This glorious map turns up as endpapers in Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage. It was drawn by Dawn Huck, one of the principals at Heartland Associates in Winnipeg. I love the way it captures the discovery of the original Northwest Passage in three essential expeditions. The first, led by John Franklin, got halted by ice off King William Island. In the British (Royal Navy) version of exploration history, it stands alone, the culmination of a centuries-long search. The second highlights a profoundly Canadian moment that arose out of the fur trade. Here we find an Orcadian Scot, an Inuk, and an Ojibway -- John Rae, William Ouligbuck, and Thomas Mistegan -- locating the final missing link in the Passage: Rae Strait. The third expedition is that of Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who succeeds in completing the Passage by diverging from Franklin's route and sailing through Rae Strait.
This map is one of half a dozen in Dead Reckoning, which launches on September 27, when I return from voyaging Out of the Northwest Passage
with Adventure Canada. But books may start trickling into bookstores mid-month, and I want to give faithful readers a heads-up: early copies from the first print run include a map-related glitch that will turn those books into collectors' items. Most readers won't notice, and the glitch disappears from later printings and won't be found in the ebook. But for Arctic history buffs, it will identify that book as coming from the earliest printing. So, if you collect Arctic history or you are buying for a collector, you might want to pick up a copy sooner rather than later. Just saying!

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It's not much to look at, this modest paperback, especially with the stickies hanging out the side. Oh, and the Toronto Public Library bar code laying across the first word of the title. But, well, dare I say it? I find Canadians and Their Pasts, an academic study by The Pasts Collective, subversive and exciting. The message here? Contrary to recent reports, history is alive and kicking. Listen: "The vast majority of people everywhere in the country have turned to the past to help them situate themselves in a rapidly changing present, to connect themselves to others, and to fill their leisure hours." The authors aren't blowing smoke. They surveyed 3,419 Canadians, interviewing them for an average of 22 minutes each. That process yielded a good number of tables packed with information. Consider only the importance of various pasts: 94 per cent of Canadians view family history as "very important" or "somewhat important." What's more, other totals are equally startling: history of Canada, 90 per cent; history of birth country if not Canada-born, 89 per cent; history of ethnic or cultural group, 81 per cent." The passion begins with family history, with genealogy, and grows from there. The digital revolution is really helping. End result: Canadians are keenly interested in "what makes things happen, or what creates the change . . . why the country is the way it is." They want to know how, when, and where they fit. Turns out history isn't dead, after all. It's the next big thing.