Tom Thomson, as the famous Canadian landscape artist, gave Canada its most enduring icons, The Jack Pine and The West Wind. But Tom Thomson, as a private man, remains an enigma. Little is known about the man and even less is known about his personal thoughts, feelings and struggles with his art and with life against the darkening backdrop of history. A century has gone by since Tom Thomson disappeared in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. Eight days later, a body was found, ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLERCanada’s master storyteller returns to the North to chronicle the extraordinary stories of five inspiring and controversial characters.Canada’s master storyteller returns to the North to bring history to life. Prisoners of the North tells the extraordinary stories of five inspiring and controversial characters whose adventures in Canada’ s frozen wilderness are no less fascinating today than they were a hundred years ago....

“Berton has made an invaluable contribution, rendering the grand Canadian adventure more readable than any detective story.” —The Vancouver SunThis is the final chapter in Pierre Berton’s epic retelling of the opening of the Canadian West in the years following Confederation. After the pioneers, surveyors and entrepreneurs came the settlers—a million people lured by government propaganda, ruthless boosterism and Utopian visions of a Promised Land. The West...

As the threat of another Quebec referendum on independence looms, this book becomes important for every Canadian — especially as language remains both a barrier and a bridge in our divided countryCanada’s language policy is the only connection between two largely unilingual societies — English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Quebec. The country’s success in staying together depends on making it work.How well is it working? Graham Fraser, an English-speaking Canadian who ...

In this book, leading Indigenous rights activist Arthur Manuel offers a radical challenge to Canada and Canadians. He questions virtually everything non-Indigenous Canadians believe about their relationship with Indigenous peoples.The Reconciliation Manifesto documents how governments are attempting to reconcile with Indigenous peoples without touching the basic colonial structures that dominate and distort the relationship. Manuel reviews the current state of land claims,...

Published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada, Sean T. Cadigan has written the book that will surely become the definitive history of one of North America's most distinct and beautiful regions. The site of the first European settlement by Vikings one thousand years ago, a former colony of England, and known at various times as Terra Nova and Newfoundland until its official name change to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001, this easternmost p...

From the village of Fort Norman on the McKenzie River we are taking the junction at the Bear River on our quest to reach Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake. It is about 100 miles (it’s the old days) by canoe to Franklin. This little hamlet is part of my father’s jurisdiction as Indian Agent. He has to visit Fort Franklin every few months. We are going to bring the church organ from Fort Franklin back to Fort Norman by canoe as well.Two canoes are needed for this trip. In one canoe is...

Found on the history shelves of the Greater Victoria Public Library, these twenty true stories are brought to life by Stephen Ruttan. They draw a picture of the life of a city with a recent past that's both unconventional and colourful. From Miss Wilson and her famous parrot, Louis, to Jimmy Chicken Island, named after a man who acquired his surname from his habit of stealing chickens, to the Pig War, when Britain and the United States nearly came to blows over the San Juan Islands, to the...

James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) was a Canadian painter of extraordinary passion and simplicity whose canvases and oil sketches are valued throughout the world and cherished in Canada as our first real examples of modern art.Though cut short by chronic alcohol abuse, Morrice's restless bohemian life was spent in constant motion. From the colourful canals of Venice to the sun-drenched markets of North Africa to the snowy streets of Quebec City, he was, as his friend Henri Matisse de...

Norman Rockwell’s tremendously successful, prolific career as a painter and illustrator has rendered him a twentieth-century American icon. However, the very popularity and accessibility of his idealized, nostalgic depictions of middleclass life have caused him to be considered not a serious artist but a “mere illustrator”–a disparagement only reinforced by the hundreds of memorable covers he drew for The Sunday Evening Post.Symptomatic of critics’ neglect is the fact that Rockwell...

Running, laughing with his face buried in the fur trim of his parkie, a small boy succeeds in out distancing his friend who is also running as fast as his tiny legs will carry him. His friend is trying to catch him and take back the boys favourite stick.The boys, one white, one Inuk are small for their age, they will both attend “beginners” a form of kindergarten in the coming fall, they are five years old. Both boys stumble over stones wearing their black and red gumboots that don...

In the early hours of April 22, 1914, American President Woodrow Wilson sent Marines to seize the port of Veracruz in an attempt to alter the course of the Mexican Revolution. As a result, the United States seemed on the brink of war with Mexico. An international uproar ensued. The governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile offered to mediate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Surprisingly, both the United States and Mexico accepted their offer and all parties agreed to meet at an inter...