While it’s said, "no man is an island,” right now, every man and woman would like to own a private island so they could isolate themselves from global events, like pandemics.
Private islands, after all, are the perfect places to social distance.
Owning an island, though, is usually reserved for the rich and famous, like movie stars — Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, owns Blackadore Caye; Shakira, Bonds Cay;  Mel Gibson, Mago Island; Steven Spielberg, Madeira Archipelago; Eddie Murphy, Rooster Cay; Sir Richard Branson, Necker Island; and Johnny Depp, Nicholas Cage and Julia Roberts each own islands in the Bahamas.
That said, you really don’t have to be a movie star, or billionaire tech guru to own your own island.

Above: Laguna Island, Nicaragua, left, and Danhattan Island, Connecticut, right.

In fact, British-based home-buying platform Yes Homebuyers has identified six private islands around the world that are currently up for sale, and one of them is located in Canada.
According to Yes Homebuyers, you can own Big Tancook Island in Nova Scotia for just $83,016.32 and instantly become ruler of an island with 125 year-round residents.
It takes an hour-long ferry ride to reach Big Tancook, which lies just 83km west of Halifax.  Along the way, you’ll probably see minke whales and porpoises playing in the choppy surf as the ferry glides across Mahone Bay.
There are few vehicles on Big Tancook and the roads are paved with grass. Oh, and it has no services. But Big Tancook is very close to Nova Scotia’s biggest tourist draws,  Peggy’s Cove and Lunenberg.

Above: Isla Carabana Sol, Panama, left, and Majestic Island, Wisconsin, right.

If you’d like something a bit further south, then how about an island in sunny Nicaragua. Laguna Island is up for sale for a cool $578,350 (Cdn), but it’s a bit of a fixer upper, so be prepared to spend a bit more on repairing the island’s guesthouse, caretaker’s home, infinity pool and cement pier.
If Laguna Island is too expensive, how about Panama’s Isla Carabana Sol. It’s on the market for $492,000 and comes with sailboat mooring, speed boat garage and a property with two ship-shape  self-contained apartments. You won’t even feel like a castaway here because the island has great wi-fi and phone signals.
There’s also a couple of U.S. islands on the market right now. Danhattan Island in Connecticut can be yours for just over $383,000 and Wisconsin’s Majestic Island is being sold for about $400,000.
Imagine, for less than the cost of a house in either Vancouver or Toronto — which runs around $1 million on average in each city — you can purchase an entire island and have someplace to isolate if another pandemic comes along.

For more on the islands up for sale, go to www.privateislandsonline.com