Legendary Different Drummer plays host to 50 Canadians
This morning took us out to Burlington to talk about 50 Canadians in the Different Drummer Book & Author Series. Would you believe that this series has been running since 1975? It may well be the oldest bookstore-based reading-talking-and-seriously-buying series in Canada. The only contender I can think of is the Books-and-Breakfast series operated by…
Read MoreGotta love how The Morning Show goes beyond the conventional
Wow! So that was different . . . and especially fun. Hats off to the folks at Global TV Toronto who put together The Morning Show. In the past month, thanks to VIA-Rail and HarperCollins Canada, I’ve done half a dozen morning shows across the country. And this one, I can tell you, was unique…
Read MoreNew Zealander’s G-G shows why we should focus on books, not authors
By winning the governor-general’s award for fiction, novelist Eleanor Catton reopened an old debate. Catton was born in Canada but left with her parents while still a child. Is she a Canadian novelist? Is she not? One academic called her victory a scandal. Others defended the decision to give her the prize. The sound and…
Read MoreWhy CTV’s Canada AM is this country’s top-rated breakfast show
They did their homework. That was the first thing I noticed. When we chatted in the Green Room, before entering the broadcast studio, I could tell that producer Katie Johnson had read the book. Same with host Beverly Thomson, who, a few minutes later, interviewed me on air: she had a welter of yellow stickies…
Read MoreVIA-Rail, ocean-to-ocean, 50 Canadians: this really happened!
One month ago, we boarded a train called The Canadian in Toronto. We were bent on celebrating 50 Canadians Who Changed the World – the majority of whom are alive and thriving — by following in the footsteps of those who created this nation by running steel rails across it. We called this endeavor The…
Read MoreThree reasons why I hate Montreal
–> Some might say that Montreal is over-represented in 50 Canadians. And, yes, within its pages we do find Leonard Cohen, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Guy Laliberte, Louise Arbour, Oscar Peterson, Jacques Plante, Michaelle Jean, Romeo Dallaire, and Celine Dion. But I only included them because they made me do so. Fact is, much as I…
Read MoreRob Ford turned me into a private eye
Rob Ford followed me to Ottawa. I thought I would escape him by coming here to do a book signing at Books on Beechwood. En route, I read about him in two newspapers, the Star and the Globe. Then I read about him in the latest issue of MacLean’s. That might have been the end…
Read MoreOcean-to-Ocean Book Tour Extravaganza Heads East
Part Two of the journey begins in Toronto next Thursday (Nov. 7). Yes, we’re talking The VIA-Rail, 50 Canadians, Ocean-to-Ocean Book Tour Extravaganza. We’re promoting 50 Canadians Who Changed the World by train. So far, we have whistle-stopped through Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Canmore, Banff, Jasper, and Vancouver. Now, we travel east: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and…
Read MoreThree reasons why I hate Vancouver
–> You knew it was coming. And now, having been here almost 24 hours, I stand ready to deliver. Why do I hate Vancouver? The first reason is the Seawall that encircles Stanley Park. Today is nothing but sunshine here and of course we went walking along that wall. Yes, in T.O. we have the…
Read MoreJasper marks the spot where the railway meets Canada’s most spectacular drive
Jasper has had a 40-foot Haida totem pole since 1915. The original Raven Totem arrived four years after the railway, and ten years before the train station in which I sit. I know these things because we contrived to spend a couple of hours rambling around Jasper after driving here from Banff. Yes , the…
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