Bathroom Book of Atlantic Canada Trivia: Weird, Wacky, and Wild

Randall White is the author of Voice of Region: On the Long Journey to
Senate Reform in Canada, Too Good to Be True: Toronto in the 1920s, and
Global Spin: Probing the Globalization Debate.

The second collection by a native-born New Brunswicker Andrew Fleming (his first was on British Columbia, where he now resides), this is clearly aimed at non-Atlantic Canadians as well as former residents who may be homesick. It’s witty, well-organized and enhanced by astutely placed cartoons and sketches by Patrick Henaff. To a New Brunswicker who returned home after sojourns in Regina, Toronto, Kingston, and Montreal and who continues to chronicle events in his home province, I first had to check for accuracy and found very few miscues—several of them involving place names beginning with “Saint.” It goes with Canada’s oldest incorporate city, Saint John, but not the river, St. John, and it’s always St. Stephen, not Saint. Minor points, but I would never regard P.E.I.’s late premier Joe Ghiz as being anything but white (he was Lebanese descent), and regardless of what the late tycoon K.C. Irving decreed in his will about his three sons not being permanent Canadian and New Brunswick residents if they wanted to inherit his vast corporate empire, they continue to reside permanently in the Saint John area where they were raised and their sons and grandsons are now in charge.

Of the 12 sections making up this collection, the one dealing with “Entertainment Firsts” is the largest, followed by “Sports,” “Geography,” and “World’s Biggest.” Much of the material is old hat and familiar, but all of it is highly readable and very up-to-date, especially the sports and entertainment figures. Fleming ends with his 10 “top reasons to live on the east coast.” They include number nine: “No one ever blames anything on Atlantic Canada,” followed by “the French population doesn’t want to separate.” Locals will relate to another two—number four: “waterfront home costs the same as a one-bedroom condo in other parts of Canada,” and number three: “the tourists leave when summer ends.” His last and number one: “most parties end up having live music.” All pretty accurate. A fun read and a great tourist plug to lure Other Canadians.