The true north strong and nude
With her shining smile and disarming demeanor, Petra Scheller became the public face of naturism in 1980s Canada
“They had heard rumours, but they were skeptical. And why not? They had heard it all before. Again a few Easterners (isn't anything east of Regina eastern Canada?) have had the utopian idea of uniting naturists across Canada under one umbrella organization, creating a Canadian naturist network.” - Petra Scheller
Summer 1986. Near the picturesque James River in Alberta, Petra Scheller stood naked under the hot sun, gazing out at a crowd of equally naked people staring skeptically back at her. They listened but appeared unconvinced of the gospel she’d come to spread. An evangelist of the just-established Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN), Scheller was on a mission, sharing the faith that the time was nigh to unite nude Canucks from coast to coast to coast.
The flock she hoped to convince was the assembly of delegates to the Western Canadian Sunbathing Association convention at the Sunny Chinooks nudist camp. Scheller had arrived from Toronto—a city known for thinking itself the cent…
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