The primary purpose of the CanadianMaps.ca website is to provide customers and a general audience with information about QV Navigator maps, TTQV software and topographical and other maps compatible with Garmin GPS receivers. 

Andrew Kalinowski, from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, maintains this website. He also co-authors www.GPSNuts.com and serves as an instructor / moderator in the Global Positioning System (GPS) Classroom of Find's Treasure Forums .

To find out more about Andrew and history behind CanadianMaps.ca, just read below;


Hello,

My name is Andrew Kalinowski and I am the man behind CanadianMaps.ca . By day, I am a V.P. Operations, in a manufacturing company in Mississauga, Ontario. Maps and navigation are primarily my hobby, but now they are also my part time business.

For as long as I can remember, maps played a key role in my outdoor activities. Advances in computers and electronics turned my attention to GIS, GPS and digital mapping. Visiting various Usenet news groups and websites, I quickly realized that it was hard for an amateur to find good, reliable, manufacturer independent information about various options for GPS receivers and mapping programs. To help with the situation and to share in our hobbies, Ron Wilson and I started the GPS Nuts website in February of 1999.

The GPS Nuts website quickly gained popularity. Not only users, but also manufacturers and developers started to seek our advice. In turn we gained access to more information and had opportunity to try various software and hardware. As a Canadian I was still missing an important thing: I could not find good and affordable digital maps of Canada! The available ones were few, expensive and did not cover the areas that interested me the most. Scanning and calibrating paper maps, while possible, was time consuming and at $10 to $15 per map sheet was a substantial investment to cover a large area. I was not very happy with the situation.

 A breakthrough came when prior to my vacation in Quebec, I was offered a look at QV Navigator topographic maps of that province. I found them to be not only good but also priced very reasonably! I was thrilled to find that QV Navigator coverage would be expanding and I eagerly agreed when the author of QV Navigator approached me asking for help in selecting maps for Ontario CDs! The final product exceeded my expectations. Canadians were finally getting value for their money and I was happy that I could take part in making it happen.

There was no hesitation on my part when asked to join the forces as a consultant and to help with popularizing the QV products and locating re-sellers and distributors. I knew that QV was an excellent product - I was using it myself. Since, I also added to the products offered for sale a number of Garmin GPS compatible maps. Friendly atmosphere and honesty in internal and customer relations made me proud to become a member of a good team. All of these values and virtues are as strong today as they were the day I joined the team and I pledge to uphold them!

Whether you are a user, a potential customer or, just looking for some information, I will be happy to help you.

Andrew Kalinowski

 andrew@canadianmaps.ca