Book Launch: Celebrate Canada 150 by looking back at the centennial with new book by Victoria author!

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Tuesday, May 16th, 2017
7:00 PM to 9:30 PM

Join Victoria author Tom Hawthorn as he celebrates the release of his new book, The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their Country: The Centennial of 1967 (Douglas & McIntyre, $26.95).

This free event will include a presentation, book signing and refreshments. It happened much like the 2010 Olympics did: an initial period of indifference and cynicism, and then a huge blockbuster party from a normally reserved nation—only this one was nation-wide. In the final weeks leading up to New Year's Day, 1967, Canadians embraced the official plans for celebrating the centennial, and then began making plans of their own: epic canoe trips, dangerous dogsled races, bathtub races, and even one UFO landing pad. Hundreds of other centennial projects can still be found in almost every city and Hamlet across Canada, and the climax of the party was Expo 67 held on man-made islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal.

As we approach Canada's 150th anniversary, Tom Hawthorn offers Canadians a look back at the unlikely and inspiring story of the centennial of 1967, richly illustrated with period photos, ephemera, and his own personal stories in addition to a lot of research. As he says in the preface: "Trudeaumania; the state getting out of the bedrooms of the nation; women demanding an equal place in society; and massive changes to the population through immigration—was made possible during Centennial Year... The Canada of 2017 owes more to decisions made in the wake of 1967 than to the negotiations conducted in 1867."

Tom Hawthorn is an award-winning (and, on occasion, award-losing) journalist whose byline has appeared in publications large (Reader’s Digest, Canadian Geographic) and small (South Bend Tribune in Indiana and the Sanger Herald in California). He is also the author of Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians (Harbour Publishing, 2012). He lives in Victoria, BC. For more information about this event, please contact Munro's Books at (250) 382-2464. https://www.munrobooks.com/