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How Canada Works

The People Who Make Our Nation Thrive

About The Book

From #1 bestselling authors Peter Mansbridge and Mark Bulgutch comes a new book of first-person stories about the unique people and professions that make Canada work.

In this latest collection of personal stories, Peter Mansbridge and former CBC producer Mark Bulgutch shine a light on the everyday jobs that keep our nation running and the inspiring people who perform them with empathy and kindness.

Meet the high school principal in British Columbia who is mentoring the next generation. Hear from the chief of the Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario, who sacrifices his personal time to fight for better resources for his community, which has had a boil water advisory since the mid-1990s. From the air traffic controller who ensures people get to where they need to go, to the midwife in Saskatchewan who guides families through pregnancy and the birthing process, these are the jobs that connect Canadians on both a logistical and personal level.

Though Canada is still very much a work in progress, this enlightening book celebrates how we are greater than the sum of our parts by championing the people that make our country great.

About The Authors

Courtesy of the author

Peter Mansbridge is one of Canada’s most respected journalists. He is the former chief correspondent for CBC News; anchor of The National, CBC’s flagship nightly newscast where he worked for thirty years reporting on national and international news stories; and host of Mansbridge One on One. He has received over a dozen national awards for broadcast excellence, including a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. He is a distinguished fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto and the former two-term chancellor of Mount Allison University. In 2008 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada—the country’s highest civilian honour—and in 2012 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is the author of the instant #1 national bestsellers Off the Record and Extraordinary Canadians, as well as the national bestseller Peter Mansbridge One on One: Favourite Conversations and the Stories Behind Them. He lives in Stratford, Ontario. Follow him on Twitter @PeterMansbridge, visit him at ThePeterMansbridge.com, or listen to his daily podcast, The Bridge, with Sirius XM Canada.

Photograph by Jessica Bulgutch

Mark Bulgutch is a journalist, educator, speaker, and the author of the instant #1 national bestseller Extraordinary Canadians and three other books. He worked for CBC for forty years, eleven as the senior editor of The National and another ten as senior executive producer of all live news specials. He taught at Toronto Metropolitan University for thirty-five years. A regular contributor of opinion columns to The Toronto Star, he has won fourteen Gemini Awards, four RTDNA Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation Award of Excellence, and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award. He lives in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter @MarkBulgutch.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 21, 2023)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668017197

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Raves and Reviews

“As they did in Extraordinary Canadians, Mansbridge and Bulgutch understand that the best way to tell a good story is to leave it to those who know it best. . . . We are, as the saying goes, sometimes a great nation. If so, it’s because people like those featured in this book make it that way.”
Policy Magazine

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