If I wanted to know more about Canada, you would suggest I read...

[Karmadillo]

I've read some Mordecai Richler and I listen to Radio Canada International(e) on occasion, but other than that, I'm pretty ignorant. Any suggestions, including novels or history or websites or whatever, would be most appreciated.

[Darth_Kitten]

1. Pierre Berton

read anything by him. :)

[TrogL]

2. A few things

http://www.cbc.ca including the forums
http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html government of canada website
http://www.google.ca click Canada only, then enter "introduction to Canada"

[Maple]

3. I would recommend

'Fire and Ice...The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values' by Michael Adams. Published by Penguin books.

It compares the two countries and shows the differing outlooks and world views...and it's just recently published so it's up to date.

[speckledgator]

6. Wow

That sounds facinating...
I recently married a Canadian citizen, and though I was a history major in college....my knowledge of Canada is pathetic. Is there a good general history of Canada anyone could reccomend?

[Lisa]

8. Fire and Ice is great!

I saw some of the excerpts in the Globe and Mail -- and leafed through it at the bookstore. Definitely on my to-buy list. Also, Mel Hurtig's "The Vanishing Country" (a lot more depressing to read, but he raises some good points).

Re: histories, Pierre Berton is one of the big names up here, though he tends to focus on specific periods (like the War of 1812 or the building of the railroad). But one of the best sources of info on the entire country, giving an overview of the past 4 centuries or so, is the "Canada: A People's History" TV series, by the CBC -- I posted a link with more info elsewhere on this thread. I got to meet the guy who put it together -- he was the guest speaker at my graduation this year.

Link to collection of the "Heritage Minutes" series:
http://www.histori.ca/minutes/default.do

[morningglory]

4. Please go up there. It is a wonderful place.

Old, gray haired ladies walking home with shopping bags at 11pm. Young kids sitting in blowing wet ice on the curb waiting for the bus late at night, with cars throwing ice everywhere. Great international stores and culture and restaurants, like NY with none of the crime, nor homeless. They ice skate to work in Ottawa along the Rideaux River (?). I worked for 2 Canadian firms and got to spend a lot of time up there. People like acoustic music, they sunbathe on top of the snow in April. Insane statements by politians quoted in the newspaper like this: "What would be the reasonable thing to do?" God can you imagine one of our pols asking a question like that? It is more like "How will my contributors profit from a policy like that?" down here.

[Interrobang]

5. Reading List...

Casselman's Canadian Dictionary (Thomas Casselman)
Columbo's Little Book Of Canadian ... (I forget the rest, but you can look it up, it's something like "Wit, Wisdom and Graffiti")
the novels of Anne Hebert, Farley Mowat, Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens
The Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com)
the essays of Peter Gzowski
Canadian Geographic magazine (like National Geographic, only more interesting and homier)
Canadian Living magazine (general interest, women's)

[Lisa]

7. Colombo's got a whole bunch of books ....

Lots of compilations of Canadian quotes and trivia. He's a nice guy -- we exchanged letters many years ago.

CBC documentary series -- "Canada -- A People's History" -- now out on DVD!

http://history.cbc.ca/

[Karmadillo]

11. Does anyone know if A People's History ever shows up on US cable?

I checked the History Channel and they had nothing on it.

[iverglas]

12. well, you can buy it!

http://www.cbc.ca/historys/merchandise.html

book, video set, DVDs. Even a calendar.

The site about the show itself is: http://history.cbc.ca/histicons/
You can probably pick up quite a bit by clicking around the pages for each episode -- click on "gateway to this episode" beside the summary of each one on that page, and there are 17 episodes.

Complete set on video, $170 Cdn ... which is just under $130 US right now, but getting more expensive by the day.



Here's one I hit incidentally -- resource links for social science teachers, links to sites with various collections of useful stuff:
http://www.bctf.bc.ca/psas/BCSSTA/gr11.shtml

.

[Karmadillo]

13. Spend money for knowledge!?!?

What can you be thinking?

Seriously, thanks for the info. I had already checked Amazon.ca and I think, assuming I did the math right, it's a little cheaper there.

I had time to do just a quick check of the social studies link. Looks great. Thanks.

[HEyHEY]

15. I have a cassleman book of canadian sayings

I'v never heard any of them

[Karmadillo]

9. Thanks for all the great suggestions. They should keep my

brain hurting for quite some time.

[iverglas]

10. Michael Ignatieff

The Rights Revolution, CBC Massey Lectures 2000

I think the audio is also available. I'd thought it was available at amazon.com, but on a quick check, didn't see it .. and I have to go watch West Wing!

Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, rights have become the dominant language of the public good around the globe. In Canada, rights have become the trump card in every argument from family life to Parliament Hill. But the notorious fights for aboriginal rights and for the linguistic heritage of French-speaking Canadians have steered Canada into a full-blown rights revolution. This revolution is not only deeply controversial here, but is being watched around the world. Are group rights — to land and language — jeopardizing individual rights? Has the Charter of Rights empowered ordinary Canadians or just enriched constitutional lawyers? When everyone asserts their rights, what happens to responsibilities? Michael Ignatieff confronts these questions head-on in The Rights Revolution, defending the supposed individualism of rights language against all comers.

Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian-born writer and historian. His books include the trilogy Blood and Belonging, The Warrior’s Honour, and Virtual War. He is the biographer of the liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin, and this year delivered the Tanner Lectures in Human Values at Princeton University. In September 2000, he will be a visiting professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Sounds esoteric, but it's about the very foundational aspects of Canadian society. I only caught part of it on TV and have never got around to ordering the book ... but I plan to!

Also along that line, George Grant's "Lament for a Nation". An oldie, the book on *Canadian* conservatism.

On the net, check out things like http://www.healthcoalition.ca for a *Canadian* perspective on major Canadian social/political issues, the health care system, in that case -- i.e. critique based on Canadian values, rather than from a US perspective. I'm not sure how http://www.straightgoods.ca is doing these days, but it's got good reads.

And just browse http://cbc.ca -- it has all sorts of archives to get into. The Halifax Explosion (a munitions ship blew in Halifax Harbour in WWI, worst single non-natural disaster in history) is coming up as a special documentary on CBC TV, and there's stuff on the website, for instance.

For the poop on the crown prince Prime Minister apparent, Paul Martin Jr., check http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/030401_csl/main.html -- you can watch the CBC exposé on video there too.

Alice Munro is the queen of short stories. Margaret Atwood is consistently (and yet varyingly) a good read. Austin Clarke and a whole host of other first-generation immigrants ... . Ah, here's an easy one: http://www.thegillerprize.ca/ -- I haven't gone into the site, but I assume it has lists of previous years' winners and nominees for fiction.

Happy to try to answer about anything more specific too!

.

[TrogL]

14. We do have our own version of freepers, but here's some other stuff

http://www.freedominion.ca

For newspapers, check out

http://www.globeandmail.com the globe and mail
http://www.canoe.ca/PlanetSun/home.html Sun newspaper chain
http://www.canwestglobal.com/publishing.html Canwest global

for TV,

http://www.ctv.ca CTV
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/index.html GLOBAL
http://www.cbc.ca/television/ CBC

Radio

http://www.cbc.ca/radioguide/index.jsp

[HEyHEY]

16. Try

Finding a copy of Vancouver Magazine
CBC radio is a good start

of course the best thing...come for a visit!

[Frederic Bastiat]

17. Two Solitudes (get acquainted with the Anglo/Francophone divide)

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1550413082/qid%3D/701-5363521-5089165

As an American (and recent immigrant to Québec) married to a French Canadian, this book helped me understand the historical context of the Anglo/Franco conflict in Québec and Canada at large, at the very least it will make you want to visit our beautiful province.

Welcome to Canada!