2019 Book & Gift Guide

The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People, the Métis Nation

by Jean Teillet

The Métis Nation didn’t just drift slowly into the Canadian consciousness in the early 1800s; it burst onto the scene fully formed. Written by the great-grandniece of Louis Riel, this popular and engaging history of “forgotten people” tells their story up to the present era of national reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

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Around the World in a Dugout Canoe: The Untold Story of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum

by John M. MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon

In this groundbreaking work, maritime historians MacFarlane and Salmon sift fact from fiction, critically examining the claims of previously published accounts against research from libraries, archives and museums around the world to reveal the real story of a little-understood character and his cedar canoe. It is an enduring story of courage, adventure, tragedy and, at times, sheer luck.

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The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings

edited by Karen Shauber

This gorgeous full-colour art book includes works by the original Group of Seven as well as later members, plus their contemporaries Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Each painting is accompanied by a short narrative — or “flash fiction” piece — written by critically acclaimed, award-winning authors.

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Strangers in the House: A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging

by Candace Savage

When researching the first occupant of her home in Saskatoon, Candace Savage discovers a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she ever expected. In Strangers in the House, Savage scours public records and historical accounts, as she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today.

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Canadian Battlefields of the Second World War: Dieppe, D-Day, and the Battle of Normandy

by Terry Copp and Matt Baker

The battlefields of the Second World War have long played an important part in the collective memory and imagination of Canadians. This guidebook offers an introduction to the strategic, operational and tactical aspects of the Dieppe Raid and the Normandy campaign plus information on accommodation, museums, memorials and other points of interest.

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Friends, Foes, and Furs: George Nelson’s Lake Winnipeg Journals, 1804–1822

edited by Harry W. Duckworth

George Nelson (1786–1859) was a clerk for the North West Company whose unusually detailed and personal writings provide a compelling portrait of the people engaged in the golden age of the Canadian fur trade. Friends, Foes, and Furs is a critical edition of Nelson’s daily journals, supplemented with exciting anecdotes from his “Reminiscences,” which were written after his retirement to Lower Canada.

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As British as the King: Lunenburg County during the First World War

by Gerald Hallowell

As British as the King explores life in Lunenburg County at a time when blackouts were enforced, when there were rumours of spies, and when schooners were sunk offshore by U-boats. Intricately and thoroughly researched, this fascinating historical account brings an exquisite level of detail to the history of the war effort on the home front.

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Beaver bow tie

Made exclusively for Canada’s History

Beautiful woven all-silk bow tie — burgundy with small beaver images throughout. This bow tie was inspired by Pierre Berton, inaugural winner of the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award, presented by Canada's History Society. And watch for our new beaver neckties, coming soon!

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A Mohawk Memoir from the War of 1812: John Norton — Teyoninhokarawen

edited by Carl Benn

A Mohawk Memoir from the War of 1812 presents the story of John Norton, or Teyoninhokarawen, an important war chief and political figure among the Grand River Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) in Upper Canada. His memoir describes the fighting, the stresses suffered by indigenous peoples, and the complex relationships between the Haudenosaunee and both their British allies and other First Nations communities.

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Possess the Air: Love, Heroism, and the Battle for the Soul of Mussolini’s Rome

by Taras Grescoe

This is the story of freedom fighters who defied Italy’s despot Mussolini by opposing the rising tide of populism and xenophobia. Taras Grescoe’s inspiring story of resistance, risk, and sacrifice paints a portrait of heroes in the fight against authoritarianism. This is an essential biography for our time.

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The Rise and Fall of United Grain Growers: Cooperatives, Market Regulation, and Free Enterprise

by Paul Earl

Paul Earl’s history reveals United Grain Growers’ central role in the growth and transformation of the western grain industry. With meticulous research supplemented by interviews with many of the key players, he also delves into the details and the debates over the company’s demise.

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No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous

by Sheldon Krasowski, foreword by Winona Wheeler

A provocative claim that Indigenous people did not “surrender” their land in Canada’s numbered Treaty negotiations but were instead deceived by the Canadian government.

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The York Factory Express: Fort Vancouver to Hudson Bay, 1826–1849

by Nancy Marguerite Anderson

Incredible first-hand accounts of the Hudson’s Bay Company brigade canoes that paddled from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson Bay and back — all in one year.

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Border Flows: A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship

edited by Lynne Heasley and Daniel Macfarlane

Access to clean water is one of the twenty-first century’s most pressing environmental and human rights challenges. The 8,800-km border dividing Canada and the U.S. contains more than 20% of the world’s total freshwater resources. This book traces the century-long effort to manage these economically and ecologically shared rivers and lakes.

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Beaver necktie

Made exclusively for Canada’s History

New in store! Beautiful woven all-silk necktie — burgundy with small silver beaver images throughout.

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The Greater Gulf: Essays on the Environmental History of the Gulf of St. Lawrence

edited by Claire Elizabeth Campbell, Edward MacDonald, and Brian Payne

A transborder collaboration between Canadian and American scholars, The Greater Gulf represents the first concerted exploration of the environmental history — marine and terrestrial — of the Gulf of St Lawrence.

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Canada’s Great War Album: Our Memories of the First World War

edited by Mark Collin Reid

Published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Canada’s Great War Album is an unprecedented and remarkable collection of Canadian photographs, memorabilia, and stories of the war. Includes contributions from Peter Mansbridge, Charlotte Gray, J.L. Granatstein, Christopher Moore, Jonathan Vance, and Tim Cook.

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The Stories Were Not Told: Canada’s First World War Internment Camps

by Sandra Semchuk

Nominated for the 2020 Kobzar Award! “Finally, a century later, internment stories are being told, making our nation’s history more authentic.” — Steven Ross

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Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys

by Keith Ross Leckie

This contemporary novel inspired by true events — the massacre of the Donnelly family in 1880 in Biddulph Township, Upper Canada — is conveyed with cinematic detail. Engaging and historically enlightening, Cursed! is an iconic tale of the Old World and its sins visited upon the new.

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Harry Livingstone’s Forgotten Men: Canadians and the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War

by Dan Black

An untold story about the clandestine operation to transport 80,000 Chinese labourers from remote Chinese villages, across Canada and all the way to the European battlefront to aid in the war effort and the mistreatment and racism they faced along the way.

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Thirty Years of Failure: Understanding Canadian Climate Policy

by Robert MacNeil

How did Canada go from climate leader to climate villain? Robert MacNeil argues that the factors preventing a sensible, sustainable climate policy in Canada are also the keys to change, and he offers readers an understanding of the strategies and policies required to decarbonize the Canadian economy.

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White Maple Leaf Socks

Made exclusively for Canada’s History

Maple leaf socks: Cream-coloured background with burgundy leafs and trim. 85% Egyptian combed cotton, 12% nylon, 3% Spandex. Sizes: CAN/US Men’s 7-12 / Women’s 8-13; EUR 39-46.

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The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami

by Linden MacIntyre

On November 18, 1929, a tsunami struck Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula. Giant waves, up to three storeys high, hit the coast at a hundred kilometres per hour, flooding dozens of communities and washing entire houses out to sea. Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning writer Linden MacIntyre was born near St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, one of the villages virtually destroyed by the tsunami.

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Casey: The Remarkable, Untold Story of Frederick Walker “Casey” Baldwin: Gentleman, Genius, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Protegé

by John G. Langley

Frederick Walker “Casey” Baldwin — athlete, engineer, aeronaut, sailor, politician, activist, conservationist — was a true gentleman, modest to a fault. As one of Alexander Graham Bell’s young associates, Casey was the first Canadian, and the first born in the British Empire, to fly — a full eleven months before the historic 1909 flight in Baddeck of the Silver Dart.

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Women’s Writing in Canada

by Patricia Demers

Women’s Writing in Canada resurrects foremothers who were active before and after the mid-century — Ethel Wilson, Gabrielle Roy, Gwen Pharis Ringwood, Dorothy Livesay, and P.K. Page — as well as such forgotten writers as Grace Irwin, Patricia Blondal, and Edna Jaques. Writing for children as well as memoirs, autobiographies, comic books, and cookbooks illustrate the wide and impressive range of women’s talents.

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Boom & Bust: The Resilient Women of Historic Telegraph Cove

by Jennifer L. Butler

Telegraph Cove, one of Vancouver Island’s most visited tourist destinations, has humble origins as a one-shack telegraph station, established a century ago. In this book, more than 25 women tell their own stories and memories of life in the Cove. They faced down the impacts of isolation, hazardous terrain, war, occupation, immigration, internment, social change, economic development, community decline, and environmental degradation.

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The Audacity of His Enterprise: Louis Riel and the Métis Nation That Canada Never Was, 1840–1875

by M. Max Hamon

Louis Riel (1844–1885) was an iconic figure in Canadian history best known for his roles in the Red River Resistance of 1869 and the Northwest Resistance of 1885. Questioning the drama of resistance, The Audacity of His Enterprise highlights Riel's part in the negotiations, petition claims, and legal battles that led to the formation of the state from the bottom up.

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Flawed Precedent: The St. Catherine’s Case and Aboriginal Title

by Kent McNeil

By delving into the historical and ideological context of the 1880s, Kent McNeil provides an informative analysis of the current judicial understanding of Aboriginal title in Canada, now driven by evidence of Indigenous law and land use rather than by the discarded prejudicial assumptions of a bygone era.

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A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans, Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife

by David Vermette

“A terrific book, the best synthesis of Franco-American history written to date…. Both the research and prose are wonderful.” — Leslie Choquette, Résonance

“Readers interested in Canadian and American immigration history will appreciate the depth of Vermette’s research and the fascinating story he tells.” — Publishers Weekly

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“Living Lightly on the Earth”: Building an Ark for Prince Edward Island, 1974–76

by Steven Mannell

Built in 1976 by Solsearch Architects and the New Alchemy Institute, the Ark bioshelter integrated ecological design features to provide a self-reliant life for a family and a model of sustainable living for the world. Illustrated with dozens of original drawings and period photographs, the book traces the history, context, research, and construction of this still-relevant experiment.

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Voices from the Skeena: An Illustrated Oral History

by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd

Combining forty stunning illustrations with text selected from pioneer interviews recorded by CBC radio producer Imbert Orchard in the 1960s, Voices from the Skeena follows the arrival of the Europeans and the introduction of the fur trade to the Omineca gold rush and the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.

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The Homesteaders

by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, foreword by Nadine Charabin

Stories of pioneers often evoke images of romance and hardship. Settlers came to the prairies from all over the world seeking democracy and equality. But what they endured — arduous voyages, back-breaking labour, homes built from sod, and the misery of pests, cyclones, and fires — made them a special kind of people.

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Ordinary Saints: Women, Work, and Faith in Newfoundland

by Bonnie Morgan

Women’s work in in mid-twentieth-century Conception Bay, Newfoundland, included outdoor agricultural labour, housekeeping, childbirth, mortuary services, food preparation, caring for the sick, and textile production. Ordinary Saints explores how religious belief shaped the meaning of this work, and how women lived their Christian faith through the work they did.

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The Red Chesterfield

by Wayne Arthurson

M is a bylaw officer, living with two brothers, in their parents’ old house. While investigating a suspicious yard sale, M discovers a red chesterfield sitting in a ditch. Looking closer, M finds a running shoe — and a severed foot. The Red Chesterfield is a delightful, unusual novel that upends the tropes and traditions of crime fiction to create an alluring world of magic and mystery.

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Gold in British Columbia: Discovery to Confederation

by Marie Elliott

Elliott takes readers through the gold rushes of B.C. from 1858 to B.C.’s entry into Confederation, explaining their central importance to Canada’s history.

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Canadiana Notecard Set

Made exclusively for Canada’s History

Set of eight Canadiana-themed notecards with envelopes — four different designs feature canoes, paddles, snowshoes, or a hat-wearing Canadian beaver.

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Flight of the Highlanders: The Making of Canada

by Ken McGoogan

Between the 1770s and the 1880s, tens of thousands of dispossessed and destitute Scottish Highlanders crossed the Atlantic — prototypes for the refugees we see arriving today from around the world. If today Canada is more welcoming to newcomers than most countries, it is at least partly because of the lingering influence of those unbreakable refugees who, with their better-off brethren — lawyers, educators, politicians and businessmen — were the making of Canada.

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Pulpit, Press, and Politics: Methodists and the Market for Books in Upper Canada

by Scott McLaren

When American Methodist preachers first arrived in Upper Canada in the 1790s, they brought saddlebags stuffed with books published by the New York Methodist Book Concern to sell along their preaching circuits. Pulpit, Press, and Politics traces this remarkable transnational market from its earliest days to the mid-nineteenth century, a period of intense religious struggle in Upper Canada marked by fiery revivals, political betrayals, and bitter church schisms.

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Along the E&N: A Journey Back to the Historic Hotels of Vancouver Island

by Glen A. Mofford

In 1886, Vancouver Island’s E&N rail service was established to carry coal to smelters and ships, and the towns in the railway’s path prospered as the tracks expanded and passenger travel flourished. Along the E&N celebrates the historic and still-surviving hotels and roadhouses that sprung up near the E&N.

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Where Once They Stood: Newfoundland’s Rocky Road Towards Confederation

by Raymond B. Blake and Melvin Baker

“Blake and Baker vigorously bring the exciting fight of ideas in Newfoundland to life. We forget how great the stakes were — nothing less than the survival, security, belonging and recognition of a people. Readers will discover how Newfoundlanders debated for four generations whether Canada was a beau risque.” — Patrice Dutil, author of Prime Ministerial Power in Canada

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Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada

edited by Anna Hoefnagels, Judith Klassen, and Sherry Johnson

At a historical moment when identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity, immigration, and border crossings are debated around the world, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada demonstrates the many ways that music and dance practices in Canada engage with these broader global processes.

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Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscripts

by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Carolyn Strom Collins

This fascinating book presents the original text of Montgomery’s most famous manuscript, including where the author scribbled notes, made additions and deletions, and other editorial details. L. M. Montgomery scholar Carolyn Strom Collins offers a rare look into Montgomery’s creative process, providing a never-before-published version of the worldwide phenomenon.

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Hunger: How Food Shaped the Course of the First World War

by Rick Blom

Among the numerous books that have been written about the First World War, this work stands out for its focus on the role of food in this bloodiest and most gruesome of conflicts. Dutch historian Rick Blom has created a fascinating and absorbing narrative from a wide range of source material, including personal diaries by active servicemen and civilians, interviews and conversations with veterans, food manuals, and recipe books.

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Canada’s History slipcase

from Canada’s History

Each case holds twelve issues of Canada’s History magazine — two years of magazines — and ensures that your collection stays in perfect condition for future reference.

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The River Battles: Canada’s Final Campaign in World War II Italy

by Mark Zuehlke

The fifth and final Canadian Battle Series volume set in Italy, The River Battles tells the story of this campaign’s last and hardest months. In riveting detail and with his trademark “you-are-there” style, Zuehlke shines a light on this forgotten chapter of Canada’s World War II experience.

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Righting Canada’s Wrongs: Africville

by Gloria Ann Wesley

In the 1960s, after years of ignoring the basic needs of the community, the City of Halifax bulldozed the Black community of Africville in the name of urban renewal.

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Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity

by Darryl Leroux

Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined “Indigenous” identity. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an “Indigenous” identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples.

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When Poverty Mattered: Then and Now

by Paul Weinberg

Founded in Toronto in 1968, the Praxis Corporation was a progressive research institute mandated to spark political discussion about a wide range of social issues. In 1970, Praxis’s office was burgled and burned to the ground. No arrests were made. Internal documents and records stolen from Praxis ended up in the hands of the RCMP Security Service.

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Professional Autonomy and the Public Interest: The Barristers’ Society and Nova Scotia’s Lawyers, 1825–2005

by Barry Cahill

Based on extensive research conducted on internal documents, legislative records, and legal and general-interest periodicals and newspapers, Professional Autonomy and the Public Interest demonstrates that the inauguration of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society was the first giant step on the long road to self-regulation.

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Clearing the Plains, New Edition: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

by James Daschuk, opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, introduction by Elizabeth A. Fenn

“A tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of Indigenous peoples.” — Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana

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Polish War Veterans in Alberta: The Last Four Stories

by Aldona Jaworska

An intimate look at displaced Polish soldiers who built new lives in postwar Alberta. “Author Jaworska is a passionate writer; her interviews with survivors are compelling.” — Holly Doan

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Environmental Activism on the Ground: Small Green and Indigenous Organizing

edited by Jonathan Clapperton and Liza Piper

The Green Revolution happened on the ground. Beyond large-scale organizations like Greenpeace, local activists and environmentalists have had an undeniable impact. Discover the small-scale, Indigenous, and ordinary activities and activists that have shaped modern environmentalism.

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Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician

by Geoff Mynett

Horace Wrinch served as the first doctor in northern B.C., working closely with the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en, and helped build a hospital with his own hands.

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The Klondike Gold Rush Steamers: A History of Yukon River Steam Navigation

by Robert D. Turner

Packed with hundreds of outstanding photographs, this handsome volume presents the fascinating history of the Yukon River’s steamers — from the pioneer days of the fur trade to the 1950s — and tells the dramatic story of the people who made a living providing services to a vast, lonely and challenging frontier.

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Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire

by Ted Barris

Noted military historian Ted Barris once asked his father, Alex, “What did you do in the war?” What the former US Army medic then told his son forms the thrust of Barris’s latest historic journey — an exploration of his father’s wartime experiences as a medic leading up to the Battle of the Bulge in 1944–45, along with stories of other medics in combat throughout history. 

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Toronto Trailblazers: Women in Canadian Publishing

by Ruth Panofsky

The first-ever study of women in Canadian publishing, Toronto Trailblazers delves into the cultural influence of seven key women who, despite pervasive gender bias, helped advance a modern literary culture for Canada. Guided by the resolve to make industry-wide improvements, these women disrupted the dominant masculine paradigm and reinvigorated the culture of publishing and authorship in Canada.

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Red Maple Leaf Socks

Made exclusively for Canada’s History

Maple leaf socks: Burgundy-coloured background with off-white leafs and trim. 85% Egyptian combed cotton, 12% nylon, 3% Spandex. Sizes: CAN/US Men’s 7-12 / Women’s 8-13; EUR 39-46.

Buy this at Canada's History

Imagining Anne: L. M. Montgomery’s Island Scrapbooks

by Elizabethh Rollins Epperly

Reflecting L.M. Montgomery’s youth and optimism, these full-colour pages are filled with meaningful insight into the life of a young writer’s inspiration during the period when she would create the beloved character of Anne Shirley, who would win the hearts of readers worldwide with the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 1908.

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Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father

by Diana Wichtel

As a child growing up in Vancouver in the 1950s and early ’60s, Diana Wichtel knew there was something different about her family. Her parents were far from forthcoming about the harrowing details of her Jewish father’s journey from Poland to Canada during the Second World War, often leaving young Diana with more questions than answers. After decades of unanswered questions, Diana (now a journalist) set out on her own to uncover what happened to her father.

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Harold Innis on Peter Pond: Biography, Cultural Memory, and the Continental Fur Trade

by William J. Buxton

In this compelling volume, William Buxton addresses Harold Innis’s engagement with the legacy of the fur trader and adventurer Peter Pond. Harold Innis on Peter Pond comprises eight texts by Innis, including his 1930 biography of Pond as well as his writings on the explorer’s myriad activities.

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