Crossing Canada by train gave me three reasons to hate Calgary
We called it The VIA-Rail, 50 Canadians, Ocean-to-Ocean, Book-Tour Extravaganza. By using voodoo magic, my book publisher, Harper-Collins Canada, had worked a deal with VIA-Rail to send me and my artist-photographer-wife, Sheena Fraser McGoogan, back and forth across the country by train to promote 50 Canadians Who Changed the World. All I had to do was…
Read MoreYoungish White Dude says YES to indigenous peoples, visible minorities
I hate to create mysteries during our run-up to Canada Day. But while the book we’re loud-hailing is rightly called 50 Canadians Who Changed the World, it celebrates 49 human beings, give or take — 19 women and 30 men. Given that the human race is split 50-50, still I felt not too bad about…
Read MoreThese five Canadians created the Digital Revolution
With Canada 150 upon us, I’ve been ransacking 50 Canadians Who Changed the World. Yesterday I turned up half a dozen Canadians, among them Margaret Atwood and Joni Mitchell, who spirited the Sixties into the 21st Century. Today I discover that five Canadians created the Digital Revolution. Marshall McLuhan: Recognized internationally as the Prophet of…
Read MoreThese awful Canadians spirited the 1960s into the 21st Century
The 1960s get a bum rap, here in 21st-century Canada. All those awful Boomers who came of age back then have destroyed the economy, the housing market, job prospects, let’s just say the whole shebang. But just imagine where we might be if the international “counter-culture” that emerged in the Sixties had never happened. With…
Read MoreFive Canada Day lessons: Sometimes you have to lie to your mother
With Canada Day looming, I’ve been revisiting my book 50 Canadians Who Changed the World. A cursory inspection reminds me that these outstanding individuals have a lot to teach the rest of us. 1. Don’t be afraid to wade in a swamp. Because, as a boy, he felt like an outsider, David Suzuki took refuge in nature: “My…
Read MoreMeet the Inuit activist who made climate change a human rights issue
In December 2005, Inuit author and activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier launched the world’s first legal action on climate change when she presented a 167-page petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Signed by sixty-two Inuit elders and hunters, it charged that unchecked emission of greenhouse gases from the United States had violated Inuit cultural and…
Read MoreHow did Canada become multicultural, multi-racial, multi-national?
“Most developed countries tolerate plural identities. But what they struggle to accommodate, Canada embraces and proclaims.” So I wrote four years too early. “This is partly the result of necessity: ours is a country of minorities. But it derives also from historical timing.” In the introduction to 50 Canadians Who Changed the World, published by HarperCollins…
Read MoreScottish front pages highlight wet, rocky path through Brexit forest
Our guidebook described the hike to Steall Falls as “a pleasant walk with good views of the river.” It did concede that the “grass/stone path can be slippery when wet.” But as the rain came down, and we found ourselves scrambling up and down a rough, rocky trail that winds through a forest, we realized…
Read MoreSmaller than the Crystal Serenity, yet too big for a Scottish port
As we approached Oban on the ferry from Barra, I mistook this ship for the Crystal Serenity, which is slated to sail through the Northwest Passage later this year. But no. It’s the MV Artania, which was anchored offshore because it is too big to enter the port. This particular Motorized Vessel is 231 metres…
Read MoreThe ‘most hated man in Scotland’ is killing my buzz in the Islands
In the mid-19th century, he was “the most hated man in Scotland.” For sure he had competition, but Colonel John Gordon lived in a fabulous castle (see below) and was also known as Scotland’s “richest commoner.” Here in the Highlands and Islands, Gordon’s ghost has been killing my buzz. That’s not because he was wealthy, but…
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