During the 1970s and 1980s, after the Royal Commission on the Status of Women made its far-reaching recommendations, the volunteer Ontario Committee on the Status of Women went head-to-head with the Ontario government of Premier William Davis to fully implement equality for women in Ontario. Areas of concern were in employment, pay and benefits, child care and reproduction rights, education and training, family law, pensions, politics and the civil service, and human rights generally. Members of this committed organization tell the stories of how they came together, how they organized and lobbied for change, how they collaborated with other groups, how the issues changed, and what the work means for women in Ontario today.

Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were how most people travelled and saw the country. Today, trains get the most attention in the context of tragedy, in the aftermath of rare but catastrophic derailments. However, train stories go beyond these modern-day disaster tales or romantic glimpses into the past. Whistle Posts West presents a compelling array of stories that illustrate how and why the railways continue to capture our imaginations. From the heartbreaking to the humorous, from the awe-inspiring to the absurd, this fascinating collection of railway tales from BC and Alberta is sure to please.

In 1874, the newly formed North West Mounted Police marched west to shut down unscrupulous liquor traders who had devastated the lives of many First Nations people. The Mounties` famous trek heralded over 50 years of "whisky wars" in the Canadian West. Author Rich Mole traces the turbulent history of alcohol, temperance movements and prohibition between 1870 and the 1920s through the stories of those who suffered and profited from the West`s insatiable thirst for liquor. Before prohibition, young James Gray was one of many Winnipeg children who endured poverty and humiliation due to an alcoholic father. Calgary newspaperman Bob Edwards, known for his witty aphorisms, publicly supported prohibition while waging his own battle with the bottle. Harry Bronfman, "King of the Boozoriums," built a business empire shipping mail-order liquor on both sides of the Canada-US border. Rum-runner "Emperor" Emilio Picariello and his housekeeper, Florence Lassandro, faced the gallows after an Alberta police constable was shot and killed in front of his own children. Mole`s vivid, real-life stories chronicle a tumultuous and fascinating era.

Canadians often see politicians as trained seals who vote on command and repeat robotic talking points. Politicians are torn by dilemmas of loyalty to party versus loyalty to voters. Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada examines the hidden ways that political parties exert control over elected members of legislatures. Drawing on extensive interviews with politicians and staffers across Canada, award-winning author Alex Marland explains why Members of Parliament toe the party line. This book exposes how democracy works in our age of instant communication and increasing polarization. Whipped is a must-read for anyone interested in the real world of Canadian politics.

One of the most iconic villains in the history of television, the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man fascinated legions of fans of the 1990s’ hit TV series, The X-Files. Best known as “Cancerman,” he was voted Television’s Favourite Villain by the readers of TV Guide. The man behind the villain, William B. Davis, is a Canadian actor and director, whose revelations in this memoir will entertain and intrigue the millions of X-Files aficionados worldwide.

But there is more to Davis’s story than just The X-Files.

Davis’s extensive acting experience began when he was a child in Ontario in the 1950s, and grew to encompass radio, theatre, film, and television. At the University of Toronto, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy, he turned his hand to directing, a move that took him to theatre school in Britain and a directing career. There, he reconnected with his undergraduate colleague, Donald Sutherland, and worked at the National Theatre, with such notables as Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Maggie Smith, and Albert Finney.

Those who love the theatre will delight in his recollections of the Straw Hat Players in Ontario or the trials and tribulations of an artistic director of repertory theatre in Dundee, Scotland, or his valiant attempt to create a theatre in Quebec devoted to the Canadian repertoire. Those who love history will relive with Davis those “golden years” of Canadian radio drama and theatre, not to mention enjoying an inside look at the National Theatre School of Canada where he directed the English Acting Program in the ’60s. Those who love a bit of scandalous gossip will not be disappointed.

Written in an easy conversational style, this memoir truly is “The Musings of the Cigarette Smoking Man” – as William B. Davis reflects on his loves, his losses, his hopes, his fears, and his accomplishments in this unique and engaging autobiography.

“The problem with writer longevity can be a complicating, even contradictory oeuvre. Hopefully.” Where the Truth Lies collects forty years of essays and speeches that award-winning author Rudy Wiebe has crafted throughout his career. In this illuminating and wide-ranging selection, Wiebe provides a look behind the curtain, revealing his thought processes as he worked on many of his great books. Within this book, he dissects controversies that arose after publication of his early novels, meditates on words and their inherent power, explores the great Canadian North and the Canadian body politic, reckons with his family history and Mennonite faith, all while providing an engaging and enlightening commentary. Where The Truth Lies is a vital compilation of a writing life.

Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art brings together contemporary Indigenous knowledge holders with extraordinary works of historical Northwest Coast art that transcend the category of "art" or "artifact" and embody distinct ways of knowing and being in the world. Dozens of Indigenous artists and community members visited the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia to engage with these objects and learn from the hands of their ancestors. The photographs and their commentaries speak to the connections between tangible and intangible cultural belongings; how "art" remains part of Northwest Coast peoples' ongoing relationships to their territories and governance; Indigenous experiences of reconnection, reclamation, and return; and critical and necessary conversations around the role of museums.

An intimate and uplifting book about finding renewal and hope through grief and loss. "It was a terrible life; it was an enchanted life; it was a blessed life. And, of course, one day it ended." -Sharon Butala In the tradition of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Diana Athill's Somewhere Towards the End, and Atul Gawande's Being Mortal comes a revelatory new book from one of our beloved writers. When Sharon Butala's husband, Peter, died unexpectedly, she found herself with no place to call home. Torn by grief and loss, she fled the ranchlands of southwest Saskatchewan and moved to the city, leaving almost everything behind. A lifetime of possessions was reduced to a few boxes of books, clothes, and keepsakes. But a lifetime of experience went with her, and a limitless well of memory-of personal failures, of a marriage that everybody said would not last but did, of the unbreakable bonds of family. Reinventing herself in an urban landscape was painful, and facing her new life as a widow tested her very being. Yet out of this hard-won new existence comes an astonishingly frank, compassionate and moving memoir that offers not only solace and hope but inspiration to those who endure profound loss. Often called one of this country's true visionaries, Sharon Butala shares her insights into the grieving process and reveals the small triumphs and funny moments that kept her going. Where I Live Now is profound in its understanding of the many homes women must build for themselves in a lifetime.

“[Gary Collins is] one of the region’s better storytellers; he has a journalist’s eye for detail, his writing is crisp and lean.”
Atlantic Books Today

Where Eagles Lie Fallen is celebrated master storyteller Gary Collins’s solemn tribute to the American servicemen and servicewomen who lost their lives aboard Arrow Air Flight 1285 when it crashed in Gander, Newfoundland, on December 12, 1985.This is a story of a tremendous loss of life, of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. military – the world-renowned “Screaming Eagles.” Eyewitnesses to the tragedy and the surviving loved ones of the lost American soldiers reveal for the first time the profound effect this event had on them, and how it still affects them today.

Within these pages you will meet “Buckeye” Brady, “Keybird” Kee, Michael Shayne “Eliot” Stack, “Ziggy” Ziegler, “Jenny” Word, and Sergeant Christine M. McCleery, American servicemen and servicewomen lost aboard Arrow Air Flight 1285.

Among those who assisted Gary Collins in the reconstruction of that fateful day are Robyn Stack, mother of Michael Shayne “Eliot” Stack, Gander Deputy Mayor Sandra Kelly, Air Traffic Controller Glenn Blandford, Mayor Doug Sheppard, and Gander resident Pat Kane.