National Bestseller

Bill Morneau’s experience as Canada’s finance minister crystalized his vision for the country’s potential for growth and prosperity. Where To from Here looks backward with coolness and candor and forward with a fresh vision of all that Canada can — and must — become.

Much of the world reacted with surprise and admiration to the results of the 2015 Canadian federal election and the makeup of the government it produced. Led by a young charismatic leader with a storied family legacy on Parliament Hill, the Liberal government scored a historic victory, rising from third-party status to substantial majority. With a gender-equal cabinet and an ambitious agenda, it heralded a new approach to the country’s federal politics.

After an exciting and productive five years spent focused on domestic and global issues, Finance Minister Bill Morneau decided to take his leave from the same government. What prompted him to abandon one of the most powerful political offices in the country? How much of his decision was based on the often brutal give-and-take of politics? When did the penny drop, persuading one of Trudeau’s brightest lights to shift his talents and energies elsewhere?

In his own persuasive voice, Bill Morneau paints a positive picture, tracing his widely lauded entry into the political arena, the arc of his career in politics, major accomplishments and missed opportunities, his surprising exit, and a host of revealing episodes between the events. Told with measures of both pride and regret, he explores personalities, achievements, and failures with candor.

Morneau’s experience crystalized his vision for Canada and its potential for growth and prosperity. He shares a vision clearly and provocatively expressed, drafting a blueprint for the country’s future. Where To from Here looks backward with coolness and candor and forward with a fresh vision of all that Canada can — and must — become.

Bill Morneau was Canada’s minister of finance from 2015 to 2020. Born in Toronto, he attended Western University (BA), the London School of Economics (M.Sc. (Econ.)), and INSEAD (MBA) before joining the benefits consulting firm founded by his father and growing it into Canada’s largest human resources company. He and his wife, Nancy, have four children. He lives in Toronto, ON.

John Lawrence Reynolds is the author/co-author of almost 40 books. He has won three Arthur Ellis Awards and a National Business Book Award. Find him online at wryter.ca.

“A lyrical, extremely rich narrative of loss, memory, and trauma.” — STARRED review, Kirkus Reviews

An extraordinary account of survival in Syria’s most notorious military prisons that is written with “brutal clarity — and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling.” — Frances Itani, award-winning author of Deafening and Remembering the Bones

Jamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process.

My Road from Damascus not only tells the story of Saeed’s severe years in Syria’s most notorious military prisons but also his life during the country’s dramatic changes. Saeed chronicles modern Syria from the 1950s right up to his escape to Canada in 2016, recounting its descent from a country of potential to a pawn of cynical and corrupt powers. He paints a picture of village life, his youthful love affairs, his rebellion as a young Marxist, and his evolution into a free thinker, living in hiding as a teenager for 30 months while being hunted by the secret police. He recalls his brutal prison years, his final release, and his family’s harrowing escape to Canada.

While many prison memoirs focus on the cruelty of incarceration, My Road from Damascus offers a tapestry of Saeed’s whole life. It looks squarely at brutality but also at beauty and poetry, hope and love.

Jamal Saeed spent 12 years as a prisoner of conscience in Syria before being invited to Canada in 2016. He continues to raise awareness about Syria’s ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis through his work as an activist, editor, visual artist, and author. He lives in Kingston, ON.

“Read him.” — George Elliott Clarke, author of I & I and George and Rue

An award-winning author goes looking for the meaning of family and belonging on a glorious wild-goose-chase road trip across middle America

Wangersky’s great-great-grandfather crossed the continent in search of gold in 1849. William Castle Dodge was his name, and he was 22 years old. He wrote a diary of that eventful journey that comes into the author’s hands 160 years later. And typically, quixotically, Wangersky decides to follow Dodge’s westward trail across the great bulging middle of America, not in search of gold but something even less likely: that elusive thing called family.

What ensues becomes this story, by turns hilarious and profound, about a very long trip — by car, in Wangersky’s case, and on mule and foot in Dodge’s. Interweaving his experiences on the road with Dodge’s diary, the author contemplates the human need to hunt for roots and meaning as he — and Dodge — encounter immigrants who risk everything to be somewhere else, while only glimpsing those who are there already and who want to hold onto their claim in the stream of human migration.

Same Ground is a story about what time washes away and what persists — and what we might find, unexpectedly, if we go looking.

Russell Wangersky is the multiple-award-winning author of seven books of fiction and non-fiction, including Burning Down the House, Whirl Away, and The Hour of Bad Decisions. Formerly a columnist with the SaltWire newspaper chain, he is currently editor-in-chief of the Saskatchewan Postmedia newspapers. He lives in Saskatoon, SK.

When a young schoolteacher decides to teach her Grade 8 class about filmmaking and creates a documentary that ends up being broadcast internationally, she sets in motion a career of storytelling for an age group largely ignored by TV executives … and creates one of the most-loved television franchises of all time

Includes fabulous behind-the-scenes photos and stories for Degrassi fans

Linda Schuyler, co-creator and executive producer of the long-running Degrassi series, shares her personal stories about the grit and determination necessary to make it as a woman entrepreneur in the bourgeoning independent Canadian television industry of the early 1980s.

After surviving a near-fatal car accident in 1968, Linda found her life continuing to veer in unexpected directions, ultimately leading her to use her innate abilities as an educator to become a successful storyteller and businesswoman.

Linda’s deep fondness for teenagers has made her a champion for adolescents. In The Mother of All Degrassi, she shares her strong belief that television is all about the story, and a good story is all about making the political personal. Through anecdotes and introspection — and some great behind-the-scenes stories for Degrassi fans — Linda examines her philosophy to dream big, think small, meet life head-on, and always keep an open heart.

Linda Schuyler is the executive producer and co-creator of over 500 episodes of the multi-award-winning Degrassi television franchise. She is a mentor and guest lecturer and maintains an active involvement in community and professional organizations. Linda is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. She lives with her husband, Stephen Stohn, and Scottish Fold cats in Toronto, Ontario.

“Does it hurt?” When you’re a tattoo artist, that’s the most universal question. For Chris MacDonald, the answer is simple: hurts less than a broken heart. Those words are painted above the entrance to his shop, Under My Thumb Tattoos, as a reminder.

Chris and his brothers were as wild as the wind, in their house among the fields of Alliston, Ontario, when their parents divorced. Shell-shocked, they were uprooted and brought to Toronto by their dad. Their mother’s mental illness worsened in the aftermath, and she disappeared. As a teenager, Chris left home and found himself immersed in the city’s underbelly, a world where drugs, skateboarding, and punk rock reigned. Between the youth shelters, suicidal thoughts, and haunted apartments, a light shined: and it was art.

He eventually found himself following the path of his brother, Rob, and pursuing life as a tattooist. Then, at the height of a destructive summer, everything changed: he met Megan, the girl who would become his rock of ages.

This remarkable memoir examines what tattooing means to MacDonald and traces the connection his artistic motives have to both his family and childhood. The Things I Came Here With is about how crucial our past is to understanding our future, but it’s also a love letter to his daughter about the importance of expression, life’s uncertainty, and beauty.

Chris MacDonald is a tattoo artist and the owner of Under My Thumb Tattoos, a respected tattoo studio in Toronto, Ontario. He is a songwriter and a guitarist with LeBarons. Chris lives with his wife and daughter by the lake. The Things I Came Here With is his first book.

From Dr. Schott’s 30 years in veterinary practice come over 60 heartwarming, funny, and adorable stories about angry pelicans, bug-eyed goldfish, and plenty of cats and dogs

In the third book in this bestselling series, we meet the oddest creatures, from an escaped newt to a baby snow leopard, but the focus is on the dogs and cats that make up most of a pet vet’s day and on the wacky and wonderful people who bring them in.

Dr. Schott also pulls back the curtain on what it’s really like to be a veterinarian. Do some vet students faint at the sight of blood? (Yes.) Is it easier for vets to bring their own pets in for procedures? (No.) Did the pandemic change veterinary practice? (Yes, and how.)

You will also learn how to bathe a dog, why some rats love cats, why Dr. Schott is afraid of parrots, and a surprising way for a dog to accidentally get drunk. And, of course, you will meet Supercat, the Siamese kitten with the mightiest lungs.

Philipp Schott grew up in Saskatoon, where he studied veterinary medicine. He is now chief of staff at a large pet hospital in Winnipeg, MB. He lives with three humans and four animals in a creaky old house on the river. The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten is his fifth book.

The rags to riches tale of a larger-than-life romance of over seven decades

Me & Issy is a love story about how a troubled and deprived child grew up and chanced to meet a man who worshipped her, brought her a fantasy life of four boys and extraordinary opulence — and banished her self-doubt. She in her turn was awestruck and mystified by his acumen and daring during his founding of the Four Seasons Hotels.

Beginning with her childhood in North Toronto, in a very Jewish home surrounded by non-Jews, Rosalie enchants us with anecdotes about her family, Isadore Sharp’s family, and the growth of their own in the light of the expanding Four Seasons chain. How did she go to the Ontario College of Art & Design while simultaneously raising four rambunctious boys? How did Issy open hotel after hotel with only his collateral of confidence and charisma? Rosalie is a rapt follower of his astonishing success and the first fan of his legendary town hall talks to 40,000 employees.

And with success came tragedy. The devastating death of their son Chris shook them, but they coped. Here, all of Rosalie’s life is opened up for viewing, the good and the bad, the success and the failures, but especially her inspired romance with Issy. In the words of their second eldest son, Greg, “Their mutual love and respect growing stronger over the past 69 years is as extraordinary as it is beautiful.”

Rosalie Wise Sharp was born and raised in North Toronto, where she currently lives. Rosalie is an interior designer, writer, painter, and mother. She is the editor of Growing Up Jewish and the author of Rifke; Ceramics, Ethics & Scandal; and China to Light Up a House. Her website RosalieWiseSharp.com, showing 225 of her paintings, was created by Greg Sharp.

Candid and insightful perspectives on the dilemmas and opportunities women confront as they take on leadership positions

Martha Piper and Indira Samarasekera had vastly different career paths on their way to becoming the first (and so far only) female presidents of two of Canada’s largest and most respected research universities and directors of some of the nation’s largest market cap companies, but what they had in common was their gender, their willingness to take risks when leadership opportunities presented themselves, and a work ethic second to none. It was not always easy, pretty, or fair, but it was always the result of choosing to answer the call to lead. A call that in the authors’ view, too many women still turn away from.

In Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First, Piper and Samarasekera share their personal and professional stories, offering guidance for women leaders of every age and at every stage of their career. Nerve is a must-read for any woman who is leading today, considering leading, or thinking about life after leading.

Martha Piper served as the first woman president of the University of British Columbia and has been a director of the Bank of Montreal, Shoppers Drug Mart, and TransAlta Corporation. An Officer of the Order of Canada, she was born in Lorain, Ohio, and lives with her husband, William Piper, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Indira Samarasekera served as the first woman president of the University of Alberta and is a director of Magna International, TC Energy, Intact Financial Corporation, and Stelco and has served as a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia. An Officer of the Order of Canada, she was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist shreds the GOP’s record of backward policies and abysmal leaders. Luckovich takes aim at the NRA, Trump, Bush, Ted Cruz, and more.

The Twisted History of the GOP is an editorial cartoon exploration into the ongoing crack-up of the Republican party. Once a proud, competent counterbalance to the Democratic party, the GOP began to change in the ’90s with the arrival of Republican representative and future House Speaker Newt Gingrich to Congress, assisted by radical radio host Rush Limbaugh and a new television network, the right-wing, propaganda-spewing Fox News. In the years that followed, they were aided by Mitch McConnell and the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, in transforming the GOP into what it is now: a fascist, racist, anti-science, pro-conspiracy cult, in thrall to the twice-impeached conman and former president, Donald Trump.

These cartoons will shock and delight you, and you won’t be able to look away from Luckovich’s witty editorial wisdom. Combining a rapier wit alongside exceptional caricatures, The Twisted History of the GOP will make you laugh until you cry.

Mike Luckovich is a Seattle native and has worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1989. His cartoons are reprinted in newspapers across the country. He won Pulitzer Prizes in 1995 and 2006 for his editorial cartoons and the 2005 Reuben Award, presented by the National Cartoonist Society, for Cartoonist of the Year. His previous books include Four More Wars! and A Very Stable Genius.

In the shadow of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two experts show us how and why global populism has taken root and what it will take to turn the tide

From Trumpian America to Putin’s nationalist Russia, and from Poland to the Philippines, rapid change and rising inequality have fueled a retreat into tribalist nationalism fed by a fear of being left behind. Populist leaders reach into this fear, using it as a lever to power with empty promises of looking out for the little person and promising a return to national greatness. This is happening in countries spread across the globe and the political spectrum, arising in the right and the left alike, and recently brought into harsh relief against Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. So why are we so susceptible to this pernicious political style at this moment? How did we get here? And more importantly, will we get back to more even-handed governments?

Filled with original research, political scientists Drache and Froese have written a chilling, compelling analysis of the rise of populism, and reveal what it will take to douse the flames. This is an essential read for anyone concerned about the encroachments on freedom and the rule of law around the world.

Daniel Drache is professor emeritus of political science and senior research fellow at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University in Toronto. He is the author of over twenty books on social policy and international affairs. He lives in Toronto.

Marc D. Froese the Professor of Political Science and the Founding Director of the International Studies Program at Burman University in Alberta. He is the author of three books and dozens of articles on international trade and political economy. He lives in Lacombe, AB.