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With humour and humanity, Surviving City Hall reveals the workings of the municipal world based on author Donna Macdonald's nineteen years as a city councillor. Wrestling with ground squirrels, dealing with dogs and grappling with the Three Bears of Governance, Macdonald offers an insider's view into how things work at city hall in a call to citizens in communities of all shapes and sizes.From the table where council members make decisionsto lock out city workers, detoxify a workplace issue, permit high density development and ban dogs downtownto the richness of community life, including meetings, memorials, meat banquets and rallies for the protection of endangered animals, this book is a big-hearted take on small-town politics.It's also a reflection on leadership and on democracy, and how we could do both better. Macdonald ponders women's participation in local governance, why it's critical and what the barriers are that can dissuade women from engaging more fully in the governance of their communities.

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"The Woods is the cure-all to Perfect Island Getaway nostalgia. It's a story of everyday domestic survival, peopled by both loveable eccentrics and possibly murdersome cranks, foregrounding the little-known history of violence on Protection Island. Amber McMillan's writing balances an eye for the unusual and resiliently beautiful with a sympathy for the frailties common to all her islanders." Kevin Chong, author of Baroque-a-Nova, Neil Young Nation and Beauty Plus Pity*The Woods: A Year on Protection Island is a book of non-fiction stories that probes and witnesses the unique and sometimes unsettling atmosphere of small town-island life in the Georgia Strait. The measure of ones success here doesnt rely on status or income, but on the skillful handling of neighbours, the resourcefulness for survival, and the adaptation to both the rigorous outdoors of the Pacific Northwest and equally challenging human community of need, trade, and negotiated civility.These are stories of the people and families who sought refuge here, for different reasons and with different outcomes: Keith, a cross-dressing retired sea captain who cant overcome the death of his wife; Steve, the contractor who escapes his deaf wife and the silence of his domestic life by perfecting his physical property, using only the loudest of electric chainsaws and lawnmowers from morning until dusk; Cris, the seventy-six-year-old library curator who has recently discovered scotch whiskey and sex again after twenty-five years; and of various other transplants making their way through the murky terrain of living on an island.Like no other community on Earth, this small place is packed with secret corners, eerie histories and a whispering darkness. This is the complicated convergence of human capacities: from homicides (both in the same house, unrelated and years apart) to some of the greatest gestures of generosity, social reform and equality. This is the place of the close-up encounter of who we are stripped of distractions and escapist entertainment; who we are in the woods.

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If I Were In a Cage I'd Reach Out For You

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If I Were In A Cage Id Reach Out For You is a collection that travels through both time and place, liminally occupying the chasm between Canadiana and Americana mythologies. These poems dwell in surreal pockets of the everyday warped landscapes of modern cities and flood into the murky basin of the intimate.Amidst the comings and goings, theres a sincere desire to connect to others, an essential need to reach out, to redraft the narratives that make kinship radical and near. These poems are love letters to the uncomfortable, the unfathomable, and the altered geographies that define our own misshapen understandings of the world."With a depth of feeling for places and their connecting joys and aches, these are beautifully written poems, vivid as the morning paper, bracing as moonshine." David McGimpsey, author of Sitcom and Asbestos Heights

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Witness, I Am is divided into three gripping sections of new poetry from one of Canadas most recognized poets. The first part of the book, Dangerous Sound, contains contemporary themed poems about identity and belonging, undone and rendered into modern sound poetry. Muskrat Woman, the middle part of the book, is a breathtaking epic poem that considers the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women through the reimagining and retelling of a sacred Cree creation story. The final section of the book, Ghost Dance, raids the autobiographical so often found in Scofields poetry, weaving the personal and universal into a tapestry of sharp poetic luminosity. From Killer, Scofield eerily slices the dreadful in with the exquisite: I could, this day of proficient blooms, / take your fingers, / tie them down one by one. This one for the runaway, / this one for the joker, / this one for the sass-talker, / this one for the judge, / this one for the jury. / Oh, I could kill you.

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Digsite draws on Nicholsons experience working in the Alberta oil sands and arboreal forest, taking an archaeological lens to its subject, and in this way, reimagines tens of thousands of years of human existence. These poems grow from a schism between the current place of living and the ones in which we are pulled back to, in particular, the places we no longer occupy.Nicholsons language draws on his archaeological and fieldwork background as he burrows and grinds the places we have lost, consistently underpinned by the grief that must accompany such a fervent exploration. In these discoveries, Nicholson presents us with the material remains of our own abandonment, of loss and acceptance, and ultimately leaves us with more questions than when we began.

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Few recent events in British Columbia have seized the public mind like the 2006 sinking of the BC Ferries passenger vessel Queen of the North. Across Canada, it was one of the top news stories of the year. In BC it has attained the status of nautical legend. Ten years later, questions are still being asked. How did a ship that sailed the same course thousands of times fall victim to such an inexplicable error? Was the bridge crew fooling around? Why doesn't anybody in the know come forward and tell the truth?Nobody knew the ship, the crew and the circumstances that fateful March night better than the Queen of the North's long-serving captain, Colin Henthorne, and in this book he finally tells his story.The basic facts are beyond dispute. Just after midnight on March 22, 2006, the Queen of the Northcarrying 101 passengersstruck an underwater ledge off Gil Island, 135 kilometres south of Prince Rupert. The impact tore open the ship's bottom and ripped out the propellers. In less than an hour, it sank 427 metres to the bottom of Wright Sound. Despite the crew's skilled evacuation, two passengers went missing and have never been found.Helmswoman Karen Briker was fired. Fourth Mate Karl Lilgert was charged with criminal negligence causing death and sentenced to four years in prison. Captain Henthorne, who was not on watch at the time of the grounding, fought to keep his job and lost. It took him over six years to recover his career.On the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Captain Henthorne recalls with accuracy and detail that ill-fated voyage and all its terrible repercussions. The Queen of the North Disaster: The Captain's Story dispels rumours about what really happened that night, revealing a fascinating inside look at a modern marine disaster.

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The inspiring story behind todays craft beer revolution is the subject of this lively memoir by Frank Appleton, the English-trained brewmaster who is considered by many to be the father of Canadas craft-brewing movement. Appleton chronicles fifty years in the brewing business, from his early years working for one of the major breweries, to his part in establishing the first cottage brewery in Canada, to a forward look at the craft-beer industry in an ever more competitive market.Disillusioned with the Canadian brewing scene in the early 1970s, when three huge companies controlled 90 percent of the market and marketers and accountants made the decisions on what products to make, not the brewmasters, Appleton decided to drop out and brew his own beer while homesteading in the interior of British Columbia. He made a meagre living as a freelance writer, and his article entitled The Underground Brewmaster sparked the interest of John Mitchell, co-founder of the Troller Pub in Horseshoe Bay, BC. Their partnership launched the Horseshoe Bay Brewery in June 1982, the first of its kind in the country, serving the iconic Bay Ale brewed from Appletons recipe.Covering a range of topics, such as the difficulty of steering beer drinkers away from the Big Boys breweries and struggles with the BC Liquor Control Board, as well as brewing plant design and the complexities of the malting process, Brewing Revolution touches upon the foundation of what shaped the craft-beer industry in Canada. Appletons passion and innovation opened the gates for the scores of brewpubs and microbreweries that were to follow in both Canada and the US, and his story is of interest to anyone excited by todays craft-beer revival.

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Vancouver news icon and co-host of CTVs The Last Word, Mike McCardell is the crafter of human-interest stories that counteract the doom and gloom of conventional news programming. With his unerring instinct for teasing out the powerful hook of human connection from the most innocuous (or bizarre) events, McCardells unique perspective has endeared him to hundreds of thousands of fans.He has also collected many of his favourite stories within several essay collections that have sold a combined total of seventy-five thousand copies, making him as well known for his written tales as for his TV appearances. Recently, McCardell also explored new genres with such titles as Haunting Vancouver and Cardboard Ocean, delving into both the history of Vancouver and his personal history. With None of This Was Planned, McCardell returns to his classic format of the quirky and uplifting short essays that established him as a local legend. Fans of his previous works will delight in a new selection of stories featuring McCardells familiar voice and offering both moments of surprise and the reassurance that joy and humour can be sparked from the simplest acts.

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The Duende of Tetherball fearlessly ransacks the scrutinizing role of the past on the present; the interactions and accountabilities of ourselves and other species; the challenges and pleasures of getting older and forever striving to balance our most cherished and often incomprehensible relationships both with the world and each other.Bowling strives to account for and address our human need to resolve the tension between personal freedom and a world burdened by increasing homogenization and centralized control by adopting an industry of personal fortitude and thoughtful redress. He seeks to remember and to remember again the lessons polished over a lifetime: Fifteen, scared but still apt / to toss damn thee black / thou cream-faced loon / in PE class at the rippling back / of some hoop or net-bound jock, / I was learning  too soon  / the only lesson that counts: / how to be alone.

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Gerry St. Germains story begins in Petit Canada on the shores of the Assiniboine, growing up with his two younger sisters, his mother and his fathera shy Metis trapper and construction worker who sometimes struggled to put food on the table. St. Germain was initially troubled in school, scrapping with classmates and often skipping out to shoot pool, but an aunt and uncle funded his tuition to Catholic school, where a nun recognized his aptitude for math and encouraged him to pursue his dreams. He would go on to become an air force pilot, undercover policeman and West Coast chicken farmer. Business gave way to politics, and in 1988 he became one of a tiny number of Aboriginal Canadians named to a federal cabinet. That milestone was just one of many for a man who played a critical role in Canadas Conservative movement for a generation.From the Brian Mulroney era to the roller-coaster leadership of Kim Campbell, then to the collapse of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1993 and the subsequent rebuilding of the movement under Stephen Harper, St. Germain remained a trusted confidant of prime ministers and a crucial and often daring behind-the-scenes broker in bringing warring factions together. But he is most proud of his efforts during his later years in the Senate, when he was a quiet hero to Canadas Aboriginal community. He spearheaded major Senate reports on key issues like land claims and on-reserve education during the Harper era, when there were few friendly faces for First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill. That role reflected St. Germains profound determination to help people who are still dealing today with the brutal legacy of residential schools and the paternalistic Indian Act. Memories of his humble beginnings, and the shame he once felt over his Metis heritage bubbled to the surface in his final address to Canadas Parliament in 2012, when he said in a voice quaking with emotion: I am a Metis.

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The Farrell name is respected all along the British Columbia coast. Barries father, Allen Farrell, was a much loved eccentric who created offshore sailing vessels from beachcombed lumber using only basic hand tools.
Barrie built his first boat in his early teens using only a dull handsaw, a rusty block plane and an old hammer with one claw. Despite his Grade Six education, Barrie became one of the leading innovators when fibreglass first became available. His designs incorporated flowing curves and shaped details that were not possible with wood. Barrie was one of the first to realize that modern fishboats needed to be fast, and consequently, his gillnetters and trollers dominated the BC salmon fleet in the 1970s and 1980s. By the late 1990s, he had built over 300 commercial and pleasure boats and left a profound stamp on West Coast boat building.
Boats in My Blood isnt just about the boats. Barrie also shares the story of his lifethe highs and the lows. His memories of growing up in Pender Harbour provide an amusing picture of fishing village life in the 1950s, and his sharp eye for character makes for many amusing anecdotes. He is frank about his periodic bouts of overzealous partying and his bad business dealings, but through it all his engaging character and unquenchable good nature shine through. Boats in My Blood is a fascinating chronicle of a life devoted to the art of the boat.

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A Grassland Odyssey through Southern Interior British Columbia

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Like John Muir, David Pitt-Brooke stepped out for a walk one morninga long walk of a thousand kilometres or more through the arid valleys of southern interior British Columbia. He went in search of beauty and lost grace in a landscape that has seen decades of development and upheaval. In Crossing Home Ground he reports back, providing a day-by-day account of his journeys experiences, from the practical challengesdealing with blisters, rain and dehydrationto sublime moments of discovery and reconnection with the natural world.Through the course of this journey, Pitt-Brookes encounters with the natural world generate starting points for reflections on larger issues: the delicate interconnections of a healthy landscape and, most especially, the increasingly fragile bond between human beings and their home-places. There is no escaping the impact of human beings on the natural world, not even in the most remote countryside, but he finds hope and consolation in surviving pockets of loveliness, the kindness of strangers and the transformative process of the walking itself, a personal pilgrimage across home ground.Crossing Home Ground is a book that, though rooted in one specific place and time, will evoke a universal sense of recognition in a wide variety of readers. It will appeal to hikers, natural-history enthusiasts and anyone who loves the wild countryside and is concerned about the disappearance of Canadas natural spaces. Pitt-Brookes grassland odyssey is sure to become a classic of British Columbia nature writing.

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This debut poetry collection from Lisa Bird-Wilson reflects on the legacy of the residential school system: the fragmentation of families and histories, with blows that resonate through the generations.Inspired by family and archival sources, Bird-Wilson assembles scraps of a history torn apart by colonial violence. The collection takes its name from the federal government's complex organizational structure of residential schools archives, which are divided into black files" and red files." In vignettes as clear as glass beads, her poems offer affection to generations of children whose presence within the historic record is ghostlike, anonymous and ephemeral.The collection also explores the larger political context driving the mechanisms that tore apart families and cultures, including the Sixties Scoop. It depicts moments of resistance, both personal and political, as well as official attempts at reconciliation: I can hold in the palm of my right hand / all that I have left: one story-gift from an uncle, / a father's surname, treaty card, Cree accent echo, metal bits, grit / and I will still have room to cock a fist."The Red Files concludes with a fierce hopefulness, embracing the various types of love that can begin to heal the traumas inflicted by a legacy of violence.

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Each fisherman steps onto the docks, sees Peter Gordon's boat the MV Kalua, glances at the other members of the charter and feels a rush of anticipation. The challenge is on to see who will catch the biggest fish.Told with a skipper's authority, Stalking Salmon and Wrestling Drunks recounts the highs and lows of fishing with tourists, including dealing with rowdy guests, bad weather, near death experiences, lost fish, tangled lines, and sometimes even tragedy. Gordon's humour and tenacity shines through each tale to create an energetic memoir that will appeal to fishing enthusiasts, observers of human behaviour, travellers and anyone interested in recreational fishing.Stalking Salmon and Wrestling Drunks exemplifies the quintessential BC West Coast experience; however, the stories are much more than great fishing trips. As the skipper, each charter brought Gordon the challenge of bringing together the most unlikely people, people who would never choose to spend four or five hours together. It might be as simple as children or jobs, but Gordon thrived on deeper, more powerful connections like re-introducing two men who had been in the same concentration camp together during World War II and hadn't seen each other since.For Gordon, each charter was not only about a skipper and his crew, but was an opportunity to encourage each person to have an exceptional experience. Stalking Salmon and Wrestling Drunks tells each story with precision, an eye for detail and the good-natured humour that carried the author through each day on the rough seas. This collection is a delightful balance between the adventure of open-water fishing, helping people cross the last item off their bucket list and making life-long friends in the process.

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Wigford is a small town in rural Southwestern Ontario, home to a cast of recurring characters: Buzz, a drunk-driving father of two; his wife, who should have married Bert Walmsley instead; Happy Henry, a devout, socially inept apostle who loves to play the organ; Elmer, a stroke survivor.Wigford Rememberies tells this community's stories through an impressionistic series of vignettes. The language is inventive, innovative and exciting, and whether describing mucking out the pig barnthere in the dust and the sweet smells of grain and straw and the heavy brown odour of shit so strong it makes you sneeze"or helping a drunk articulate how to manipulate God's forgivenessif I gave my heart to Jesusright there on my deathbed the minute before I diedhe'd forgive everything an I'd go up into Heaven and be saved just as much as the other guy who never did nothin' wrong at all with no difference?'"Harness wields words with an eye for detail, musicality and style.Visceral, reflective and lyrical, Wigford Rememberies is a poetic evocation of mood and epiphanic realizations, and will resonate with anyone who has ever confronted suffering, love or the unknowable.

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The Birder's Guide to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland

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Birding is one of the fastest-growing hobbies in North Americaone in five Canadians enjoy identifying, photographing or filming birds. With easy access to coastal mountains, marshes and mudflats of the Fraser delta, temperate rainforest, and rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean, the Vancouver area is a wonderful destination for birdwatchers. Of the 450 species found in Canada, over 400 can be seen in the Lower Mainland.Now expanded with all-new colour maps and more than 100 additional colour photographs, this guide explores thirty-three local birding areas that attract significant numbers of species throughout the year. Each area has a description, brand new walking map and information on the seasonal variations in species. Driving directions are also included.Information is also organized by species, and the final two sections of the book include graphs of the seasonal status of local birds as well as tips on where to find certain sought-after species at different times of the year.Compiled by local experts, The Birder's Guide to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland has long been considered the bible for Vancouver-area birdwatchers and essential reading for visiting and local bird enthusiasts alikeand it's now better than ever.

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Red Robinson: The Last Deejay details the life and career of Red Robinson, one of Canadas most celebrated pioneers of rock and roll. Robinson began spinning hits while in high school in the early 1950s, laying the foundation for what would become a glamorous, impossible-to-stop and ultimately fulfilling career that has made him a household name west of the Rockies.Raised by a single mother, Robinson worked as a delivery boy to help support the family. From such humble beginnings, he developed a strong work ethic and unflappable moral core that enabled him to pursue a career that has endured. Here is the account of how Robinson pranked his way into his first radio job. Readers will be delighted by behind-the-scenes stories from close encounters with Vancouvers visiting celebrities, like the time Robinson spent an hour with Elvis Presley in the BC Lions dressing room talking cars, women, movies and opera, or when Robinson nearly killed Roy Orbison and Bobby Goldsboro in a 1962 Grand Parisienne convertible while speeding to catch the Nanaimo ferry.Robinsons vast career highlights are remarkable, from introducing The Beatles to the stage, ushering Randy Bachman to the status of superstardom, and as part of EXPO 86, presenting The Legends of RocknRoll featuring Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Righteous Brothers. Red Robinson: The Last Deejay recalls the highs, hurdles and triumphs of a celebrated time in rock-and-roll history, presented by the man who dug into the guts, glory and glitz that only a champion of the frontlines of music really can.

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In this debut poetry collection by award-winning author Kim Fu, incantations, mythical creatures and extreme violence illuminate small scenes of domestic life and the banal tragedies of modern love and modern death.A sharp edge of humour slices through Fu's poetry, drawing attention to the distance between contemporary existence and the basic facts of life: In the classrooms of tomorrow, starved youth will be asked to imagine a culture that kept thin pamphlets of poetry pinned to a metal box full of food, who honoured their gods of plenty by describing ingredients in lush language."Alternating between incisive wit and dark beauty, Fu brings the rich symbolism of fairy tales to bear on our image-obsessed age. From The Unicorn Princess": She applies gold spray paint to her horn each morning, / hoping to imitate the brass tusks / on the unicorns skewered to the carousel, / their brittle, painted smiles, harnesses / embedded in their backs and shellacked to high gloss." These poems are utterly of-the-moment, capturing the rage, irony and isolation of the era we live in.

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From the monk who sets himself on fire in a crowded intersection of Saigon (the familiar corded tendons of his hands, become / a bracken of ashes, a carbon twine of burnt), to the salmon run in British Columbia (The salmon word / for home is glacierdust and once-tall trees unlimbed, / a taste, no matter where, they know), Johnson writes of topics varied and eclectic, unified by a focus on moments both declining and revenant.Startling and haunting, the poems delve into the ways in which these moments are transformative, beautiful and unexpected. Being eaten by a lion is a gift rather than a loss, an opportunity for grace: Instead, focus on your life, / its crimson liquor he grows drunk on. / Notice the way the red highlights his face, / how the snub nose is softened, the lips made / fuller; notice his deft musculature, his rapture.Lyrical and rich with visceral imagery, How to Be Eaten by a Lion lingers, exploring the world with an eye for detail and an ear for music.

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The fourth collection from award-winning poet Rachel Rose, Marry & Burn is a journey through a troubled relationship and a troubled city, charting the territory of love and addiction, and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Inspired by struggles both personal and global, these are not gentle poemsthey probe deep into comforting personal and cultural myths, rending them to pieces even as they expose the beauty in the bright shards that remain.

Although the language of blazing passion resonates throughout the discussion of love, longing and addiction, the driving rhythms often resemble more closely the relentless pounding of the ocean: The skys cauldron / tips a black storm to swarm the harried / hawk, call, Shame! Shame! Dawn has come / in flame. The golden glow of the ancient world, the dark sweetness of fairy tales, overlay these harsh contemporary moments of rape and addiction, loneliness and poverty, casting them in the richer light of another era.

The pain of letting go, whether of love, old habits or cherished personal myths, permeates the collection. But these poems insist that once the dike has broken, once the myths have crumbled, the possibility emerges of building something new.