Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language Canada Reads on CBC Radio One, and the French-language on .
The English edition has aired each year since 2002, while the French edition aired annually from 2004 to 2014,"Radio-Canada revoit sa «stratégie littéraire»". Le Devoir, March 30, 2015. and was then discontinued until being revived in 2018."Combat des livres is back!". CBC Books, April 24, 2018.
In 2021, sister service CBC Music launched Canada Listens, which used a similar format of advocates debating five classic albums by Canadian musicians. In 2023, CBC Kids introduced CBC Kids Reads, a feature which uses a similar format to highlight children's picture books.
Overview During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series of five programs. At the end of each episode, the panelists vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all of Canada should read.
CBC Radio producer Peter Kavanagh proposed the general idea of a national radio book campaign during the fall of 2001. Later that year, Talin Vartanian conceived Canada Reads and created the essential structure of the program: an annual campaign to select a book for the nation to read. She proposed the idea of five panelists, each championing a different title in a national on air debate. Vartanian was producer in the first edition (with Kavanagh), then she became executive producer from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the program was an "All Star Edition", a reunion of the winning panelists from the first five years. From 2007 to 2017, Ann Jansen produced the program.
Canada Reads was first broadcast on the CBC's Radio One in 2002, and has aired annually on radio since then. The third and fourth editions also were broadcast on television, on CBC Newsworld. Broadcast dates were February 16 to February 20, 2004, and February 21 to February 25, 2005, respectively. The seventh edition was also broadcast on Bold TV, broadcasting from February 25 to February 29. Beginning with the third edition, the daily debates could be heard online as well as on Radio One. The fifth edition was broadcast from April 17 to April 21, 2006. The sixth edition aired February 25 to March 2, 2007. The seventh edition of Canada Reads was broadcast on February 25 to February 29, 2008, and for the first time, it was available as a podcast.
The books in the running for each edition of Canada Reads are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. Titles must be Canadian fiction, poetry or plays. They are promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the Canada Reads audience will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles.
The publisher of the winning Canada Reads title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy. Recipients have included Frontier College, the Movement for Canadian Literacy, ABC Life Literacy Canada (formerly ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation) and Laubach Literacy of Canada.
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"). It was broadcast on Première Chaîne until 2014, following which it was discontinued for three years until being revived in 2018.
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. Several other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year; one novel to date, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (French title Aminata) has won both competitions.
2002 Canada Reads 2002 aired from April 16 to 19, 2002. The winning title was announced on April 23, 2002, Canada Book Day. Mary Walsh was the moderator.
AuthorTitleAdvocateMichael Ondaatje In the Skin of a Lion Steven PageMargaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale Kim CampbellGeorge Elliott Clarke Whylah Falls Nalo HopkinsonMargaret Laurence The Stone Angel Leon RookeRohinton Mistry A Fine Balance Megan Follows
2003 Canada Reads 2003 aired from April 21 to 25, 2003. Bill Richardson was the moderator.
AuthorTitleAdvocateHubert Aquin, translated by Sheila Fischman Next Episode Denise BombardierPaul Hiebert Sarah Binks Will FergusonHelen Humphreys The Lost Garden Mag RuffmanWayne Johnston The Colony of Unrequited Dreams Justin TrudeauYann Martel Life of Pi Nancy Lee
2004 Canada Reads 2004 aired on both CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld from February 16 to 20, 2004. Bill Richardson was the moderator.
AuthorTitleAdvocateGuy Vanderhaeghe The Last Crossing Jim CuddyThomas King Green Grass, Running Water Glen MurrayAlice Munro The Love of a Good Woman Measha BrueggergosmanMonique Proulx, translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle Francine PelletierMordecai Richler Barney's Version Zsuzsi Gartner
2005 Canada Reads 2005 was broadcast from February 21 to 25, 2005. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
AuthorTitleAdvocateFrank Parker Day Rockbound Donna MorrisseyMargaret Atwood Oryx and Crake Olivia ChowLeonard Cohen Beautiful Losers Molly Johnson1Jacques Poulin, translated by Sheila Fischman Volkswagen Blues Roch CarrierMairuth Sarsfield No Crystal Stair Sherraine MacKay 1This title had been originally chosen by Rufus Wainwright, but was defended by Molly Johnson when Wainwright was unable to participate.
2006 Canada Reads 2006 was broadcast from April 17 to 21, 2006. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
AuthorTitleAdvocateMiriam Toews A Complicated Kindness John K. SamsonJoseph Boyden Three Day Road Nelofer PaziraFrances Itani Deafening Maureen McTeerAl Purdy Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962-1996 Susan MusgraveMordecai Richler Cocksure Scott Thompson
2007 Canada Reads 2007 aired from February 26 to March 2, 2007. Bill Richardson again moderated the competition. For the 2007 competition, each of the five winning advocates from past series returned to champion a new book in an "all-star" edition of the series.
AuthorTitleAdvocateHeather O'Neill Lullabies for Little Criminals John K. SamsonDavid Bezmozgis Natasha and Other Stories Steven PageAnosh Irani The Song of Kahunsha Donna MorrisseyGabrielle Roy, translated by Alan Brown Children of My Heart Denise BombardierTimothy Taylor Stanley Park Jim Cuddy
2008 Canada Reads 2008 aired from February 25 to 29, 2008. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
AuthorTitleAdvocatePaul Quarrington King Leary Dave BidiniTimothy Findley Not Wanted on the Voyage Zaib ShaikhMavis Gallant From the Fifteenth District Lisa MooreNalo Hopkinson Brown Girl in the Ring JeminiThomas Wharton Icefields Steve MacLean
2009 Canada Reads 2009 aired from March 2 to 6, 2009. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
AuthorTitleAdvocateLawrence Hill The Book of Negroes Avi LewisGil Adamson The Outlander Nicholas CampbellBrian Francis Fruit Jen Sookfong LeeDavid Adams Richards Mercy among the Children Sarah SleanMichel Tremblay, translated by Sheila Fischman The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant Anne-Marie Withenshaw
2010 Canada Reads 2010 aired from March 8 to 12, 2010. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
AuthorTitleAdvocateNicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler Nikolski Michel VézinaWayson Choy The Jade Peony Samantha NuttDouglas Coupland Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture Cadence WeaponMarina Endicott Good to a Fault Simi SaraAnn-Marie MacDonald Fall on Your Knees Perdita Felicien
2011 Canada Reads 2011 aired from February 7 to 10, 2011. The producers announced a slightly different format for the 2011 contest. 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. Only novels, not short story collections, were eligible; however, novels which have previously been included in a Canada Reads competition were still eligible for renomination."Canada Reads aims to find book of decade". cbc.ca, October 5, 2010.
AuthorTitleAdvocateTerry Fallis The Best Laid Plans Ali VelshiAngie Abdou The Bone Cage Georges LaraqueJeff Lemire Essex County Sara QuinAmi McKay The Birth House Debbie TravisCarol Shields Unless Lorne Cardinal
2012 The books for this edition were all non-fiction. A list of 40 non-fiction books were announced as being the shortlist finalists in October 2011, 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. Listeners could vote on up to five books they wanted to be shortlisted. The debates aired from February 6 to 9, 2012. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
AuthorTitleAdvocateCarmen Aguirre Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter ShadDave Bidini On a Cold Road Stacey McKenzieKen Dryden The Game Alan ThickeMarina Nemat Prisoner of Tehran Arlene DickinsonJohn Vaillant The Tiger Anne-France Goldwater
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". In response, Marina Nemat posted on Facebook, "I hope [Goldwater] can produce evidence to back up her claims. If not, I would like to receive a public apology from her." Nemat's Prisoner of Tehran was the first voted off, with Stacey McKenzie casting a tie-breaking vote. Arlene Dickinson (the panelist defending Prisoner of Tehran) called McKenzie's vote "the wrong choice for the wrong reason".
2013 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). The books and panelists for 2013 were revealed on November 29, 2012, on Q. The debates ran from February 11 to 14, 2013.
AuthorTitleAdvocateLisa Moore February Trent McClellanDavid Bergen The Age of Hope Ron MacLeanHugh MacLennan Two Solitudes Jay BaruchelJane Urquhart Away Charlotte GrayRichard Wagamese Indian Horse Carol Huynh
2014 The theme for this year was "A Novel to Change Our Nation." Books and panelists were revealed on November 27, 2013, on Q. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
AuthorTitleAdvocateJoseph Boyden The Orenda, debated theme: First Nations, environment Wab KinewMargaret Atwood The Year of the Flood, debated theme: environment Stephen LewisEsi Edugyan Half-Blood Blues, debated theme: racial inequality Donovan BaileyRawi Hage Cockroach, debated theme: immigrant experience Samantha BeeKathleen Winter Annabel, debated theme: gender equality Sarah Gadon
2015 The 2015 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Wab Kinew, with the theme of the discussions being "One Book to Break Barriers"."Canada Reads 2015: One book to break barriers". CBC Books, November 19, 2014. The panelists and titles were announced on January 20, 2015, with the debates taking place from March 16 to 19.