This year's winner was John K. Samson's book! (That's the lead singer of The Weakerthans.)
This is pretty crazy. I was recently directed to the Website of something called Canada Reads. It's a competition where five Canadian celebrities choose a fiction book and try to convince the rest of the panel that their's is the most worthy choice. The website describes it as similar to Survivor, in that the five member panel widdles down and selects the winning book. The biggest difference I can see between it and Survivor though is the fact that Canada Reads actually has a positive impact on society.
The only reason I bring this competition up is because of that last sentence. It is yet more proof that Canada is a better country than America. While VH1's "The Surreal Life," "American Idol," the entire E! Network, and all of American pop culture promote celebrity idolatry and (at the risk of sounding like a punk/hippy cliche) corporate exploitation of society, Canadian popular culture promotes reading.
Now obviously I'm not a Canadian pop culture expert, but the mere fact that something like this works and has worked for the past five years says something about our Neighbors to the North.
The only reason I bring this competition up is because of that last sentence. It is yet more proof that Canada is a better country than America. While VH1's "The Surreal Life," "American Idol," the entire E! Network, and all of American pop culture promote celebrity idolatry and (at the risk of sounding like a punk/hippy cliche) corporate exploitation of society, Canadian popular culture promotes reading.
Now obviously I'm not a Canadian pop culture expert, but the mere fact that something like this works and has worked for the past five years says something about our Neighbors to the North.