It's Christmas Eve. Have you been good? Santa's packed up all the presents and is headed your way! With the help of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Santa flies over many landmarks in Toronto! "Ho, ho, ho!" laughs Santa. "Merry Christmas, Toronto!"

What does it take to leave a good job, your community, your country, and even your continent, and move 4,200 miles away? As financial controller at a top-tier bank in The Gambia, Kevin Kingsley-Williams was provided a house, a maid, a car, club memberships, and other perks of corporate life. But after experiencing the 1994 military coup, he immigrated in January of 1997 to Toronto, where the thermometer registered minus 10 degrees Celsius. Once in Canada, Kevin immediately hits a series of snarls as he attempts to build a new life. Getting a job requires an address, but getting an address requires proof of employment. He is found lacking in Canadian experience yet also deemed to be overqualified. Having misjudged the effectiveness of his footwear, he is forced to wander a shopping mall in his socksyet the ski mask and parka he wears in a desperate attempt to stay warm cause potential employers, landlords, and bankers to view him with alarm. Join Kevin as he adjusts to a new world, where apartments that were for rent a few hours ago are unavailable when he arrives to look at them and phrases such as digging out take on new meaning after the first snowstorm. Kevin offers, with his humor and perseverance, a fresh perspective on the challenges of the immigrant experience.

Toronto’s Last Rainbow paints a nostalgic portrait of Toronto in a bygone era from the point of view of one central neighbourhood. It catches the spirit of the times just ahead of the feminist era. With poignancy and humour it follows an amazing cast of real and imaginary residents, each with a strong and unique voice, each human and fallible, through their daily lives. This book features serious issues of the time such as the lack of access to safe abortion, and the growing number of divorces. Then, most mothers stayed at home. Parents had the time to organize for their children annual events like the Summerhill Fair with free candy floss and donkey rides in the summer, and Halloween in late fall. However, feminist issues were stirring, family life would be changing; women were looking to work outside the home and showing a growing interest in non-traditional areas of work. Residents then faced issues like bullying, suicide, and a violent crime in the neighbourhood, that resonate today. During 1969, Canada became officially bilingual; the important Morgentaler decision started the nation’s move towards safe abortion. Toronto’s citizens elected a new city government, devoted to a changed concept of development; turning away from building expressways across the city centre. This pivotal year saw the start of a twenty-year era of progress for the (then) City of Toronto.

These are collections of Mike Fileys best work from his popular and long-running Toronto Sun column, "The Way We Were."

It's Christmas Eve. Have you been good? Santa's packed up all the presents and is headed your way! With the help of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Santa flies over many landmarks in Portland! "Ho, ho, ho!" laughs Santa. "Merry Christmas, Portland!"

An entertaining, often surprising look at the life of the world’s most influential fictional character. He is the embodiment of charity and generosity, a creation of mythology, a tool of clever capitalists. The very idea of him is enduring and powerful. Santa Claus was born in early-nineteenth-century America, but his family tree goes back seven hundred years to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Intervening generations were shaggy and strange — whip-wielding menaces to naughty boys and girls. Yet as the raucous, outdoor, alcohol-fuelled holiday gave way to a more domestic, sentimental model, a new kind of gift-bringer was called for — a loveable elf, still judgmental but far less threatening. In this engaging social and cultural history, Gerry Bowler examines the place of Santa Claus in history, literature, advertising, and art. He traces his metamorphosis from a beardless youth into a red-suited peddler. He reveals the lesser-known aspects of the gift-bringer’s life — Santa’s involvement with social and political causes of all stripes (he enlisted on the Union side in the American Civil War), his starring role in the movies and as adman for gun-makers and insurance companies. And he demolishes the myths surrounding Santa Claus and Coca-Cola. Santa Claus: A Biography will stand as the classic work on the long-lived and multifarious Mr. Claus.

Christmas is a magical time of year! This collection of 101 festive holiday stories will warm your heart and spread holiday cheer with its tales of family, fun, and traditions from across Canada. A fantastic holiday gift and a great way to start the season! From mummering and caroling, to winter lights festivals and crèche displays, to feasts and cookie-baking parties, Christmastime in Canada is full of fun and special traditions. You will delight in reading the 101 merry and heartwarming stories about family, goodwill, and holiday traditions across Canada’s provinces. Remember, all our stories are “Santa safe” so they can be enjoyed by the whole family.