Stompin' Tom Connors is a legend. There are very few Canadians who don?t know the foot-stompin' patriot in the cowboy hat who sang almost exclusively of the country he loved and called home. But there is much more to Tom Connors than “Bud the Spud” and “The Hockey Song.” Tom's childhood was traumatic and he never fully recovered from being separated from his mother at a young age. As he made multiple trips across Canada, the country became his home and its people his family. Along the way he developed his musical style and wrote many hits which are still heard on the radio, in bar rooms and at arenas across the country. Tom was a trailblazer, creating his own record label and serving as his own producer and promoter. At a time when it was unheard of, Tom showed that it was possible to stay in Canada, sing songs about this country and have a significantcareer. Tom rebelled against the Canadian music industry, fighting for it to support its own artists, inspiring a new generation of musicians to sing about Canada. This biography offers an in-depth look at the man behind “Stompin' Tom.” It tells the story of an earnest, intelligent and complicated man who created a character that would be embraced by Canadians from coast to coast.

In 1905, representatives from dozens of radical labor groups came together in Chicago to form One Big Union—the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as the Wobblies. The union was a big presence in the labor movement, leading strikes, walkouts, and rallies across the nation. And everywhere its members went, they sang. Their songs were sung in mining camps and textile mills, hobo jungles and flop houses, and anywhere workers might be recruited to the Wobblies’ cause. The songs were published in a pocketsize tome called the Little Red Songbook, which was so successful that it’s been published continuously since 1909. In The Big Red Songbook, the editors have gathered songs from over three dozen editions, plus additional songs, rare artwork, personal recollections, discographies, and more into one big all-embracing book. IWW poets/composers strove to nurture revolutionary consciousness. Each piece, whether topical, hortatory, elegiac, or comic served to educate, agitate, and emancipate workers. A handful of Wobbly numbers have become classics, still sung by labor groups and folk singers. They include Joe Hill’s sardonic “The Preacher and the Slave” (sometimes known by its famous phrase “Pie in the Sky”) and Ralph Chaplin’s “Solidarity Forever.” Songs lost or found, sacred or irreverent, touted or neglected, serious or zany, singable or not, are here. The Wobblies and their friends have been singing for a century. May this comprehensive gathering simultaneously celebrate past battles and chart future goals. In addition to the 250+ songs, writings are included from Archie Green, Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger, Salvatore Salerno, Judy Branfman, Richard Brazier, James Connell, Carlos Cortez, Bill Friedland, Virginia Martin, Harry McClintock, Fred Thompson, Adam Machado, and many more.

As Stompin’ Tom Connors sings, “It’s the good old hockey game, the best game you can name.” And in this charmingly illustrated book for all ages, the classic song played at hockey games around the world is imagined as a shinny game on an outdoor rink in the middle of the city that starts with two players and soon grows to include the whole community. “The puck is in! The hometown wins! The good ol’ hockey game.”

Now in its ninety-eighth year of publication, this standard Canadian reference source contains the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical information on notable living Canadians. Those listed are carefully selected because of the positions they hold in Canadian society, or because of the contribution they have made to life in Canada. The volume is updated annually to ensure accuracy, and 600 new entries are added each year to keep current with developing trends and issues in Canadian society. Included are outstanding Canadians from all walks of life: politics, media, academia, business, sports and the arts, from every area of human activity. Each entry details birth date and place, education, family, career history, memberships, creative works, honours and awards, and full addresses. Indispensable to researchers, students, media, business, government and schools, Canadian Who's Who is an invaluable source of general knowledge. The complete text of Canadian Who's Who is also available on CD-ROM, in a comprehensively indexed and fully searchable format. Search 'astronaut' or 'entrepreneur of the year,' 'aboriginal achievement award' and 'Order of Canada' and discover a wealth of information. Fast, easy and more accessible than ever, the Canadian Who's Who on CD-ROM is an essential addition to your electronic library.

Sixteen essays, written by specialists from many fields, grapple with the problem of a popular culture that is not very popular — but is seen by most as vital to the body politic, whether endangered by globalization or capable of politically progressive messages for its audiences. Slippery Pastimes covers a variety of topics: Canadian popular music from rock ’n’ roll to country, hip-hop to pop-Celtic; television; advertising; tourism; sport and even postage stamps! As co-editors, Nicks and Sloniowski have taken an open view of the Canadian Popular, and contributors have approached their topics from a variety of perspectives, including cultural studies, women’s studies, film studies, sociology and communication studies. The essays are accessibly written for undergraduate students and interested general readers.