Within the pages of Victoria author Tom Hawthorn’s new book, The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their country: The Centennial of 1967, readers will discover the history of Canada’s 100-year-anniversary and how our nation was forever transformed after 1967.
“Canada was marking its 100th birthday of its founding and the government had decided that there was going to be a giant celebration, from coast to coast, for a whole year,” says Hawthorn. “Individuals did things, neighbourhoods did special things, as well as all the big government stuff that was taking place, and it kind of became a whole year-long celebration. I guess the conceit of my book is that it kind of changed what Canada was and how people thought of themselves.”
This also happened to be the year that Expo 67 was held in Canada (it was originally going to be held in the Soviet Union, until the Russians declined to host it). Expo 67, combined with the celebrations being held to commemorate the centennial, had a special impact on how Canadians view the world, and on how the world views Canadians.
“One of the points I try to make in the book is that the Canada of 1966 was much different than the Canada of 1968,” says Hawthorn. “I think the centennial year really changed Canada. I think it made us less inward-looking. I think people realized that Canada was evolving, and reassuring with the world that we were an interesting country. The shape of Canada today is so much different than it was in 1966 before the centennial; it is a much, much more diverse country than it was then, and I think by having invited the world to come to Expo 67 in Montreal, it got young Canadians thinking maybe they should go see the world as well, and I do think a lot more of that happened.”
Hawthorn says that the need for a “giant national party” is lesser now than it was in 1967, and he says he feels that Canadians are more confident with who we are and our place in the world today.
“One of the reasons I wrote this book was I have a couple of kids, adult children in their 20s, millennials, and they don’t really know anything about what happened in ’67, and I was just a boy then. I wanted to share with them the sense of how Canada got to where we are today, and I think that year had a lot to do with it.”
Tom Hawthorn book launch
7:30 pm, Tuesday, May 16
Free, Munro’s Books
munrobooks.com