the streets. There aren’t even tourists to compete with, since Nunavut is logistically inconvenient. Even Canadians themselves would rather travel somewhere else. That’s because there’s a ton of ice, a ton of trees, and pretty much nothing else. The landscape won’t take your breath away, and unless you’re into seals, whales, polar bears and caribou, there just isn’t anything there to see. If, however, you live in a place like Los Angeles, where “rush hour” can turn into “rush day,” you might be happy to visit a place that is so unencumbered that it has “rush minute.”
