Turns out the TLS has a soft spot for Toronto. In an upbeat review of How the Scots Invented Canada, the London-based journal (Dec. 10) -- no stranger to acerbic commentary -- encapsulates my take on an early governor-general. It then says that John Buchan's words, "as McGoogan notes in this enjoyable book, show that he would be very much at home in a Toronto that would horrify Bishop Strachan -- a city the United Nations has called the world's most multi-cultural."
Love the whole review. And the same can be said of the one that turns up in the January-February issue of Canadian Geographic magazine. Here we read that "McGoogan expands on [Arthur Herman's] narrative by focusing on a few dozen path-breaking Scots; he claims that these men and women and their descendants have been the invisible architects of Canada, laying the foundation for a pluralistic nation that would eventually become “the world’s first postmodern democracy.” Ambitious, resourceful and well educated, these Scots emerged as leaders in Canadian exploration, politics, business, education, literature and science." You can read the rest by clicking on the headline above.