Using the successful format of How the Scots Invented Canada, Ken McGoogan takes the reader on a compelling journey through the lives of 50 accomplished Canadians born in the 20th century who have changed-and often continue to change-the great wide world.
McGoogan profiles an astonishing array of activists, humanitarians, musicians, writers, comedians, visionaries, scientists and inventors, all of them transformative figures who have made an impact internationally. From Jane Jacobs, Deepa Mehta, Marshall McLuhan, Stephen Lewis and Romeo Dallaire to Samantha Nutt, David Suzuki, Margaret Atwood, Oscar Peterson, Leonard Cohen and forty others, McGoogan shows us why and how Canadians have made their mark globally as initiators and agents of progressive change.
Cutting-edge Canada, the focus of this book, is uniquely pluralistic-multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multinational. The diversity that emerges in these pages defines who we are as citizens, enabling and encouraging individuals to make a difference. Two thirds of the people celebrated in this spirited, accessible work are alive and thriving today, a demonstration of how 20th-century Canada continues to transform the 21st century.
Say hello to 50 Canadians who are shaping the future.

KEN MCGOOGAN is the best-selling author of a dozen books, among them 50 Canadians Who Changed The World, How The Scots Invented Canada, Fatal Passage and Lady Franklin’s Revenge. He has won the Pierre Berton Award for History, the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography, the Canadian Authors’ Association History Award, the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize and an American Christopher Award for “a work of artistic excellence that affirms the highest values of the human spirit.” Before turning mainly to books, Ken worked for two decades as a journalist at major dailies in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal. He teaches creative nonfiction writing through the University of Toronto and in the MFA program at King’s College in Halifax. Ken served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, has written recently for Canada’s History, Canadian Geographic and Maclean’s, and sails with Adventure Canada as a resource historian. Based in Toronto, he has given talks and presentations across Canada, and in faraway places as different as Edinburgh, Sydney, Stromness, and Hobart. www.kenmcgoogan.com

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