2025 Great Canadian Gift Guide

“You cannot know if you are not introduced” goes a Malay proverb, “and you cannot love if you do not know.” In this spirit, Jacques H.bert launched Canada World Youth in 1971. The program taught tens of thousands of young people to go beyond their differences to reach a common ground where the building blocks for lasting peace might be recovered: respect, mutual understanding, friendship and a shared sense of humanity.

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“Jeff Wilson has written a compelling and funny story about an ambitious historian trying to find his place in the academic firmament, not to mention in his own family — while falling head over heels in love at the same time. By turns heartfelt and humorous, thoughtful and fascinating, Wilson knows of what he writes, and he writes very well.” — Terry Fallis

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“Intimately personal and yet with a universal resonance, Playing Hard is a simply riveting memoir that also offers thoughtful and thought-provoking insights and commentaries on the role of all manner of sports-related competition on his (and our own) life. Absorbing, entertaining, exceptional, original, and unreservedly recommended.” — The Midwest Book Review

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In 1891, J. Murakami travelled from  Japan, via San Francisco, to Vancouver Island and began working in and around Victoria. His occupation: creating permanent images on the skin of paying clients. From this early example of tattooing as work, Jamie Jelinski takes us from coast to coast, with detours to the U.S., England and Japan, as he traces the evolution of commercial tattooing in Canada over more than 100 years.

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Anticipation based on early reports of photography’s invention and its wide application during the First World War show that photography was widely accepted by the modern world. A History of Photography in Canada captures this with hundreds of photographs generated in and of Canada-in-the-making and by listening to the chords they struck in the collective imagination. 

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Ottawology offers an original, accessible sociological account of social structures, socialities, ecologies, and everyday life in Ottawa.

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“Sandlos and Keeling foreground community resistance and the enduring fight for environmental justice long after the rush is over.” –Lianne C. Leddy, Wilfrid Laurier University

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“Caron’s compelling prose, mastery of pertinent historiography, and fresh perspective make this a history that is local, national, and international in equal measure.” –Harold Bérubé, Université de Sherbrooke

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Preserve your collection of back issues with this magazine slipcase beautifully wrapped in burgundy vellum with gold foil stamp on the front and spine. Each case holds twelve issues — two years of magazines — and ensures your collection of Canada’s History stays in perfect condition for future reference.

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“Hearts of Freedom recounts the heroic stories of the boat people in heartwrenching, unimaginable situations as they searched for freedom. Their testimonies – filled with unreal courage, sacrifice, and tenacity – will never leave you.” – Hieu C. Truong, OC

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Choose between a cream-coloured background with burgundy leaves and trim, and a burgundy background with cream-coloured leaves and trim. Available in crew length or ankle sock.  

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Canada’s Great War Album is a remarkable collection of Canadian photographs, memorabilia and stories of the war. Included are contributions from Peter Mansbridge, Charlotte Gray, J.L. Granatstein, Christopher Moore, Jonathan Vance and Tim Cook.

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A fully illustrated survey of Canada’s warship and maritime aircraft throughout the history of the navy.

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Regimental history doesn’t begin with the first shot of a battle, nor does the story end when the fighting stops. Onward is a thoroughly researched and captivating chronicle of the King’s Own Calgary Regiment and its soldiers in peace and war. It’s a soldier’s story: mundane, tragic and heroic.

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Deyoh.ha:ge: — meaning “two roads or paths” in the Cayuga language — evokes the Covenant Chain-Two Row Wampum. This Haudenosaunee wampum showed how an Indigenous People and newcomers could build peace and friendship by respecting one another’s cultures, beliefs and laws as they shared the river of life. Written by members of the Six Nations of the Grand River and their neighbours, this book explores the history of the agreement and how it might restore good relations today.

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“This fascinating history of Canada’s wartime production business leaders … shows how Canada was built into an economic powerhouse to beat the Nazis and win the peace, and reminds Canadians that when they sacrifice and work together, they can accomplish great things.” — Dimitry Anastakis, Professor, Canadian Business History, University of Toronto

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The story of Benjamin Franklin’s not-so-secret desire to annex Canada and make it American.

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“Marshalling a particularly impressive array of talented scholars across various disciplines, McGill in History opens a new and many-paned window on McGill’s past.” –Duncan L. McDowall, Queen’s University

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“ImagiNation took me down memory lane, sharing behind-the-scenes stories about the TV shows that coloured my world as a kid.”— ERICA EHM, former MuchMusic VJ

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This wilderness classic of raising a family in the wilds of Northern Canada has been updated for its 30th anniversary. More than 160 kilometres from the nearest paved road and cut off from the outside world, Deanna Barnhardt Kawatski and her husband built a life in the stunning Ningunsaw Valley. She describes the family’s self-sufficiency in building their home and growing food. But the unrelenting work of pioneer life is balanced with her deep love of the natural world.

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National security expert Dennis Molinaro reveals the shocking details of Beijing’s five-decades-long effort to influence and interfere in Canadian political life. From cultivating future political leaders at the end of the Cultural Revolution to the foreign-interference scandals that have shaken present-day Ottawa, this definitive book addresses one of the most urgent issues of our time.

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“Katherine Crooks sheds new light on histories of exploration and gender in North America in this exciting and thought-provoking volume.” –Karen Routledge, Parks Canada

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Haida artist and Hereditary Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart has earned international acclaim for his towering poles, stately cedar sculptures and massive bronzes — monumental works that extend the long continuum of Haida visual traditions into powerful new forms. This richly illustrated publication draws on extensive interviews with the artist to sketch the evolution of his five-decade practice.

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One of Canada’s foremost authors and journalists, offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today’s Canada.

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A fascination with what he called “renegade architecture” led Canadian photographer Richard Johnson (1957-2021) to catalogue an eclectic array of small-scale buildings across Canada that told a story about the places they were from and the people who created them. Ephemeral ice fishing huts found in all 10 Canadian provinces and Newfoundland root cellars are the focus of this new photo book.

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Challenging Exile delves into a shameful moment in Canada’s past: the government’s attempt to exile thousands of Japanese Canadians to Japan after the Second World War. This investigation of the origins, administration, litigation and aftermath of this attempt at gross injustice also shares first-hand stories of resilience.

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From our country's most important war historian, a gripping account of the turbulent relationship between Canada and the US during the Second World War. The two nations entered the war amidst rivalry and mutual suspicion, but learned to fight together before emerging triumphant and bound by an alliance that has lasted to this day.

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“Students by Day sets a gold standard for community-centred research, reminding us of the centrality of love to culture, people, and politics.” –Niigaan Sinclair

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Gary Genosko uncovers the legacy of Harley Parker (1915-92) — Canadian museum exhibition designer, typographer and painter — and explores his innovative concepts reshaping museums as perceptual laboratories. A related title is The Culture Box: Museums as Media, by Harley Parker and edited by Gary Genosko.

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Structured around the four questions that have long shaped Senator Sinclair’s thinking and worldview—Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?—Who We Are takes readers into the story of his remarkable life as never before, while challenging them to embrace an inclusive vision for our shared future.

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A giant of Canadian history. A hapless bachelor who practically worshipped his mother. A racist and antisemite typical of his generation. An astoundingly effective Liberal Party leader. The Enduring Riddle of Mackenzie King assembles a who’s who of historians to untangle the legacy of Canada’s longest-serving, most controversial and possibly greatest prime minister.

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“I’ve read The Game, I’ve read Roy’s Winning, Nothing Else, Brodeur’s Beyond the Crease. Among all these, Kelly’s opus stands out because it’s more than a book about hockey, about a team; it’s about a religion for Quebecers and how they came to be throughout the years. If you’re only going to read one hockey book this year, this should be the one.”— Karine Hains, The Hockey News

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The masterful narration of a daughter's decades-long quest to understand her extraordinary mother, who was born in Lenin's Soviet Union, served as a combat soldier in the Red Army, and endured three years of Nazi captivity—but never revealed her darkest secrets.

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Our Land — a major work of history by Indigenous leaders — provides the historical record of acknowledgment of Aboriginal title and an analysis of why it still exists today.

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This all-encompassing volume brings together major works of Indigenous, Canadian and European art from the 19th to the 21st century and invites readers to  embrace the season in all its forms.

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From the quiet beauty of sugar maple forests to the high-tech, high-stakes world of syrup production, this book takes you on a remarkable journey into one of Canada’s most cherished traditions.

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In Targeting Libya, investigative journalist Owen Schalk examines how Canadian business and government actors influenced Libya’s fate, from the rise and fall of Muammar Qadhafi to the country’s ongoing instability in the present day. 

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Love, betrayal, and a secret war: the untold story of two elite agents, one Canadian, one British, who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII.

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Beyond the Rink recontextualizes photos from the 1951 Sioux Lookout Black Hawks hockey team’s promotional tour, bringing together Indigenous studies, history and media studies to reveal the complex role of sports in residential school histories.

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On Settler Colonialism in Canada investigates settler colonialism as a state mandate and an alibi for violence and death. It examines how settler identities are in opposition to nature and how eras of settler colonialism have come to be defined. Scholars and thinkers explore how settlers saw themselves as servants of empire and how their identities came to be predicated on white supremacy.

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From the bestselling, prize-winning author Linden MacIntyre comes an engrossing, page-turning exploration of the little-known life of Sir Hugh Tudor. Appointed by his friend Winston Churchill to lead the police in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence, Tudor met civil strife and domestic terrorism with indiscriminate state-sanctioned murder—changing the course of Irish history.

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This second volume of Bryan Palmer’s history of Canada covers 1890 to 1960. Weaving together themes that include business, labour, politics, and social history, this account brings the experiences of Indigenous peoples into the centre of the narrative.

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With only faded clues and a zeal for adventure, Adam Shoalts retraces forgotten routes to uncover the fate of Hubert Darrell, a legendary Canadian explorer who vanished more than a century ago.

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Featuring over 1,000 photographs, this guide identifies more than 40 important architectural styles in Canada, ranging from the nineteenth-century Georgian, Gothic Revival and Italianate buildings to twentieth- and twenty-first-century Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, Brutalist and Neo-Expressionism. The examples are drawn from all across Canada, rural, small town and urban.

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