Canada Reads
The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language Canada Reads on CBC Radio One, and the French-language Le Combat des livres on Ici Radio-Canada Première.[2] In 2021, sister service CBC Music launched Canada Listens, which used a similar format of advocates debating five classic albums by Canadian musicians.Beginning in 2004, Radio-Canada, the French-language service of the CBC, produced a French version of Canada Reads entitled Le Combat des livres ("Battle of the books").Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a translated work.One advocate, Maureen McTeer, has appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions.Throughout the month of October 2010, an online vote was held to determine the books that listeners consider the 40 "most essential" Canadian novels of the past decade, and the panelists made their choices from within that list.A list of 40 non-fiction books were announced as being the shortlist finalists in October 2011,[7] including And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat, Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan.On the first day of discussions, panelist Anne-France Goldwater "caused shock and outrage among literary types" (according to The Globe and Mail) by calling Carmen Aguirre "a bloody terrorist" and alleging that Marina Nemat "tells a story that's not true".[9][10] In response, Marina Nemat posted on Facebook, "I hope [Goldwater] can produce evidence to back up her claims.[12] The theme for 2013 was "Turf Wars", with the advocates and titles chosen to each represent one of Canada's major geographic regions (British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces).[13] The 2015 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Wab Kinew, with the theme of the discussions being "One Book to Break Barriers".Note: Tamara Taylor was originally announced as advocate for Company Town but had to withdraw due to a conflict with the filming schedule of her Netflix series Altered Carbon.[17] In the interim, the CBC produced a series of five specials, one profiling each of the five nominated books through interviews with both the writer and the advocate, to air in place of the original debates.Hosted by Saroja Coelho and broadcast on Mornings, the Canada Listens debates took place in the week of April 12 to 15.It resulted in the first tie in the history of the Canada Reads franchise, with two albums jointly winning the final vote."[26] Heather O'Neill became the first person to participate and to win Canada Reads as both an author, after her novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won in 2007, and as an advocate, for championing The Future by Catherine Leroux, in the 2024 edition of the competition.[32] For the 2005 edition, sales of Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues, which usually are about 200 copies a year, increased to 7,500 between the time the nominations were announced and the shows began airing.During the same period, 7,000 copies of Frank Parker Day's Rockbound were shipped by its publisher, the University of Toronto Press.