How do civilizations imagine themselves? One way is for each of us to look at ourselves through our society’s most remarkable figures. I’m not talking about hero worship or political iconography. That is a danger to be avoided at all costs. And yet people in every country do keep on going back to the most important people in their past.

This series of Extraordinary Canadians brings together rebels, reformers, martyrs, writers, painters, thinkers, political leaders. Why? What is it that makes them relevant to us so long after their deaths?

For one thing, their contributions are there before us, like the building blocks of our society. More important than that are their convictions and drive, their sense of what is right and wrong, their willingness to risk all, whether it be their lives, their reputations, or simply being wrong in public. Their ideas, their triumphs and failures, all of these somehow constitute a mirror of our society. We look at these people, all dead, and discover what we have been, but also what we can be. A mirror is an instrument for measuring ourselves. What we see can be both a warning and an encouragement.

These biographies of key Canadians are centred on the meaning of each of their lives. Each of them is very different, but these are not randomly chosen great figures. Together they produce a grand sweep of the creation of modern Canada, from our first steps as a democracy in 1848 to our questioning of modernity late in the 20th Century.

RECENT NEWS:

14 APRIL 2008: ARTICLE FROM THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

13 APRIL 2008: REVIEW OF FIRST THREE BIOGRAPHIES IN
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

12 APRIL 2008: INTERVIEW WITH DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS IN
THE DAILY GLEANER

5 APRIL 2008: ARTICLE ABOUT THE SERIES IN THE VANCOUVER SUN

31 MARCH 2008: AN ARTICLE IN MACLEAN'S ABOUT THE SERIES

30 MARCH 2008: ARTICLE ABOUT SERIES IN THE TORONTO STAR

25 MARCH 2008: AN ARTICLE IN THE NATIONAL POST ABOUT THE SERIES AND DESIGN COVERS

FOR UPCOMING EXTRAORDINARY CANADIANS EVENTS, CLICK HERE.

TO VIEW PENGUIN CANADA'S PRESS RELEASE ABOUT THE SERIES,
CLICK HERE.

SEE ALSO PENGUIN CANADA'S WEBSITE.

John Ralston Saul's central thought on Nellie McClung :

Take Nellie McClung, for example. We think of her as one of five - the one with a stage presence and a sense of humour. But Charlotte Gray reveals someone quite different. She can now be seen as the greatest strategist of the first wave of the women's movement and one of the most successful early feminists in the world. Why? Because she kept the movement mainstream and involved with broader issues, like the exploitation of immigrant women. When I read her story I discover a woman who today is still ahead of her time. I can imagine her speaking out right now on Iraq, on unsecured cheap labour, on the same old fat men controlling politics. I know she would make me laugh and make me want to help her change things for the better.

EMILY CARR,
BY LEWIS DESOTO

John Ralston Saul's central thought on Emily Carr :

I had always felt there was something deeply rigorous and original in Emily Carr's paintings. Here Lewis DeSoto has found a way to the heart of her toughness. Art historians like to talk about how painters were influenced by others. Many Canadian art historians prefer to see our painters as not just influenced by, but derivative of, European schools. Certainly Carr picked up things here and there. Every painter everywhere does that. But what is remarkable is just how original Carr is. Along with Paul-Émile Borduas, she is our greatest painter. She somehow summoned up the deep heart not just of the British Columbian forest, but of Canada as forest and Canada as Aboriginal. That's why people all over the country so instinctively identify with her images. This mysterious place is us. Emily Carr, with her toughness and humour and writing skills, is a sharp reminder of how edgy Canadians need to be to occupy this enormous, difficult space.

John Ralston Saul's central thought on Lord Beaverbrook:

David Adams Richards is absolutely right. No Canadian has ever been as powerful on the world scene as Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook. If there was any possibility that a colonial could push an empire around and change its intent, this was it. And God knows Beaverbrook tried. If he saw himself as a failure in the end it can only be because empires can't be shaped by colonials or outsiders of any sort. To believe they can is part of the delusion of the special relationship. Empires have neither friends nor allies. And they don't have special relationships. They have power and self-interest. The trick is to exploit them without getting in their way. Beaverbrook is the example for all time of just how far a colonial can go. But as he would tell you, it just isn't far enough.