Oh, No! More Canadians!: Hysterically Historical Rhymes

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

This is the second collaboration between children’s writer Gordon
Snell and political cartoonist Terry Mosher (better known as
“Aislin”). Like their first book, Oh, Canadians! (1996), this
collection of rhyming couplets is aimed at “general readers, school
students and history fans alike.” Although these poems rhyme and
recount history accurately (more or less), the word “tedious” comes
to mind on any poem longer than 10 lines. Aislin’s illustrations are
by far the most entertaining part of the book. His cartoons of famous
(and often stodgy) Canadians often raise a laugh.

There are poems dedicated to standard Canadian icons, such as Samuel de
Champlain, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, Laura Secord, Timothy Eaton, Sam
Steele, Emily Carr, Lord Beaverbrook, Ned Hanlan, Joni Mitchell, Louis
Cyr, Oscar Peterson, and the Dionne Quintuplets, as well as to
lesser-known luminaries such as Martha Louise Black (Klondike Queen and
parliamentarian), May Irwin (silent-film star), Jack Miner (bird
conservationist), Jay Silverheels (Tonto on the Lone Ranger), and Joe
Shuster (creator of superman).

Snell’s rhymes are not exactly bad, they’re just not good. Here’s
an example: “In 1843 was born / William Cornelius Van Horne. / At just
fourteen, the bright young boy / Got railroad work in Illinois, / Rose
in the ranks, and shortly knew / Each railroad job there was to do. /
Canadians said, ‘Now here’s a star: / We’ll let him run the
C.P.R.!’ / And so Van Horne began with zest / To build a railroad to
the West.” At this point, there are still more than a hundred lines to
go. Even Canadians who dutifully embrace their history and poetry may
have a hard time wrapping their arms around this collection. Two
exclamations in the title should be warning enough.