Canada 2005: Our People Our Events Our Perspective

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

If you regularly glance at any major Canadian newspaper, you’ve
already seen much of the content of this book. Canadian Press (CP) is a
major provider of news, sports stories, and photos to newspapers,
magazines, and television. This collection of shots from October 2004 to
the end of 2005 gives a visual summary of the year’s top news stories
in Canada as well as the major international stories in which Canadians
were involved. There’s the tsunami, Mayerthorpe, dead seals, the
sponsorship scandal, plane and rail crashes, floods, the death of the
Pope, the Queen’s visit, the Live8 concert, even the NHL lockout.

In a glossy album of at least 250 colour photos, we’re reminded of
politicians, veterans, dignitaries, athletes, disaster victims, police
officers, hockey players, entertainers, great grey owls, tornadoes,
winter storms, parades, pickets, skiers, Argonauts, curlers, race cars,
cattle, ceremonies, and celebrations. The death of well-known Canadians
is always part of the news of the day and 12 such deaths are remembered
with photos and mini-bios. Twenty-two others receive a mention (but no
photo) in the Passages section. As if to demonstrate that some news
photos never die, the book concludes with a generous chapter on vintage
photos from the past, dating back to the 1950s.

The collection is of interest primarily for the subjects, a review of
the news and events of the year. The highlights, however, are a few
shots that stand out as spectacular for their photographic quality, even
if the subject is not especially newsworthy.

News junkies will enjoy the visual review, and photojournalists will
welcome the collection as a textbook of how to take publishable shots. A
compilation of the year’s news in one volume, it is a gift for the
historians of the future.