I love the canal / Gannet idea. But museum and Herald are nice too... congrats to the winners.
I liked Canal better than my own empty-pile-based card. It seems like there is more strategic potential there, as the Canal player wants to get close to three-piling while still ending on Provinces. But if someone is too heavily invested in Canals, it's an incentive to the opponents to foil that plan. Very tricky balance. The only thing I'm not sure of is if it would play as great in practice as it does in theory. But I'm very tempted to experiment with it in my own live games.
I am glad you (and others) liked it!
I really wanted a card whose strategic purpose changes based on the style of game being played and focusing on Provinces/Colonies vs piles was an easy way to do that. I also like cards that create interesting interaction and wanted more ways of being able to directly affect your opponents' VP count without actually "attacking" them yet remain balanced with different numbers of players. I think Canal meets these criteria.
I know Gannet/Canal got a couple of comments that it might not be playable or interesting often enough, but I think there are a lot of end game situations where it could shine even if there are not any piles out -- for instance, sometimes you just want a clean VP option at $6 that is worth more than a Duchy. This gives it a leg up over other alt VPs -- too often for my tastes in the endgame when you are trying to green, alt VPs STILL aren't worth buying (over say, Duchy).
The only way to know for sure is to play with it, I guess!
FYI, I chose the name "Canal" because canals are more beneficial the more land you have, and games that end with the Province of Colony pile out means players have acquired a lot of large tracts of land! If it ends on piles, you probably don't have as much land in your Dominion, and building canals is not going to be as beneficial.