At times during his early years, Arthur Labatt felt like an observer of his own life: What was he supposed to do next? Where would his decisions take him? How would it all turn out?Labatt was born into privilege, the youngest child of John Sackville Labatt, who, with his brother, Hugh, ran the family-owned brewery John Labatt Limited in London, Ontario. Arthur spent his youth looking forward to, and enjoying, summers at Port Stanley on Lake Erie and Camp Ahmek in Algonquin Park. He...

Here in one big book is all the trivia and facts about Canada anyone needs to know. The Big Book is jam-packed with facts and stories. There are stories of important Canadian artifacts and history including what became of Canada's World War II spy camp. All regions and provinces are covered, as well as important Canadian figures like John Molson, Elizabeth Arden and Russ Jackson. If that isn't enough there will also be pieces explaining whatever happened to such Canadian icons as ...

Peter C. Newman’s poison pen has lodged itself in the viscera of the Canadian elite. In Mavericks, he has selected his most evocative writing about those Canadians who run against the grain on the grandest scale, including Conrad Black, Garth Drabinsky, the Eaton boys, Louis Riel, Robert Campeau and Peter Nygard. In the world of politics, he takes on Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, René Lévesque, Bill Vander Zalm and Lucien Bouchard. He also includes a vignette about John Diefenbake...

**PGWUncle John's taking the plunge . . . into the Great White North!RaincoastHey, Canada! Uncle John salutes you!**For 25 years, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader has been wildly popular in Canada, so we decided to dedicate an entire edition to our friends in the Great White North--even though much of the continental U.S. is north of Canada’s southernmost point. That misconception--and a whole lot more--is revealed in this loving ode to a friendly natio...

Today, many of the historic coal-mining communities of the Rocky Mountains are uninhabited ghost towns. Yet behind the crumbled ruins are tales of perseverance, danger and romance. A devastating mine explosion on Halloween shatters the lives of mining families in Nordegg. The miners of Mountain Park build a hockey rink still celebrated in local lore. A young immigrant couple in Mercoal establishes a successful business only to have their love story sadly cut short. These 11 dramatic and po...

The Great White North is revealed as the Great Weird North in this entertaining tome from the best-selling Bathroom Reader series.Did you know that Canada was almost called Hochelaga? That’s just one of thousands of wacky facts awaiting readers in Uncle John’s quirky celebration of Earth’s second largest country. You’ll find page after page of bizarre history (like why the beaver was once classified as a fish), plus head-scratching news items (like the crook who re...

Canada is a country rich in stories, and few take as much joy as Douglas Gibson in discovering them. As one of the country’s leading editors and publishers for 40 years, he coaxed modern classics out of some of Canada’s finest minds, and then took to telling his own stories in his first memoir, Stories About Storytellers.Gibson turned his memoir into a one-man stage show that eventually played almost 100 times, in all ten provinces, from coast to coast. As a literary touri...

Many of BC's old mining towns are now abandoned ruins, disappearing into the wilderness. These once-thriving towns and the pioneers who built them are remembered in 10 fascinating stories of hard work and heroism. A mine rescue worker sadly recounts a tale of death underground at Coal Creek. Three eccentric old bachelors become the final residents of Phoenix. Legends of Spanish treasure near a Vancouver Island gold-rush town persist to this day. Experience BC's colourful past in these ente...

In Heroes, Peter C. Newman gives us incisive analysis of dozens of Canadians, past and present, who have defined this country, drawing on fifty years of writing. He writes about iconic Canadians such as Terry Fox, Margaret Atwood and June Callwood. From the political ring, he discusses the legacies of Pierre Trudeau, Christina McCall and Lester B. Pearson, among others. And from the world of business, Newman includes some of the most active entrepreneurs on the planet, including J...

Written by fellow Canadians from Cape Breton Island to Prince Edward Island, from Montreal to Vancouver, this book reveals the people, the history and the special moments that give Canada such a distinctive charm and character.

Few people have read as widely in the field of Canadiana as has John Robert Colombo. The curiosity of this Toronto writer, editor, and anthologist knows few if any bounds when it comes to the lore, literature, history, culture, and character of Canada. He has an inquiring mind and he seems able to find national and even international twists to subjects of interest or importance.Fascinating Canada, his latest book, is the product of over half a century of research, reading,...

On the morning of June 13, 1886, a rogue wind fanned the flames of a small clearing fire—and within five hours, the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, had been reduced to smoldering ash. Vancouver is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886 is the first detailed exploration of what happened on that pivotal, yet seldom revisited day in the history of Canada’s third-largest city. Lisa Anne Smith tells the story with numerous archival photographs. She uses eye-witness accounts to de...