Canadian Who's Who 2005

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

In the tradition of Debrett’s Peerage, Canadian Who’s Who (CWW) was
first published in 1910 by the Times Publishing Company of London,
England. Unlike Debrett’s, however, CWW has never been restricted to
members of the aristocracy. Its approximately 14,000 entries document
“the achievement of Canadians from a wide variety of occupations and
professions and records the diversity of culture in Canada.” Until the
University of Toronto Press acquired publication rights to CWW in 1978,
it was published every three years by A.L. Tunnell. University of
Toronto Press made it into a much-anticipated annual event and it is
“recognized as the standard source of contemporary Canadian
biography.”

Editor Elizabeth Lumley and her relatively small editorial staff
produce a remarkably accurate and up-to-date version of CWW each year.
Over 5,000 new individuals “who are of current national interest”
are “invited to complete questionnaires from which new biographies are
compiled.” There is no charge for the entry nor is there any
obligation for the inclusion of a name in CWW. “Those listed are
selected because of the positions they hold in Canadian society, or
because of the contribution they have made to life in Canada”; they
are chosen, based on merit, from “business, academia, politics,
sports, the arts and sciences, in fact from every area of human
activity.”

The book’s “detailed entries give date and place of birth,
education, family details, career information, memberships, creative
works, honours, languages, and awards” of the individuals, as well as
contact information. Since 1997, a CD-ROM version of the approximately
1,450-page CWW has been available for Windows or Macintosh operating
systems. CWW 2005 comes with its CD-ROM version and instruction booklet,
complete with an 800-number helpline. For current and detailed
biographies of Canadian achievers, there is no better reference
publication than the Canadian Who’s Who.