Canada Reads
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 Le Combat des livres on Ici Radio-Canada Première.
The English edition has aired each year since 2002, while the French edition aired annually from 2004 to 2014, and was then discontinued until being revived in 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, 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 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. 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 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.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Michael Ondaatje | In the Skin of a Lion | Steven Page |
| Margaret Atwood | The Handmaid's Tale | Kim Campbell |
| George Elliott Clarke | Whylah Falls | Nalo Hopkinson |
| Margaret Laurence | The Stone Angel | Leon Rooke |
| Rohinton Mistry | A Fine Balance | Megan Follows |
2003
Canada Reads 2003 aired from April 21 to 25, 2003. Bill Richardson was the moderator.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Hubert Aquin, translated by Sheila Fischman | Next Episode | Denise Bombardier |
| Paul Hiebert | Sarah Binks | Will Ferguson |
| Helen Humphreys | The Lost Garden | Mag Ruffman |
| Wayne Johnston | The Colony of Unrequited Dreams | Justin Trudeau |
| Yann 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.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Guy Vanderhaeghe | The Last Crossing | Jim Cuddy |
| Thomas King | Green Grass, Running Water | Glen Murray |
| Alice Munro | The Love of a Good Woman | Measha Brueggergosman |
| Monique Proulx, translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed | The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle | Francine Pelletier |
| Mordecai Richler | Barney's Version | Zsuzsi Gartner |
2005
Canada Reads 2005 was broadcast from February 21 to 25, 2005. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.2006
Canada Reads 2006 was broadcast from April 17 to 21, 2006. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Miriam Toews | A Complicated Kindness | John K. Samson |
| Joseph Boyden | Three Day Road | Nelofer Pazira |
| Frances Itani | Deafening | Maureen McTeer |
| Al Purdy | Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962-1996 | Susan Musgrave |
| Mordecai 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.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Heather O'Neill | Lullabies for Little Criminals | John K. Samson |
| David Bezmozgis | Natasha and Other Stories | Steven Page |
| Anosh Irani | The Song of Kahunsha | Donna Morrissey |
| Gabrielle Roy, translated by Alan Brown | Children of My Heart | Denise Bombardier |
| Timothy Taylor | Stanley Park | Jim Cuddy |
2008
Canada Reads 2008 aired from February 25 to 29, 2008. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Paul Quarrington | King Leary | Dave Bidini |
| Timothy Findley | Not Wanted on the Voyage | Zaib Shaikh |
| Mavis Gallant | From the Fifteenth District | Lisa Moore |
| Nalo Hopkinson | Brown Girl in the Ring | Jemini |
| Thomas Wharton | Icefields | Steve MacLean |
2009
Canada Reads 2009 aired from March 2 to 6, 2009. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Lawrence Hill | The Book of Negroes | Avi Lewis |
| Gil Adamson | The Outlander | Nicholas Campbell |
| Brian Francis | Fruit | Jen Sookfong Lee |
| David Adams Richards | Mercy among the Children | Sarah Slean |
| Michel 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.| Author | Title | Advocate |
| Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler | Nikolski | Michel Vézina |
| Wayson Choy | The Jade Peony | Samantha Nutt |
| Douglas Coupland | Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture | Cadence Weapon |
| Marina Endicott | Good to a Fault | Simi Sara |
| Ann-Marie MacDonald | Fall on Your Knees | Perdita Felicien |